Category: Medical & Health

Brazzaville – Fifteen African countries—nearly a third of the continent’s 54 nations—have fully vaccinated 10% of their people against COVID-19.

The global goal of fully vaccinating 10% of every country’s population by 30 September was set in May by the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy-setting body. Almost 90% of high income-countries have met this target.

Seychelles and Mauritius have fully vaccinated over 60% of their populations, Morocco 48% and Tunisia, Comoros and Cape Verde over 20%. Most of the African countries that have met the goal have relatively small populations and 40% are small island developing states.

All these countries have enjoyed sufficient supplies of vaccines, and many could access doses from separate sources in addition to those delivered through the COVAX Facility, the global platform to ensure equitable access to vaccines. Half of the 52 African countries that have received COVID-19 vaccines have fully vaccinated just 2% or less of their populations.

“The latest data shows modest gains but there is still a long way to go to reach the WHO target of fully vaccinating 40% of the population by the end of the year. Shipments are increasing but opaque delivery plans are still the number one nuisance that hold Africa back,” said Dr Richard Mihigo, Immunization and Vaccines Development Programme Coordinator for the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa.

Nine African countries, including South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia, had reached the 10% goal at the beginning of September and another six managed to sprint ahead to reach the target this month due to rising vaccine deliveries.

Twenty-three million COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Africa in September, a ten-fold increase from June. Yet just 60 million Africans have been fully vaccinated so far and 2% of the more than 6 billion vaccines given globally have been administered on the continent.

COVAX is working with donors to identify the countries that can currently absorb large volumes of vaccines and send them their way and plans to strengthen its support for countries that do not have other sources of vaccines.

WHO has assisted 19 African countries in conducting intra-action reviews, which analyse their vaccination campaigns and offer recommendations to improve them. The reviews show that uncertainty around deliveries has been a major impediment for many countries.

By deploying a team of international experts, WHO is providing targeted support to a select group of countries to identify and resolve bottlenecks in their COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, including working with local authorities and partners to identify and address the root causes of challenges to administering vaccines. WHO is also working to share crucial lessons and best practices among African countries to help them accelerate their vaccine rollouts.

COVID-19 case numbers in Africa dropped by 35% to just over 74 000 in the week to 26 September. Almost 1800 deaths were reported across 34 African countries in the same period. The Delta variant has been found in 39 African countries. The Alpha variant has been detected in 45 countries and the Beta in 40.

“Despite the declining case numbers we must all remain vigilant and continue to adhere to the proven public health and safety measures that we know save lives, such as wearing a mask, washing our hands regularly and physical distancing, especially while vaccination rates remain low,” said Dr Mihigo.

Dr Mihigo spoke during a virtual press conference today facilitated by APO Group. He was joined by Dr Pamela Smith-Lawrence, Acting Director, Health Services, Ministry of Health and Wellness, Botswana, and Mrs Fortunate Bhembe, Deputy Director of Pharmaceutical Services, Ministry of Health, Kingdom of Eswatini.

Also on hand to answer questions were Dr Fiona Braka, Team Lead, Emergency Operations, WHO Regional Office for Africa, and Dr Thierno Balde, Regional COVID-19 Deputy Incident Manager, WHO Regional Office for Africa.

 

 

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

 

Brazzaville – COVID-19 has had a catastrophic impact on lives and livelihoods. But it has also spurred impactful scientific research that gave the world a vaccine in record time and thrust genomic sequencing at the centre of pandemic response.

The world rapidly identified the virus that causes COVID-19 and developed diagnostic tests and other response tools thanks to genomic sequencing, which remains crucial in monitoring the evolution of COVID-19 and identifying variants of concern.

In Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) is working with countries to scale up pathogen surveillance through genome sequencing to detect and respond effectively to COVID-19 variants. In 2020, WHO and the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Preventionestablished a COVID-19 sequencing laboratory network in Africa which has to date produced over 43 000 sequencing data.

Currently, the WHO Regional Office for Africa is collaborating with the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) to set up the Regional Centre of Excellence for Genomic Surveillance and Bioinformatics in Cape Town, South Africa. WHO is providing technical support as well as over US$ 4.5 million for operations in the Southern African Development Community region in the first six months. The centre will initially support 14 southern countries, increasing their sequencing capacity by five-fold monthly before expanding to serve more countries.

“Genomic sequencing paves a clear path for us to track the COVID-19 virus, monitor mutations that can lead to new variants and respond effectively and in a timely manner to more infectious variants,” says Dr Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, Regional Virologist with the WHO Regional Office for Africa. “The Regional Centre will allow countries to be a step ahead of the virus.”

WHO recommends that countries ship at least 5% of their COVID-19 samples to reference sequencing laboratory or keep producing sequencing data if they have the capacity. Currently, Africa accounts for just 1% of the more than 3,5 million COVID-19 sequences carried out to date worldwide.

Since the South Africa-based Regional Centre’s began preliminary operations in July, genomic sequencing activities have quadrupled in Southern Africa. In the first half of 2021, Southern African countries sequenced 5510 samples compared with over 24 000 currently. This has helped countries detect the presence and understand the impact of variants of concern, notably the Delta variant—the most contagious yet which is estimated to be 30%–60% more transmissible.

African countries are also making efforts to integrate routine genomic sequencing and surveillance into the national response since the beginning of the pandemic. South Africa, for example, detected the more transmissible Beta variant of concern in December 2020, helping the country to adjust public health measures.

“Developing the data management operations has been essential to responding to future disease outbreaks beyond COVID-19. These data operations points to the need for the Regional Centre to strengthen neighbouring countries to ensure local data production and data management,” says Dr Alan Christoffels, Director of the South African National Biodiversity Institute which is part of the efforts to step up genomic surveillance.

The Delta variant, that partly powered Africa’s now-subsiding pandemic third wave, has been detected in 39 African countries, while the Alpha and Beta variants have been reported in 45 and 40countries respectively. The Alpha variant has been detected in most countries in North, West and Central Africa, while Beta is more widespread in Southern Africa.

Genome sequencing has the potential to revolutionize public health and transform responses to other major health threats beyond COVID-19. In the past 20 years, it has been used to support public health responses in Africa to HIV, polio, measles, hepatitis B and C, chikungunya, dengue, zika and yellow fever. Experts reckon it has the potential to do much more.

“Routine genetic surveillance should be a part of health systems in Africa. Building this infrastructure must be a top priority for countries going forward,” says Dr Gumede-Moeletsi.

 

 

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

“Pink October” in Chad was dedicated by the national authorities to the fight against cancer. As a prelude to this important national initiative, the WHO Representative in Chad addressed the Media.

Speaking of cancer, the scourge that in 2020 has claimed 10 million lives, 70% of which are in low- and middle-income countries, of which Chad is a part, he insisted on prevention by acting on the factors that often make the bed of cancer, namely overweight and obesity, sedentary lifestyle, smoking and abusing alcohol and not eating a balanced diet mainly fruits and vegetables that Chad has in abundance.

Dr. Jean-Bosco Ndihokubwayo also returned to another important means of cancer prevention, namely vaccination against hepatitis B at birth. Indeed, he noted, this infection is the basis of several cases of cancer in Chad and Africa in general. However, the hepatitis B vaccine is part of routine immunization in Chad. By vaccinating his newborn against hepatitis B, he pointed out, he is prevented from liver cancer.

In his interview, the WHO Representative spoke at length about the Cancer Registry, a tool for collecting and analyzing all the data available in the country on cancer. This tool, on which experts from the Ministry of Health and National Solidarity and WHO have worked together, is the foundation of the fight against cancer. Indeed, in public health, if we do not have data, we navigate on sight because we can neither appreciate nor evaluate the efforts made in the fight against a disease such as cancer. The cancer registry is a compass in the fight against this scourge. It is essential for the surveillance of types of cancer, their incidence in the population as well as the magnitude of the problem. It guides research and allows preventive and curative interventions to be planned according to the types of cancers. The who Representative to Chad also spoke of the importance of early diagnosis of certain cancers (whose means are limited but exist in Chad), in order to be able to manage them in time.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

– “Getting my covid-19 result in less than 6 hours and not having to wait for days was a relief. The short turnaround time enabled me to make the appropriate and timely decision to self–isolate, says Oluwatoyosi Eniola, a health worker in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

Ms Eniola had experienced all covid-19 symptoms (headache severe enough to disturb her sleep, nasal congestion and cough) after returning from an official trip out of Ekiti, which prompted her to go to the clinic at her place of work for testing. The result was positive.

Fortunately, she did not have to wait for days before receiving her test result. Before then, the state government, supported by the World Health Organization, had introduced a new diagnostic kit Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests (Ag- RDT) intending to improve the covid-19 testing capacity in Ekiti State. Antigen-based rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) is new diagnostic tool which is fast and an easy-to-deploy (generates result in 15-30 minutes) and a viable alternative to molecular-based platforms for confirming COVID-19 cases.

The antigen RDT was deployed to the Primary Health Care (PHC) level to enhance testing at community levels, making testing nearer to the people, improve result turnaround time and enable quick management decisions.

Since the onset of the pandemic in Nigeria, the laboratories used the real-time reverse transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) assays to detect SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. However, there had been challenges such as accesst0 the test and the long result turnaround time.

For example, before the deployment of the Antigen RDT testing, there were only 27 sample collection sites in the 16 LGAs in Ekiti state. It posed the challenge for timely result turnover, especially at the PHC levels, where even symptomatic cases have had to wait for a minimum of 3- 4 days to know their COVID-19 status.

Also, some clients had to travel long distances from their settlements to the few sample collection sites, to submit samples for PCR tests as the only Real-time PCR testing facility is located in Ado Ekiti, the state capital. On average, it takes a minimum of 3days to get results depending on the number of samples collected.

Increase in reported cases

The introduction of the Ag-RDT has contributed greatly to increasing access to testing, as they can be utilized at the point of care and results are released quickly. Nigeria as at 19 September 2021, has reported 201,630 cases with 2654 deaths.,Out of which 1,688 cases are from Ekiti state.. But with the introduction of the Ag-RDT testing in Week24 (June 2021) which concided with the onset of the Covid-19 third wave, there has been a steady increase in testing and confirmed cases in the state amounting to 91.2 % increase in cases reported. (Statistics from Ekiti Sitrep).

Complementing the government and WHO, Ms Eniola said “I am glad the waiting time for my result was short. The reduction in the waiting time is an encouragement for sick people as they don’t have to go through the torture of waiting to get to know their status.

Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary, Ekiti State Ministry of Health, Mr Akinjide Akinleye (mni), commended the improvement in testing and reduced patient waiting time for results.

“I am happy with the response to COVID19 activities at the LGA level, with the increase in sample collection, early case detection, and all thanks to WHO for this timely intervention,” he said.

The intervention

To be able to use the Ag-RDT, it is important that those performing testing are adequately trained. In this regard WHO in collaboration with NCDC supported the state government to train 121 PHC laboratory officers and clinicians on the appropriate and safe use of approved Ag-RDTs for COVID-19 diagnosis.

WHO also provided logistics support for the activation of sample collection and testing at the PHC level across the 16 LGAs. Thus, Ag RDT testing sites increased from 27 to 147 across the State, with at least one Ag RDT testing site in a minimum of seven wards in each of the 16 LGA.

Highlighting the benefit of the decentralization of sample collection and testing sites, the WHO Ag. State Coordinator Dr Emmanuel Eyitayo said with Nigeria battling the ongoing third wave, quick testing and result turnover time will enable an early patient management decision, with health workers better protected thereby making it easier to control the outbreak.

The Acting SC noted that the results from the Ag-RDTs are nearly as accurate as those from RT-PCR (i.e. over 97% specificity) when conducted by appropriately trained health workers.

Antigen-Rapid Diagnostic Test is one of the effective tools for the diagnosis of COVID-19 cases. It is recommended to be adopted at the PHC level for rapid diagnosis and prompt decision making in the management of COVID-19 cases.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

GENEVA – Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners launched the first ever global strategy to defeat meningitis – a debilitating disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.

By 2030, the goals are to eliminate epidemics of bacterial meningitis – the most deadly form of the disease – and to reduce deaths by 70% and halve the number of cases. The organizations estimate that in total, the strategy could save more than 200,000 lives annually and significantly reduce disability caused by the disease.

This strategy, the Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030, was launched by a broad coalition of partners involved in meningitis prevention and control at a virtual event, hosted by WHO in Geneva. Its focus is on preventing infections and improving care and diagnosis for those affected.

“Wherever it occurs, meningitis can be deadly and debilitating; it strikes quickly, has serious health, economic and social consequences, and causes devastating outbreaks,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It is time to tackle meningitis globally once and for all –by urgently expanding access to existing tools like vaccines, spearheading new research and innovation to prevent, detecting and treating the various causes of the disease, and improving rehabilitation for those affected.”

Meningitis is a dangerous inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, predominantly caused by infection with bacteria and viruses.

Meningitis that is caused by bacterial infection tends to be the most serious – leading to around 250,000 deaths a year – and can cause fast-spreading epidemics. It kills 1 in 10 of those infected – mostly children and young people – and leaves 1 in 5 with long-lasting disability, such as seizures, hearing and vision loss, neurological damage, and cognitive impairment.

Over the last ten years, meningitis epidemics have occurred in all regions of the world, though most commonly in the ‘Meningitis Belt,’ which spans 26 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. These epidemics are unpredictable, can severely disrupt health systems, and create poverty – generating catastrophic expenditures for households and communities.

“More than half a billion Africans are at risk of seasonal meningitis outbreaks but the disease has been off the radar for too long,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “This shift away from firefighting outbreaks to strategic response can’t come soon enough. This roadmap will help protect the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of families who every year fear this disease.”

Several vaccines protect against meningitis, including meningococcal, Haemophilus influenzae type b and pneumococcal vaccines. However, not all communities have access to these lifesaving vaccines, and many countries are yet to introduce them into their national programmes.

While research is underway to develop vaccines for other causes of meningitis, such as Group B Strep bacteria, there remains an urgent need for innovation, funding and research to develop more meningitis-preventive vaccines. Efforts are also needed to strengthen early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation for all those who need it after contracting the disease.

“This roadmap is the embodiment of the ambition of people and families affected around the world who have called for its creation. It’s their experience and passion that has driven a whole community of interest to get this far,” said Vinny Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Meningitis Research Foundation and the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations (CoMO), an international membership organization of patient advocacy groups for meningitis. “We celebrate together the common goal of defeating meningitis and will be led by their inspiration to make it happen.”

The new Roadmap details the following priorities for meningitis response and prevention:

• Achievement of high immunization coverage, development of new affordable vaccines, and improved prevention strategies and outbreak response;

• Speedy diagnosis and optimal treatment for patients;

• Good data to guide prevention and control efforts;

• Care and support for those affected, focusing on early recognition and improved access to care and support for after-effects, and

• Advocacy and engagement, to ensure high awareness of meningitis, accountability for national plans, and affirmation of the right to prevention, care and after-care services.

WHO and partners are providing support to countries to implement the Roadmap, including through the development of regional and national frameworks that will help countries achieve its ambitious goals.

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Partner quotes

“The Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis demonstrates what can be accomplished when a global need is met with global action,” said Nikolaj Gilbert, President and CEO of PATH. “Progress against meningitis has lagged for too long; by working together, we can overcome the disease that has cost so many lives in countries around the world. PATH is proud to have been a part of the roadmap’s development and is committed to advancing affordable and equitable vaccine solutions to defeat meningitis.”

“We must be united in our efforts to end all preventable childhood diseases, including bacterial meningitis,” said Dr. Aboubacar Kampo, Director of Health Programmes at UNICEF. “UNICEF has been supporting governments for decades, facilitating the delivery of life-saving meningitis vaccines. Still, far too many children are succumbing to this and other preventable diseases – and the situation is only worsening as a result of the pandemic. We need to act decisively to strengthen primary health care and get routine immunization back on track, before more children face adverse health outcomes – or loss of life – inflicted by meningitis and other preventable infectious diseases.”

“Although the main burden of meningitis is in poor countries, acute bacterial meningitis is a global problem with no country being spared its devastating impact,” said Professor Sir Brian Greenwood, Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and co-chair of the Task Force supporting the implementation of the roadmap. “Thus, containing this serious group of infections needs a global response. This is what the roadmap sets out to achieve, bringing together – under the umbrella of WHO – health professionals from across the world to bring this condition under control by 2030.”

“The Meningitis Roadmap provides a clear blueprint for defeating this devastating disease,” said Professor Robert Heyderman, Head of the Research Department of Infection at University College London. “Crucially it identifies the gaps in our knowledge and the tools required. To achieve the Road Map’s ambitious goals, a team approach will bring together countries, global policymakers, civil society, funders, researchers, public health specialists, healthcare workers and industry to generate and implement innovative new strategies.”

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

Regional Overview

Situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Although a peaceful transition of power followed the December 2018 presidential elections in the DRC, at the end of 2020, the overall security situation remained complex, with continued inter-ethnic conflicts and armed attacks, particularly in the eastern provinces of the country. Since 2019 and throughout 2020, increased violence has resulted in the continued internal forced displacement of more than 5.2 million people, according to the 2021 DRC Humanitarian Response Plan. This includes approximately 2.9 million people displaced in 2020 in the eastern provinces (mainly in Ituri, North and South Kivu and Tanganyika). This is the largest IDP situation in Africa and one of the most acute and longstanding humanitarian crises in the world. The country also hosts about half a million refugees, fleeing unrest and persecution in neighbouring countries.

The situation in the DRC was aggravated in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the DRC also continues to fight against successive outbreaks of the Ebola Virus Disease and a measles outbreak. Additionally, in October 2020, OCHA estimated that 15.6 million people are severely food insecure, of which some 4.7 million suffer from severe malnutrition. Although the rate of outflows from the DRC was lower in 2020 than in previous years, tens of thousands of people still fled across borders and have joined refugees from previous waves of violence and insecurity. Refugees continued to flee mostly from eastern areas of North and South Kivu and Ituri Provinces to Uganda, as well as from Haut Katanga and Tanganyika Provinces to Zambia and other countries in Southern Africa. At the same time, some countries reported a net reduction in the Congolese refugee population attributed to spontaneous returns to the DRC, suggesting a general stability in some areas of origin.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

BANJUL, 23 September 2021: Following internal discussions and preparations, the WHO Country Office and the Ministry of Health held a fruitful meeting this morning to discuss and plan for the Pogramme Budget 2022-23. The meeting was held at Ocean Bay Hotel and was attended by senior management and programme officers from both institutions.

Deputizing for the Honourable Minister of Health, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry thanked WHO for the invaluable support it is rendering to the health sector, particularly to the control of the current Covid—19 outbreak.

“This partnership meeting is an important exercise geared towards identifying priorities for the health sector to be supported by the WHO for the biennium 2022-23, and to develop a road map for its accomplishment”. These were the words of the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health, Mr Muhammad Lamin Jaiteh during official opening of the half-day meeting

Mr. Jaiteh reminded participants to devote time and attention to this exercise and to identify priority areas that are achievable and impactful.

For his part, Dr. Desta briefed participants on the governance and work of the WHO as well as the role of the Secretariat in supporting Member States achieve global health targets.

“This is your meeting, and as such it is our duty as a Secretariat to facilitate today’s discussions on identifying priorities for the health sector for 2022-23 based on what Members States of the WHO, including the Gambia, have agreed to accomplish in the coming years”, remarked Dr Desta Tiruneh , WHO Representative to the Gambia.

Dr. Desta also hailed the fruitful collaboration between the WHO and Ministry of Health and commended staff of the two institutions for making this possible.

To enhance discussions, the WHO team oriented participants on the whole planning process, the WHO results framework as well as the triple billion agenda with emphasis on the outcomes, outputs and technical products for each of the three pillars. This was followed by extensive discussions and context setting for the realization of global health targets.

At the end of the meeting, a road map was developed to facilitate discussions with national counterparts and expedite timely completion of the workplan.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa