Category: Medical & Health

Brazzaville – As COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out in Africa, understanding the effectiveness of these vaccines in real world settings is crucial for countries to plan and refine their vaccination programmes and other public health measures.

Through Afro-Move, a new network launched earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa, in collaboration with countries, is spearheading efforts to conduct studies assessing how well COVID-19 vaccines protect against disease and infection in real world settings.

The network builds on long-term collaborations in vaccinology and infection sciences across the WHO African region. It taps into the skills and infrastructure of influenza surveillance and monitoring systems and networks in Africa, including 15 National Influenza Centres.

Seventeen countries have joined so far, including ministries of health, national institutes of public health, research institutes, academia and humanitarian organizations that will work together to share experiences and expertise and to help standardize practices to compare and combine results.

So far the network has delivered:

• Two generic study protocols adapted for use in Africa to measure vaccine effectiveness in health workers and in patients with severe acute respiratory.

o Guidance Document Cohort study to measure COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness among health workers

o COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) hospitalisations associated with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2

• Technical orientation workshops for each study design.

• Support to study groups with design, planning and funding studies.

• Landscaping activities with partners across the region.

The network will continue to strengthen African countries’ contributions to the global knowledge base on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines. It also helps build up capacities and expertise in Africa to tackle future epidemics.

WHO, in collaboration with technical partners, has developed several standardized generic epidemiological investigation protocols that aim to support national public health and social measures, promote the international comparability of research and address gaps in current knowledge regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

Luanda – Angolan health authorities reported Wednesday ten deaths, 199 new cases and 94 recoveries in the last 24 hours.

The deaths occurred in the provinces of Bié 4, Cunene 3, Huíla 2, and Luanda 1, according to the daily health bulletin.

The source also mentioned 115 new cases as having been diagnosed in Luanda, 23 in Huambo, 22 in Huíla, 8 in Bié, 6 in Benguela, 6 in Cuando Cubango, 5 in Moxico, 4 in Cunene, 4 in Zaire, 3 in Cuanza Norte and 3 in Lunda Sul.

While the recoveries, 30 are residing in Huíla, 27 in Namibe, 14 in Moxico, 7 in Lunda Sul, 6 in Benguela, 4 in Luanda, 4 in Lunda Norte and 2 in Huambo.

So far, Angola has a total of 46,539 positive cases, 1,176 deaths, 42,832 recoveries and 2,531 active patients.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – Angola on Tuesday received 586,170 doses of the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19, a donation from the United States government.

This is the second batch of this vaccine that the US government has donated to Angola. Last June, the Southern African country received 100,620 doses, as part of the Covax initiative.

The donation is part of the US government’s global efforts, included in the package of 25 million doses of the vaccine for Africa, as part of the fulfilment of the promise of 80 million doses.

To that end, the US government has coordinated with the African Union and CDC Africa on the allocation of the vaccines to each country.

Regarding the offer, the Minister of Health, Silvia Lutucuta, said it was a demonstration of the concern for the administration of the vaccine in all countries, especially those that are not manufacturers and that face challenges in acquisition and access.

According to the government official, this lot is intended to reinforce the immunisation campaign.

“We are mobilising all people aged 18 and over. This batch reinforces our capacity to respond and demonstrates the storage capacity of this vaccine, which requires ultra-frozen temperatures,” she explained.

In her turn, the US ambassador to the African country, Nina Maria Fite, said that, as the biggest bilateral donor of medical assistance to Angola, the United States had a long-standing relationship with the Angolan health sector to improve access to and quality of health care.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – Health authorities announced, this Monday, the recovery of 240 patients, 131 new cases and 10 deaths, in the last 24 hours.

According to the Secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, of the recovery citizens 124 live in Luanda, 26 in Lunda Sul, 21 in Bié, 20 in Huambo, 18 in Lunda Norte, 15 in Moxico, 6 in Cunene, 4 in Cuando Cubango, 3 in Zaire, 2 in Benguela and 1 in Cabinda.

As for the new cases, 30 were diagnosed in Luanda, 20 in Huambo, 16 in Huíla, 14 in Cuando Cubango, 8 in Benguela, 8 in Cuanza Norte, 6 in Bié, 6 in Moxico, 5 in Cunene, 5 in Namibe , 5 in Zaire, 3 in Lunda Sul, 2 in Cabinda, 1 in Bengo, 1 in Lunda Norte and 1 in Malanje.

With ages ranging from 4 months to 96 years, 85 are male and 46 are female.

The deaths were reported in the provinces of Huila with 4 , Moxico with 2, Cuando Cubango with 1, Lunda Norte with 1, Lunda Sul with 1 and Huambo with 1.

The sources also announced that 139 patients have been hospitalized in treatment centers 222 in institutional quarantine and 814 contacts of positive cases are under medical surveillance.

The laboratories have processed 4,668 blood samples, with a positivity rate of 2.8 percent.

Angola has 46,076 positive cases, with 1,163 deaths, 42,624 recovered and 2,289 active patients. Of the active, 8 are critical, 28 serious, 71 moderate, 32 mild and 2150 asymptomatic.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Monrovia, The Ministry of Health (MoH), with support from World Health Organization (WHO) and Partners have concluded a three-day workshop to review the implementation progress and challenges of the National Action Plan for Health Security in Liberia since its development in 2017.

The meeting which took place from 16 – 18 August 2021 at the Golden Gate Hotel, Paynesville City in Montserrado County brought together over ninety (90) participants from 19 technical areas including representatives from line ministries: Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Labor, EPI, EPA, the legislature, NPHIL, County Health Officers, media houses and experts from partners, including FAO, World Bank, US-CDC, USAID, IRC, AFENET, and WHO. The face to face meeting was done in observance of COVID-19 SOPs; hand hygiene, use of masks and small working breakaway groups.

NAPHS is a strategic multi-sectoral government led 5-year plan that sets out objectives and activities in 19 technical areas required for improving in health security under the themes; Prevent, Detect, and respond. The goal of the NAPHS is to strengthen core capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to any public health threats.

During the conduct of Joint External Evaluation in 2016, Liberia’s preparedness capacity and capabilities was put at 46%. Thus, it was recommended that countries including Liberia conduct periodic monitoring to guide implementation and progress towards attainment of the IHR 2005 core capacities.

In his inaugural address on behalf of the Honorable Minister of Health, Deputy Minister for Planning, Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation, Varfee Tulay thanked WHO and partners for their continuous support. He emphasized the importance of a One Health approach towards accelerating the health security of Liberia.

“The NAPHS evaluation comes at a critical point in time when the Ministry of Health is also undertaking a review and development of key National documents that include; the new national health policy and strategic plans (EPHS, National financing strategy, National quality of health strategy and National Health Policy and Plan therefore, outcomes from the NAPHS evaluation will – inform the ongoing Policy review” Min. Tulay said.

WHO Country Representative (a.i) Dr. Zabulon Yoti applauded the government and the NPHIL leadership on creating an environment where all partners and stakeholders can come together and collaborate as one body to improve the health security of Liberia.

“I urge members to use this timely opportunity to critically analyze those areas that need improvement to enable timely detection, and response to both internal and cross-border threats” Dr. Yoti said.

He pledged WHO’s continued support both technical, financial, and other resources to ensure Liberia’s success in achieving the objectives of the NAPHS.

For her part, Dr. Rachel Idowu, US-CDC Country Director said the National Action Plan for Health Security offers the Government of the Republic of Liberia, represented by the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, an opportunity to re-establish its understanding of how Liberia builds upon the successful accomplishments following recovery from the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic. “Successful maturation and strengthening of the public health care system in Liberia requires an honest appraisal of the gaps and challenges that yet remain” Dr. Idowu added.

Other institutions that made remarks during the review including FAO, USAID and IRC pledged their institutions commitment to working with the Ministry of Health in ensuring the objectives of NAPHS are achieved.

The sessions included presentations from the 19 technical areas: Legislature, Coordination, Antimicrobial resistance, Zoonotic diseases, Food safety, Biosafety and Biosecurity, Surveillance, Reporting, Preparedness, Emergency response and Risk communication among others.

Participants reviewed the objectives, indicators, activities, and implementation status presented under each area. Furthermore, a review of the previous JEE scores under each indicator were reviewed and the new scores allocated during the internal evaluation exercise evaluated using the WHO Benchmarks tool. A follow up meeting for mapping resources to further strengthen IHR is expected to take place next week.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

Luanda – Angolan health authorities announced last Thursday 150 new cases, 8 deaths and 103 recovered patients in the latest 24 hours.

The statistics are contained in daily health bulletin, stating that Luanda province tops the list of the fresh cases in the last 24 hours with 72, followed by Huambo 15.

The source adds that 14 infections were diagnosed in Bié, 13 in Moxico, 12 in Huíla, 5 in Zaire, 4 in Benguela, 4 in Lunda Sul, 3 in Cabinda, 3 in Cuando Cubango, 2 in Cunene, 1 in Malanje, 1 in Lunda Sul and 1 in Uíge.

The deaths were reported in the provinces of Lunda Sul with 2, Malanje 2, while Benguela, Bié, Luanda and Moxico with one each.

As for recoveries, 36 are residents of Lunda Norte, 24 Moxico, 13 Lunda Sul, 10 in Cunene, 4 in Cuando Cubango, 4 in Huíla, 4 in Zaire, 3 in Benguela, 3 in Luanda, 1 in Bié and 1 in Huambo.

The global tally stands at 45,325 positive cases, 1,133 deaths, 42,080 recoveries and 2,112 active patients.

Source: Angola Press News Agency