Virtually two years since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a pandemic, COVID-19 has already accounted for close on 350 million cases and more than 5.5 million fatalities. The “good” news is that the faster it spreads these days, the lower its deaths. The Omicron variant appears to be a more benevolent avatar though […]
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Health Issues in Africa
Health Issues in Africa is an online news portal dedicated to exclusive and comprehensive coverage of the issues surrounding health and development affecting the people of the African continent.
Our readers include policymakers, health professionals working in the government, private and non-profit sector, research and the media.
HIV/Aids
Out of the 34 million HIV-positive people worldwide, 69% live in sub-Saharan Africa. There are roughly 23.8 million infected persons in all of Africa. 91% of the world’s HIV-positive children live in Africa. More than one million adults and children die every year from HIV/AIDS in Africa alone.
Diarrhoeal diseases
The fact that almost 40 percent of all diarrhoea deaths in children under five worldwide occur in the African region is striking. The diarrhoea mortality burden among children under five in Sub-Saharan Africa reveals the persistent magnitude of this preventable and treatable disease in the region.
Malaria
It is because the most effective malaria vector – the mosquito Anopheles gambiae – is the most widespread in Africa and the most difficult to control, ninety percent of all malaria deaths in Africa occur in young children.
The situation of access to clean water and sanitation in rural Africa is even more dismal than the previous statistics imply. The WHO (2006) stated that, in 2004, only 16% of people in sub-Saharan Africa had access to drinking water through a household connection (an indoor tap or a tap in the yard).
When it comes to killer diseases in Africa many people think of infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria, or even Ebola. But the reality is thatdiseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease – known as non–communicable diseases (NCDs) – are a major threat.
Access to medicines refers to the ability for people to get needed medicines required. Such access is part of the right to health as supported by international law since 1946. The World Health Organization states that essential medicines should be available, of good quality, and accessible.
Global Health Newsletter XXII
Mass testing of the 14 million residents of Tianjin, a city near China’s capital Beijing, began after a score of COVID-19 cases were discovered. At least two cases of the Omicron variant were found. Lockdowns continue in Xi’an and Yuzhou, two other large cities affected by outbreaks. Cases have also been identified in Hong Kong. […]
Global Health Newsletter XXI
The Omicron coronavirus variant dampened New Year festivities around much of the world, with Paris cancelling its fireworks show, London relegating its one to television, and New York City scaling down its famous ball drop celebration in Times Square. The illuminated ball made of Waterford crystal panels slids down its pole at the midnight hour […]
Global Health Newsletter XX
For COVID-19, small seems to be beautiful. First we had BioNTech, a tiny operation headed by a Turkish immigrant couple in Germany that gave us the Pfizer vaccine. Now along comes a small Maryland biotechnology company, Novavax, finally joining the ranks of high-profile COVID-19 vaccine developers, winning emergency authorisations for its candidate. (www.science.org/content/article/novavax a). The […]