Day: October 28, 2021

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa region chief says only five African countries – less than 10 percent of the continent’s nations – are on track to meet the goal of vaccinating 40 percent of their populations by the end of the year.

WHO Africa says Seychelles, Mauritius, and Morocco have already met the 40-percent – goal established during the WHO-sponsored World Health Assembly in May. At the current pace two other countries, Tunisia and Cabo Verde will likely reach the goal as well.

In a virtual news briefing Thursday, WHO Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti said for other African nations to have a chance to meet the goal, they will need to receive 30 million vaccine doses a week – nearly double the current 17 million they are receiving from all sources.

Adding to the vaccine shortage, Moeti said the region is facing the looming threat of a syringe shortage. She said the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) predicts a global shortage of around two billion of the auto-disposable syringes needed for COVID-19 vaccine and routine immunization.

The WHO Africa chief said some African countries, such as Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa, have already experienced delays in receiving syringes and unless drastic measures are taken to boost syringe production, the continent could face a crisis.

Moeti said the shortages include the 0.3ml auto-disposable syringes used for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination. She warned there is no global stockpile of the specialized syringes, which differ from the 0.5ml syringes used for other types of COVID-19 vaccine and routine vaccination.

The market for 0.3ml syringes is tight and extremely competitive. As such, they are in short supply and will remain so through at least the first quarter of next year.

WHO Africa says the COVAX Facility is working to address the threat by securing deals with syringe manufacturers, and through better planning to avoid vaccine deliveries outpacing the supply of syringes.

Source: Voice of America

In Malawi, health authorities say an outbreak of scabies around the commercial capital of Blantyre has affected more than 300 people. Scabies is a contagious, intensely itchy skin condition caused by tiny mites that burrow into the skin.

“We started seeing cases from June and we have seen that the cases have been increasing such that by the end of September we had seen 255 cases. But as I am talking now, as of October, the number has risen to 309 cases,” says Chrissy Banda, the spokesperson for Blantyre District Health Office.

Residents of Blantyre like Matilda Lamba say the outbreak is concerning, especially with records indicating that it is more prevalent in rural areas.

“Those people from villages they come in town. You know we buy things from then like agriculture commodities, we interact with them daily and right at the moment we are very afraid that we might catch the scabies,” she notes.

But Banda says people should not panic, saying efforts are under way to stop the outbreak. “In our facilities the treatment is there. We have a lot of scabicides; the treatment for scabies. So first thing, we identify the cases, and then we are treating the cases to make sure that we block the transmission.”

The scabies outbreak comes at a time when Malawi is starting to recover from COVID-19, currently registering low infection and death rates.

George Jobe, executive director of the Malawi Health Equity Network says although the scabies outbreak is scary, the good news is that its preventive measures are similar to those that prevent COVID-19, like hand washing and observing social distancing.

In the meantime, the ministry of health is advising institutions that deal with large groups to watch for cases of the skin condition and report suspected cases to health authorities.

Source: Voice of America

The World Health Organization warns a shortage of syringes is threatening to upend efforts to vaccinate millions of Africans against COVID-19, a disease that has infected more than 8.4 million people on the continent, killing 217,000.

Lifesaving vaccines are in short supply in Africa. The World Health Organization says only six percent of Africa’s 1.2 billion people are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. That compares with more than 40 percent of the people in most high-income countries.

Vaccine shipments to the continent are ramping up and expected to increase into next year. While that is encouraging, WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says a scarcity of syringes could paralyze progress.

“I mean just to say, syringes sound like a very small item in the big picture of rolling out vaccines, but we know very well if you do not have syringes, you cannot put shots into people’s arms so it is a very important topic…There is a looming threat that syringe supplies will dry up,” said Moeti.

The U.N. children’s fund ships syringes for the global rollout of vaccines under the COVAX facility.

Moeti says UNICEF predicts a global shortage of around two billion syringes needed for COVID-19 vaccine and routine immunizations.

“Already, some African countries, like Kenya, Rwanda, and South Africa, have experienced delays in receiving vaccines, and unless drastic measures are taken to boost syringe production, Africa faces a crisis,” said Moeti.

On a brighter note, Moeti says she is very excited by an announcement from pharmaceutical giant Merck that it will allow other drug makers to produce its new oral antiviral COVID-19 medicine.

“Could this be a game-changer? We sincerely hope so. We sincerely hope in the context of the global crisis of this nature and looking at the gaps in access and the needs,” said Moeti. “And just the principle of local production, learning from the extremely difficult experience of this pandemic that more and more pharmaceutical companies would exceptionally be willing to follow Merck’s example. “

Moeti notes local production of the drug and other COVID-19 therapeutics would help speed up and address inequity and access to key products in poorer nations. She says it would be extremely desirable to have similar patent sharing agreements extended to vaccine production as well.

Source: Voice of America

At least six people were killed and 21 injured in an Ethiopian army airstrike Thursday on the Tigray regional capital, Mekelle, hospital sources told VOA.

The attack brings the total number of casualties reported by medical personnel from a series of government bomb strikes since last week to at least 12 dead and 55 wounded.

The Ethiopian National Defense Forces issued a statement saying the latest attack was aimed at Mesfin Industrial Engineering, which it said was a military equipment maintenance facility operated by the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

But witnesses in Mekelle told VOA that the late-morning airstrike hit a residential area.

The victims were rushed to the city’s Ayder Referral Hospital where Tsega, a wounded resident, told VOA that a bomb had hit her house with her entire family inside.

“There were many people at home. Children slept. Half of our house has been damaged,” she said in Tigrinya. “We’ve survived. However, the house next to ours was demolished. I don’t think anybody could survive there.”

Gebremeskel Abraha, who was being treated for a knee wound, said he was walking on the street when the attack occurred.

The bomb “fell in between the houses while I was passing by,” he said. “The people you see here were hit by that bomb. Houses were ruined. Those who have been hit are peaceful people.”

Azeb Aregay, a neighborhood resident, said it was not clear how many people were killed or injured.

“They are still searching,” she said. “Peaceful people are being hit. There are no fighters or armed people here. It is a residential area.”

Dr. Kibrom Gebreselassie, the medical director at Ayder Referral Hospital, said six dead and 21 injured had been brought to the facility so far.

“Ambulances are coming in as we speak now. The number might go up,” he told VOA. He said three of the dead were children.

“We are treating people in makeshift tents as the hospital is full to capacity,” he told VOA’s Tigrigna Service.

He blamed a blockade of the region for shortages of food, drugs and medical equipment at the hospital.

“We survived until now on the drugs we had in the stock. As you see, the hospital is full and we are treating people in the tents we set up on the streets outside,” he said.

Ethiopian Communications Minister Legesse Tulu insisted that the attack hit a legitimate military target, telling VOA’s Habtamu Seyoum of VOA’s Amharic Service in a telephone interview that the strike “successfully targeted” a site that the government believed the TPLF used as an “arms maintenance facility.”

“The target was Slot 2,” he said. “Manufacturing Slot 2 is a place where they manufacture and repair military equipment. They repair there their heavy weaponry, and they use the heavy weaponry mainly to destroy towns, properties of farmers and infrastructure, et cetera. It was targeted to deter this, and it has been successfully targeted.”

Legesse said the federal government had not received any reports of civilian casualties from the strike and accused the TPLF of trying to deceive the international community and the media with false information.

“What we know is a successful raid was conducted that hit the military manufacturing that they use for military equipment maintenance facility. Nothing was done to attack civilians intentionally or deliberately.”

Source: Voice of America