Day: August 19, 2022

As the threat of famine looms in the Horn of Africa, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Friday that it is scaling up operations to support millions going hungry who “cannot wait” for assistance.

The region is in the grip of a historic drought, brought on by four consecutive failed rains. The crisis has left some 22 million people across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia struggling to find enough to eat, with numbers expected to rise.

Livestock are dying, and there are critical shortages of water and food. More than a million people have fled their homes and are now living in crowded camps, where humanitarians are scrambling to meet the overwhelming needs.

No end in sight

WFP chief David Beasley on Thursday wrapped up a visit to Somalia, where the risk of famine is high.

More than seven million people there, nearly half the population, are acutely food insecure, and 213,000 are already facing famine-like conditions.

Mr. Beasley travelled to the southern city of Baardheere where he met families, including malnourished children and their mothers, who have been forced to leave home and travel long distances to seek humanitarian aid, amid ongoing conflict.

“People here have been waiting years for rain – but they cannot wait any longer for life-saving food assistance. The world needs to act now to protect the most vulnerable communities from the threat of widespread famine in the Horn of Africa,” he said.

“There is still no end in sight to this drought crisis, so we must get the resources needed to save lives and stop people plunging into catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation”.

Food and cash assistance

WFP said the drought is expected to continue in the coming months as a fifth poor rainy season is forecast later this year.

The agency is doing everything possible to support the most vulnerable people, but urgently requires around $418 million over the next six months to meet the increasing needs.

Meanwhile, WFP is focused on using available funds to increase assistance in the worst-hit areas. The aim is to target some 8.5 million people across the region, up from 6.3 million at the start of the year.

Staff are providing food and cash assistance to families, in addition to distributing fortified foods to women and children as malnutrition rates spiral. Cash grants and insurance schemes are also helping households to buy food to keep their livestock alive, or to compensate them when they die.

Support for Somalia

Relatedly, $10 million has been allocated from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to ramp up the drought response in Somalia.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths warned on Friday that time is running out for people in the country.

“If we don’t step up in force now, it’ll run out and the malnourished children are likely to die first,” he said.

“This new funding will help humanitarian agencies get supplies and staff in place as soon as humanly possible to help avert a further catastrophe in Somalia. But it is no solution. We need all hands on deck and all resources mobilized to prevent famine”.

CERF has so far contributed a total of $41 million to the drought response in Somalia this year.

The funding has been used to support food and nutrition interventions, and to deliver healthcare, water and sanitation, protection, shelter, and education to people in need.

Source: United Nations

The World Health Organization says clinical evidence shows two monoclonal antibody treatments are effective at saving the lives of many people stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.

The action follows a systematic review and analysis of randomized clinical trials of therapeutics for the disease.

WHO Team Lead for Clinical Care Janet Diaz says the evidence underpinning the recommendations comes from two clinical trials. The largest was done in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 and 2019.

She says the trials were conducted during Ebola outbreaks, demonstrating quality control trials can be done even under the most difficult circumstances.

“The evidence synthesis that informs this guideline shows that mAb114 and Regeneron-EB3 reduced mortality. The relative risk reduction was about 60 percent…Between 230 to 400 lives saved per 1,000 patients. Translate that into the number needed to treat, you treat two to four patients, and you save one life.”

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is spread through blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died of the disease. The worst Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. Of the nearly 29,000 reported cases, more than 11,300 people died.

Diaz calls the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics a very important advancement. However, she notes the drug itself is not the only solution. She says it must be given in a comprehensive, clinical setting along with other treatments.

“That includes early diagnosis so that treatments can be given as soon as possible and also the implementation of appropriate infection prevention and control to stop transmission…and treatment of co-infections and access to nutrition, psycho-social support, and, of course, access to care after discharge.”

Diaz says the two recommended therapeutics have shown clear benefits for people of all ages. She says they can be used on all patients confirmed positive for Ebola virus disease. That, she says, includes older people, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, and babies born to mothers with confirmed Ebola within the first seven days after birth.

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA— The World Health Organization’s vaccine advisers recommended that people most at risk from Covid-19 should be offered a second booster dose to increase their immunity.

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) said following initial vaccination, typically consisting of two doses, and an already recommended first booster dose, specific groups of people should be offered an additional jab.

“We are doing this on the basis obviously of observations in relation to waning immunity and particularly in the context of Omicron,” WHO senior health advisor Joachim Hornbach told reporters via video link.

The UN health agency has already recommended that all adults receive a booster shot four to six months after an initial round of vaccination, typically consisting of two jabs.

But SAGE chairman Alejandro Cravioto stressed that Thursday’s recommendation for a second booster after another four to six months had passed was only meant for the “populations at the highest risk.”

It “does not constitute a general recommendation of vaccinating all adults after the first booster”, he told the virtual press briefing.

SAGE said second boosters should be offered to the elderly and all immunocompromised people, pregnant women, as well as those with conditions like diabetes, hypertension and cardiac, lung and kidney disease that put them at higher risk.

Health workers of all ages should also get the additional jab, Cravioto said, insisting on the need to “protect our health systems from the devastation of having its personnel sick and not at work.”

Looking forward, the SAGE experts pointed to “significant uncertainties related to the evolution of the virus, the characteristics of future variants, and the trajectory of the epidemic given increasing vaccine- and infection-induced immunity globally.”

“It is likely that additional doses may be needed within 4-12 months after the second booster, especially in persons most vulnerable to severe disease and death,” they said.

For now, the booster recommendations are for the available vaccines developed to tackle the initial Covid-19 strain.

WHO has said it will evaluate new jabs being developed by vaccine makers like Moderna and Pfizer that are adapted to target new, fast-spreading Omicron variants.

But SAGE stressed that current vaccines appeared to continue providing high protection “against severe disease in the context of the Omicron variant and its sub-lineages.”

Second boosters for at-risk populations “should not be delayed in anticipation of future variant-containing vaccines”, they said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK