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THE fear and confusion surrounding the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by China and brought into the country this week reflects the failure by government to relay information to the citizens. Health practitioners, teachers and trade unionists have expressed fears over being used as guinea pigs to prove the efficacy of the vaccine amid reports that it had resulted in complications in some countries it has been rolled out. Among some of the concerns, the drug has not been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), but is still undergoing tests and the highest efficacy rate it has had is 75% compared to other drugs that are now in wide use, AstraZeneca, Modena, Pfizer, the Russian Sputnik 5 which have had higher efficacy rates. Suddenly, the Sinopharm drug received amid much pomp and fanfare, is now presenting more headaches for government than solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic that has wreaked havoc in the country, claiming more than 1 400 lives since March last year. Government can only blame itself for the dearth of information around the Chinese vaccine. Comments by the head of monitoring and evaluation in the Health and Child Care ministry, Robert Mudyiradima, which circulated widely on social media, to the effect that they still didn’t have full knowledge of the vaccine have worsened the uncertainty over its safety. A well-organised and detailed information campaign about the drug will go a long way in allaying fears over the safety of the vaccine. This should include the public vaccination of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his two deputies Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi. Government’s messaging deficit has long been its Achilles heel and could severely hamper its efforts to curb the pandemic. Its pathetic messaging and double standards have not only been limited to the Sinopharm vaccine. Doesn't it raise eyebrows that while government is preaching the need to limit movement of people and public gatherings, the ruling Zanu PF party continues to hold face-to-face meetings? The glaring double standards were also laid bare when First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa ignored her husband’s order to avoid public gatherings by organising a cooking contest in Chinhoyi in blatant defiance of the national lockdown regulations. That this was held a day after government warned citizens to brace for more restrictions in light of the highly fatal and fast-spreading South African variant, not only exhibits absence of leadership, but is also an insult to the country’s citizens. With such deplorable messaging, the government can forget about successfully curbing the COVID-19 pandemic.
A November 26 letter from the presidency asked the head of Uganda's national drug authority to 'work out a mechanism' to clear the importation of the vaccines.
China has about five COVID-19 vaccine candidates at different levels of trials. It was not clear what vaccine was being imported into Uganda.
One of the frontrunners is the Sinopharm vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Product, a unit of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG).
On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates said the vaccine has 86% efficacy, citing an interim analysis of late-stage clinical trials.
China has used the drug to vaccinate up to a million people under its emergency use program.
On Tuesday, Morocco said it was ordering up to 10 million doses of the vaccine.
Record cases
Uganda on Monday registered 701 new COVID-19 cases, the highest-ever daily increase, bringing its national count to 23,200.
The new cases were out of the 5,578 samples tested for the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said in a statement.
Tuesday's tally was 606, the second-highest ever number of new infections, bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the east African country to 23,860.
Health authorities have blamed ongoing election campaigns which have drawn huge crowds for the rise in infections.
Clean cooking tied to cost and mindset
Thursday, June 4, 2020 0:01
By EDWARD MUNGAI |
Many households in East Africa cannot access clean cooking fuels, largely because of cash constraints and outdated customary behaviour.
In Kenya, clean cooking fuel access rate stands at a paltry 10 percent, yet this is the best performance in the region, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The International Energy Agency has grouped Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria and DRC in the bottom 20 list of countries with lowest access to clean fuels globally.
Already, Kenya has a funding arrangement with the World Bank to supply efficient cooking appliances powered by clean fuels to households located in marginalised areas, largely in northern Kenya and the coast.
To this end, as countries commit to universal electricity access targets for their populations, the same should be the case with clean cooking fuels.
[RFI] West Africa is facing the first reported resurgence of Ebola since the end of a devastating outbreak in 2016. Guinea Conakry is dealing with a situation described by the national health authorities as an \"epidemic\" after seven cases were confirmed.
[Cameroon Tribune] After a lot of sensitization and provision of gadgets to lay the pandemic to rest, the population now sees the need to implement government prescribed measures.
BY MOSES MATENGA/HARRIET CHIKANDIWA JUNIOR doctors will now be conscripted into the army soon after graduating in a move observers said was aimed at militarising the health sector and stopping the health practitioners from going on strike as well as leaving the country for greener pastures. According to a new order released by government on September 28, junior doctors must now be recruited as military doctors for them to be able to work in government hospitals. Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, who is also Health minister, is a former soldier, while ministry’s permanent secretary, Jasper Chimedza, is Air Force of Zimbabwe Air Commodore. The development comes at a time over 230 medical students, who have just finished their five-year training, programme were about to be posted to public hospitals as junior resident medical officers (JRMOs) where they were supposed to serve for three years in order to be able to be certified to run their own private practices. In a letter dated September 28 addressed to Chimedza, the Health Service Board said government through the Finance ministry had approved the hiring of 407 JRMOs, but only on condition that some of them are appointed under the Defence Forces Service Commission. “The Health Service Board was in August 2020 granted concurrence by the Ministry of Finance to appoint 407 junior resident medical officers on the conditions that some of them are appointed by the Defence Forces Services Commission,” part of the letter read. “It is noted that 230 junior resident medical officers (JRMO) are in their final examination and will be ready to be absorbed in the service upon successful graduation.” The letter added: “In view of the Treasury concurrence, the Health Service Board is recommending that the 230 JRMO be employed under the Zimbabwe Defence Forces who indicated that they are willing and ready to do so.” The country has been experiencing recurrent strikes by doctors demanding better salaries and working conditions. Last year, doctors were on strike for over four months and only ended the job action after the intervention of corporates such as Econet. The doctors went on strike again last month, joining nurses who were on strike for over three months demanding COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) and US dollar salaries. But Chiwenga, after taking over as Health minister, forced the closure of three programmes at the University of Zimbabwe’s medical school where the graduate trainee doctors would go for specialist training. Chiwenga also tightened rules for doctors seeking to work abroad. It will now take doctors three signatures from the State, likely hostile signatories, to secure the “Certificate of Good Standing” which used to be issued by the Medical and Dental Practitioners Council of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights secretary Norman Matara said the new measures constituted an attack on the health profession. “We just feel it is an issue of oppression and continuous attack of the health sector in Zimbabwe. We feel that qualified do
The Gauteng Health Department has been posting myth busters regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Here’s to separating the truth from the tale.
