Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
By Johannes Marisa QUALITY health delivery service requires collaboration. In 2007, the World Health Organisation proposed a framework describing health systems in terms of six core components or building blocks. These components are the availability of good service delivery, health workforce, health information systems, access to essential medicines, financing and leadership. Much has been said in our country pertaining the desire to deliver a robust healthcare to the masses. With COVID-19 always threatening to strike further, it is thus prudent that we keep ourselves ready for action so that we are not caught unawares as a nation. While Europe continues to be hit by COVID-19 left, right and centre, the situation in Africa is a little better despite the little resources available. The public health measures that were introduced by authorities paid off with a halt on both morbidity and mortality. Health stakeholders in Zimbabwe include all those who are involved in health service delivery. These include policymakers, health practitioners, city councils, medical aid societies, the donor community, community leaders who, therefore, should come together for the benefit of the nation at large. It is a fact that there has been a lot of dissension among the stakeholders due to differences which have often threatened the viability of the health sector. Surprisingly, some of the contentious issues are easy to resolve. They only need minimal co-operation in order to move ahead. Being difficult does not help matters when dealing with issues, particularly important ones. The following matters have been of concern among stakeholders and it is my prayer that solutions will be found if the country is to make great strides in healthcare delivery: Service providers/medical aid societies feud The friction between service providers and medical aid societies should be resolved if many people are to access healthcare. There are patients that have been denied medical care simply because their health insurers do not want to honour claims from service providers. Some medical aid societies have gone for more than six months without paying a single dollar in this COVID-19 era. Service providers have been left without any option except to demand cash or shortfall upfront, thus putting more misery on patients. Members of medical aid societies should enquire with service providers on when medical aid societies last paid them. Harare City Council/private practitioners food handlers feud There has been acrimony from private practitioners about the way the city health department has handled the issue of food handlers’ certification. Council has claimed that many private practitioners have a tendency of making claims without examining patients, which has been denied by doctors. Council has refused to release medical certificate forms and its officials have gone around restaurants and supermarkets threatening that anyone who has a certificate not signed by council medical practitioners will be arrested. This is very unfair and it ridicules the prof
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.
Head of the Anglican Church in Jamaica and The Cayman Islands, Archbishop Howard Gregory, is seeking allay fears of COVID-19 vaccination among Christians, urging them to get inoculated. \tThe archbishop made the plea as he made...
[East African] If you are allergic to chicken and eggs, then you are ineligible for the Covid-19 vaccine.
With no sign yet of COVID-19 vaccines for its members, CARICOM today expressed “deep concern” at the “current prospect of inequitable access” to the jabs and said it will explore all available options to access them to protect its population.
The article CARICOM `deeply concerned’ at inequitable access to COVID vaccines appeared first on Stabroek News.
Given Kenya’s classification as a lower middle-income country, the loan comprises a Sh79.5 billion credit from the International Development Association (IDA) and Sh26.5 billion from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
Treasury, which is facing its biggest revenue shortfall in over a decade, said the loan approval by the World Bank is a vote of confidence in the government’s handling of the economy.
The World Bank also stated that the latest loan will support reforms that help advance the government’s inclusive growth agenda, including affordable housing and support to farmers’ incomes.
“The DPF thus complements the recently approved Kenya Covid-19 Emergency Response Project, which seeks to prevent, detect and respond to the Covid-19 outbreak and strengthen national systems for public health emergency preparedness,” the bank added in a statement.
“This operation provides concessional resources to help Kenya navigate the current Covid-19 crisis and to cushion the impact on livelihoods and jobs, while supporting the continued operation of essential public services, said World Bank Country Director for Kenya Felipe Jaramillo.
Takoradi — AngloGold Ashanti marked this year's Africa Day with a commitment to help sustain efforts to fight COVID-19 pandemic on the continent.
The company made the pledge when it joined more than 1.2 billion Africans across the continent and in the diaspora on Monday, to mark Africa Day, at a time the African Union (AU) was spearheading several initiatives aimed to combat the spread of COVID-19 and ensure Africa's economic resilience.
The Chief Operating Officer for Africa, Sicelo Ntuli, in a statement released to the Ghanaian Times, said: \"AngloGold Ashanti is committed to supporting the AU in its response strategy and is working in cooperation with the respective government programmes and stakeholders to roll out a series of hygiene and educational interventions at its sites and across communities.\"
Mr Ntuli said: \"AngloGold Ashanti aims to support the countries in which we operate to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
He mentioned that in Ghana, AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control has disinfected health centres, markets and carried out education campaign on COVID-19 in the Obuasi municipality.
Social and environmental vulnerabilities facing the Eastern Caribbean
High unemployment and aging populations, with a concomitant prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), add to this region’s troubles.
While spending on health varies across the region (between three and seven percent of GDP), Eastern Caribbean health systems perform substantially below the global average, forcing this region on the back foot as it tackles this health crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it necessary for Caribbean countries to reassess their preparedness against a wider range of increasing risks – including health pandemics.
Accustomed to the impact of natural disasters, the Caribbean will not only need resilience against global warming but also against a new wave of health risks that threaten the lives and livelihoods of its citizens.
This is why the United Nations COVID-19 Multi-sectoral Response Plan and Funding Appeal for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean states was launched on the May 6 to support the region to tackle this crisis with resources it urgently needs.
BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA THE Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking an order to compel government to provide a COVID-19 national vaccination roll-out plan. In papers filed at the High Court, ZimRights, represented by Tendai Biti of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, wants the government to present the budget for COVID-19 vaccine before Parliament. Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga who is the Health minister, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube and President Emmerson Mnangagwa were cited as respondents. ZimRights wants the government to provide the COVID-19 national vaccination deployment plan within seven days of the High Court order. In his founding affidavit filed at the courts, ZimRights national director Dzikamai Bere stated that section 29 of the Constitution obliges the government to take all practical measures to ensure the provision of basic accessible and adequate health services throughout Zimbabwe. In the face of a ravaging pandemic that has claimed lives of over two million people globally and over 1 200 in Zimbabwe, ZimRights is calling for government to act timeously and save lives from the pandemic. “Section 29(3), in particular, obliges the state to take all preventive measures within the limits of resources available to it, including education and public awareness programmes against the spread of diseases. Section 76 obliges the State to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within the limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive realisation of the right to healthcare,” Bere said. He also urged government to take a cue from other countries and take the necessary steps and a human rights-centred approach to fight coronavirus. “We are simply asking the government to lead, and save lives.” ZimRights said. “We don’t understand how anyone can fail to agree with us given the far-reaching consequences of inaction.” The World Health Organisation is urging governments to avail factual information on COVID-19 to the public. In its efforts to combat the spread of the deadly virus, ZimRights provided urgent humanitarian support to marginalised communities and institutions reaching out to over 17 000 people and 26 institutions that include rural clinics, schools, quarantine centres and correctional facilities. Follow Miriam on Twitter@FloMangwaya
The devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Africa's economy has shown that the continent can ill-afford a further delay in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), panelists in a web conference on Africa's economic recovery, post-COVID-19, said on Monday.
\"With the COVID-19 crisis, Africa must see the positive message that there comes a time when every groups of people should begin to fend for themselves and be independent and integrate the continent better in terms of trade and investment among ourselves as well as promote growth and development as a people, without always looking out for bailouts from outsiders,\" he said.
'ACFTA as the way'
Mr Oramah said the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed so many weaknesses across Africa, ranging from lack of basic infrastructure to appropriate economic policies to help drive growth and manage the crisis of current magnitude.
He said \"massive hunger is looming if nothing is done before the end of the pandemic,\" adding that \"if governments in Africa allow hunger to take over from COVID-19, the continent would likely see political problems, since hungry people would start agitating.\"
On developing opportunities for more global support against COVID-19, Mr Maurer said the current crisis has provided an excellent opportunity to address the high incidence of extreme poverty in Africa, which has constrained investment.
World Health Organisation (WHO) member states have signed a resolution that calls for COVID-19 vaccines to be classified as a global public good for health in order to bring the pandemic to an end.
This follows China's commitment made by President Xi Jinping during the two-day World Health Assembly to make the vaccine a global public good, once one is available.
It calls for countries to ensure the fair distribution of all quality essential health technologies required to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
This includes open innovation across all relevant domains and the sharing of all relevant information with WHO.
As the world continues to battle COVID-19, Ghebreyesus called on governments to ensure that health systems continue to function to avoid the risk brought on by the suspension of essential services, like child immunisation.
JUST as failing to plan equals planning to fail, failure to properly equip the country’s foot soldiers is an indisputable recipe for defeat. Zimbabwe, just like the rest of the world, is in the midst of a debilitating health crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s only those countries with well-oiled health systems and well-equipped frontline workers which will emerge victorious. Government’s recent claim that it is recruiting additional nurses and doctors to fight the scourge is indeed commendable, but won’t achieve much as long as they are ill-equipped to hit the bull’s eye. Nurses under the banner of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association have always raised the red flag over the unavailability of personal protective equipment (PPE). As frontline soldiers in the fight against COVID-19, health workers deserve priority in terms of their protection and ensuring their general wellbeing. Almost a year after the virus reached Zimbabwe’s borders, not much has been done to safeguard the country’s first line of defence. It, therefore, makes sad reading that the government has the audacity to make grand speeches and empty promises and yet evidence abound that the health workers have been hard hit by COVID-19 and are dying in their numbers, lonely and with little or no support. That hospitals are operating on skeleton staff because many staffers are either self-isolating at home or battling for their lives alongside the very patients they are supposed to be taking care of, is not in question. PPE is not the only challenge, but even the employer liability insurance package meant to cushion them is still a pipe dream. Depleted staff continues to manage the huge influx of patients and when they become infected, their families become their only source of solace. Once recovered, they troop back to duty and again put their lives on the line. It takes a people’s government to assume responsibility and correct yester-year mistakes. Hiding behind fake statements and pledges is not the solution and will only fuel disgruntlement among health workers. How can dissatisfied nurses and doctors with only surgical masks and sheets as gowns perform to their level best? We challenge the authorities to bring sanity to the public health sector by equipping health workers with appropriate PPE as well as incentivise them to enable them to pursue the dictates of their Hippocratic oath without looking back. The burden these brave men and women carry deserves genuine recognition. Government should take the lead and take care of its health workers. Employing more workers while it is evident that current staff is not being well looked after flies in the face of basic rights of employees. It is time to rectify years of bungling and do the right thing. The adverse effects of COVID-19 cannot be hidden or downplayed.
[Africa In Fact] Abuja Declaration: broken promises
African health practitioners should own the narrative of the coronavirus pandemic and take advantage of Africa's experience of other outbreaks of disease in order to mount a tailored response, says the writer in a guest column for AllAfrica.
To survive this marathon, doctors, researchers and others responding to the pandemic across Africa must take ownership of the narrative of the fight against COVID-19 and provide hard evidence to remove emotions and promote a rational response to the pandemic.
Reanchoring the debate in local communities
On March 18, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, called on Africa to \"wake up\" and face the pandemic.
But in a continent consisting of 54 states, each at a very different level of preparedness, the COVID-19 response in Africa cannot be judged as if it is a single territory.
MSF is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare.
[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.
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization's regional director for Africa, said the organization is training more than 10,000 health workers in an attempt to decentralize their response to deal with these different realities.
In Mauritius, the nation's minister of health and wellness, Dr. Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, said preparation was key to the nation's response, and its apparent success in containing the virus.
That, Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize explained, is part of the strategy — deputize trusted institutions, like churches, to teach South Africans how to live with the virus in the long term.
And in the East African nation of Uganda, which has yet to report any deaths amid its fewer than 300 cases, Health Minister Dr. Jane Aceng said the health system was already well-fortified by other lethal epidemics.
Moeti, the World Health Organization official who said that cases in Africa remain lower than in other parts of the world, said one thing holds true across this continent: The virus doesn't let its guard down in its quest to survive.
[The Herald] ADEQUATE measures informed by World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines have been put in place to ensure schools reopen safely in the proposed phases, starting with examination classes today, without risking a spike in Covid-19 infections.
Described as an onset of high blood pressure during pregnancy, the exact reason for the prevalence of preeclampsia in Uganda is unknown due to the fact that detailed clinical records of all births are lacking.
Also responsible for cases of miscarriage and low birth weight, the condition usually begins after the fifth month of pregnancy in women whose blood pressure had been normal, according to experts.
Dr Ononge said preeclampsia is basically managed in hospital where the blood pressure is controlled.
According to Dr Richard Idro, preeclampsia raises the blood pressure and it starts damaging the kidney and so protein starts leaking into the urine.
\"If the blood pressure rises too high it starts affecting the blood vessels in the brain and the mother can die,\" Dr Idro said.
