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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.
As many African countries reopen, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urges widespread testing as the best way to avoid a surge in new cases of coronavirus.
Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC, said that to have a reasonably accurate picture of how the disease is spreading, Africa needs about 15 million tests, or enough to test about 1% of the population.
To date, the Africa CDC has distributed about 2.7 million tests, including a planned distribution of about 900,000 tests in Senegal this week.
Africa CDC Deputy Director Dr. Ahmed Ogwell told VOA’s English-to-Africa health reporter that the organization is seeking to acquire polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which detect genetic material from the virus, rather than some other rapid tests that are less reliable.
Africa has recorded a lower caseload than other parts of the globe, with about 119,000 cases of COVID-19 infection and about 3,500 deaths.
Africa has recorded successes on many levels which are often ignored by global media -- and we need to embrace and celebrate our unique contribution to the world.
The outbreak of Covid-19 has once again revealed global perceptions of Africa.
A report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) stated that between 300,000 and 3.3 million Africans could lose their lives due to Covid-19.
Beyond the narratives of doom and gloom, Africa has recorded successes on many levels which are often ignored by global media.
These states thus have the moral authority to promote democracy and human rights on the continent and beyond....
The Sentinel goes one-on-one with Sergeant Andre Clansy, Los Angeles Police Department Gang Intervention Liaison
Many may know about the Gang Reduction Youth Development Office (GRYD), established by the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office in 2007, to establish an office to coordinate comprehensive efforts to reduce gang violence, target specific areas that had the most gang violence, combine all the City’s programs within the Mayor’s Office, and to develop strong partnerships with City departments and community civic groups.
But what has been the role of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) with GRYD – both as it relates to gang policing and interactions with men and women, the gang intervention specialists who have been serving their communities on the front lines of street wars decades before the program’s existence?
Sometimes, we get a situation where we have decisions to make as far as how much information do we share, or issues going between the CIWs (Community Intervention Workers) from the streets, and our gang enforcement officers to make sure we understand each other’s jobs and responsibilities.
How I do that, I also operate a gang intervention awareness program within LAPD to educate our LAPD officers on the service that Community Intervention Workers do on the streets, so they could be fully aware, because some of our coppers do not understand the function of GRYD, what the GRYD is supposed to do.
Our class, we operate every month for LAPD officers to introduce them to what the GRYD strategy is and what the duties and responsibilities are of Community Intervention Workers.
[Premium Times] According to her, the Pfizer vaccine and the AstraZeneca one were presently being negotiated so that poor countries don't have to stand in a queue behind rich countries.
It has issued an impassioned appeal to malaria-endemic countries not to compromise on the delivery of malaria control activities and healthcare services as they battle COVID-19.
African governments - with the support of the relevant stakeholders - must therefore take a leading role in ensuring that there are minimal disruptions to the delivery of appropriately tailored essential malaria control activities and services.
South Africa has adopted an innovative strategy to ensure the continuation of its malaria test and treat campaign.
And African governments and international organisations like the WHO must lobby hard to ensure that there's no downscaling in the production of tests and treatments for non-COVID-19 infections like malaria.
In the interim, countries should consider stockpiling supplies of malaria rapid diagnostic tests, malaria treatment and essential malaria control commodities.
KINGSTON Public Hospital (KPH) is the first of seven health facilities to receive medical supplies and equipment valued at approximately $260 million from the Japanese Government in aid in the fight against the novel coronavirus.The other beneficiaries to receive donations include Mandeville Regional Hospital, Bustamante Hospital for Children, National Chest Hospital, May Pen Hospital, Cornwall Regional Hospital and St Ann's Bay Hospital.
The logistical challenge of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the U.S. has fallen on algorithms, but lack of transparency plagues the process.
The World Health Assembly, which has been trimmed from the usual three weeks to just two days, Monday and Tuesday, is expected to focus almost solely on Covid-19, which in a matter of months has killed more than 310,000 globally, and infected nearly 4.7 million.
Despite the tensions, countries hope to adopt by consensus a resolution urging a joint response to the pandemic.
While diplomats have agreed in principle on the draft resolution, observers voiced concerns that in the current politicised atmosphere, some countries might still choose to break the consensus next week.
And Washington is also leading a number of countries in demanding that the WHO end its exclusion of Taiwan -- considered by Beijing to be part of its territory -- and allow it to access next week's assembly as an observer.
The United States, which will be represented during the assembly by Health Secretary Alex Azar, is meanwhile not among the countries who are asking the WHA to make a call on the issue of Taiwan's participation.
The African Union obtains 270 Million coronavirus vaccines in efforts to surmount the second wave of the pandemic.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), today delivered J$13 million worth of critically needed hospital supplies as part of a third tranche of emergency equipment to the Ministry of Health and Wellness in support of...
South African president and African Union (AU) chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa says the deadly coronavirus outbreak has affected both developed and developing countries, but it's the latter who are expected to suffer the most.
Ramaphosa delivered a short virtual address to the 73rd World Health Assembly on Monday and, while it experienced numerous technical glitches, the South African president still managed to raise concerns over the presence of Covid-19 on the continent.
\"Africa is extremely vulnerable to the ravages of this virus and needs every possible support and assistance, including much-needed resources, to bolster its response and offset a potentially devastating social and economic fallout,\" said Ramaphosa.
The South African leader also affirmed his country's support for the World Health Organisation (WHO), which he said had been key in guiding the international response to the pandemic.
\"The WHO has been instrumental in providing guidance and support to African governments with early detection of the pandemic, training health workers and strengthening surveillance in communities,\" Ramaphosa told the global assembly.
Even before COVID-19, many African countries used libel and defamation laws, and internet shut downs to limit the freedom of expression of citizens and the media.
This recommendation can still be used to combat fake news as long as the impact on freedom of expression is minimal.
The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa issued a recently press statement expressing concerns about internet shutdowns in African countries in the time of COVID-19.
And the African Commission recently published its Revised Declaration on Principles of Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa.
Finally, African governments must not use fake news during this pandemic as a shield to violate the freedom of expression of its citizens, or settle old scores with the press.
This was highlighted by Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Gender and Family Promotion, Assumpta Ingabire ahead of the International Day of Families.
This year, the day is celebrated globally under the theme- 'Families in Development: Copenhagen & Beijing + 25' while in Rwanda, celebrations are to be held under the theme of 'Let's build a resilient and safe family.'
In Rwanda, there will be no national celebrations by officials from the ministry and other stakeholders will use the media to discuss issues affecting families in the country.
Ingabire stressed that the family is the foundation for a country's development and hence should possess the foothold in the fight against the current pandemic.
To ensure resilience and safety of families, the ministry has carried out continued awareness through the media mobilising communities on the need to stay safe as well as maintaining peace and harmony in families.
\"Test, test, test\" has been the mantra for defeating the novel coronavirus, but African countries are finding themselves at the end of a long global queue for the chemical reagents and other commodities necessary for administering diagnostic tests, according to public health experts.
Although mass testing is seen as a key component to slowing transmission, African health authorities are struggling to compete with richer, more powerful countries when it comes to procuring the scarce testing material on the global market, notes a new commentary published in The Lancet scientific journal.
Building self-sufficiency
Many African researchers foresaw this scarcity and the consequent need for African countries to be as self-sufficient as possible when it comes to diagnostic tests.
Given the global shortages - particularly the reagents necessary to run polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which remain almost exclusively the basis for diagnosis - African countries need to take two paths forward, suggests Dr. Misaki Wayengera of Uganda's Makerere University.
But there are only a few diagnostics manufacturing facilities across Africa that have developed RDTs and could work on COVID-19 solutions, acknowledged Dr. Moses Alobo of the African Academy of Sciences, who is leading the effort to coordinate elite researchers across the continent.
