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It has been over a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and subsequently a global pandemic. The world has experienced a lot of uncertainty since then as we all get used to this new ‘normal’ with social distancing measures, lockdowns, the emergence of new variants, and an array of hope with the development of vaccines.

Siphephelosethu Ntjangase is a 21-year-old university student from Hluti village in the Shiselweni region who suffers from pulmonary drug resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).  In October 2021 before getting checked, he noticed that he was losing weight, sweating at night and had a persistent cough that had lasted over a year. From the first test, the diagnosis was not conclusive which forced him to opt for a second opinion and that is when he tested positive for tuberculosis (TB).

A major donation of azithromycin, an antibiotic, is being delivered to Cameroon, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo to contribute to the ongoing efforts to eradicate yaws in the three countries that are among nine in Africa where the disfiguring and debilitating childhood infectious disease is still endemic.

“We’ve been at the forefront of the efforts to curtail this pandemic and we will continue to provide the best technical expertise to the government to effectively tackle COVID-19,” said Dr Steven V. Shongwe, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone. “At this stage of the pandemic, enhanced surveillance and strong laboratory capacity including genomics sequencing to detect emerging variants and improved vaccination coverage are among the critical support that WHO will continue to provide to keep the people safe”.