Feature Stories

As much-needed COVID-19 vaccinations reach vulnerable groups at a camp for internally displaced persons in Mozambique’s Niassa Province, local health worker Celio Marcelino is responsible for inputting their data into the country’s digital records system. 

Zione Chiwaula, who lives in southern Malawi’s hard-to-reach Neno district, has two children who suffer from sickle cell disease. “They spent most of their early years admitted in hospitals, as they would regularly present with severe symptoms that needed special care,” she says.

Yole Monlwa, 22, vividly remembers the day he heard a radio broadcast on the importance of testing for leprosy. “At the time, I could not feel my hand, nor even move my fingers. I had had two ineffective treatments. I went with my parents to the hospital mentioned on the radio, and was told I had leprosy.”

“I came to take the COVID-19 booster dose and brought my baby for (childhood routine) immunization,” says Cacilda Manjate, a young mother waiting in a consulting room of the Matola II clinic just outside Mozambique’s capital Maputo. “For me taking the vaccine is important because I have a relative who died of COVID-19. I don’t want to lose anyone else in the family.”

Critical care patients in Lesotho will soon be spared a trip to South Africa to receive treatment. The country is on the verge of opening its first intensive care units in public hospitals.

Critical care patients in Lesotho will soon be spared a trip to South Africa to receive treatment. The country is on the verge of opening its first intensive care units in public hospitals.

Two years after the start of the pandemic, the Republic of Congo has begun to apply the genomic sequencing capacities developed in the fight against COVID-19 to other pathogens, including those responsible for malaria, tuberculosis or diarrhoeal diseases in young children.

A blood donor since 2018, Alfred Ndapanda had always considered his donations part of being a good citizen. But last year, the act hit closer to home than ever.

Like many countries, Senegal has seen a spike in social media usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. Eighty-two per cent of all Senegalese have a smartphone, and 58% are regular internet users.