Feature Stories

Fast-spreading misinformation online is hard to measure, but the 10 organizations and 10 African fact-checking groups that make up the Africa Infodemic Response Alliance are working to track and debunk dangerous myths on the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines. 

Around 7.7 million African children missed out on vital first doses of Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis, Measles and Polio vaccines in 2020. The nearly 10% rise in missed vaccinations on the previous year in Africa was driven by disruptions to health services by the COVID-19 pandemic, new data by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World health Organization (WHO) show.

Ghana’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been hailed as exemplary for its planning, speed and high-level leadership, but dig a little deeper and there are yet more crucial lessons in working with far-flung communities and building up trust in the vaccines. 

Lagos – When Zainab Olowoyo got COVID-19, she was one of thousands of people residing in the populous Lagos State whose case was not severe enough for her to be sent to the nearest isolation unit. Instead, Olowoyo received hospital-level care in her own home through a Home-Based Care programme implemented by the state government in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). She had a smooth recovery and was cleared of the virus within 10 days.

A public health professional with an MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr Fiona Braka has worked for World Health Organization (WHO) for the past 18 years supporting countries, including her native Uganda, Ethiopia and Nigeria, to build capacity to deliver vaccines. She is now bringing her vast experience in polio eradication and broader immunization to support the continent’s fight against disease outbreak emergencies and humanitarian crises.

Constane Sigu was watching television at home one evening in Bulawayo in southwest Zimbabwe when the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s (MoHCC) advertisement for its new Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine (TCV) campaign caught her attention. 

The Paz Flor mall is usually packed with shoppers browsing for bargains or sitting down to enjoy a meal, but as Angola’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccines ramps up, the vibrant space in the nation’s capital has been converted to serve up life-saving vaccines.

With over 20 years of experience in mass immunization drives and rapid-response planning across Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) Immunization Officer Dr Messeret Shibeshi is aiding 20 East and Southern African countries in rolling out life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.

It is a quiet morning at an Ebola treatment centre in the outskirts of N’zerekore, a town in the south-east of Guinea. The centre’s triage and reception areas are all empty, and medical staff are relaxed and jovial as they tend to a small handful of patients or catch up on some administrative tasks in the office.