Kilifi, Kenya – Amid the soft purr of the air conditioner and glinting LED screens, laboratory technicians inside a sprawling facility on the Kenyan coast peer into test tubes and pore through spreadsheets, hard at work to help propel Africa’s efforts to monitor and detect COVID-19 variants and boost pandemic response.
Read moreHarare – Nothando Moyo* contemplated giving up treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis “even if it meant I would die,” she admits. The months-long treatment for the drug-resistant strain—which does not respond to the two most effective drugs—entailed daily injections which Moyo, a resident of Zimbabwe’s Bulawayo city, found painful to bear.
Read moreAbidjan – When Cote d’Ivoire set to drive up COVID-19 uptake, a three-week mass vaccination campaign in February saw over 2 million people vaccinated, yielding an 8% rise in the number of people fully vaccinated. In a country with less than 20% vaccine coverage, the increase realized in a matter of weeks marks a significant progress.
Read moreNairobi – Although cancer care has improved significantly in many African countries over the past decade, challenges in prevention, detection and treatment services as well as financial hurdles are limiting access to quality and adequate care to millions of patients. Dr Miriam Mutebi, President Elect, African Organization for Research and training in Cancer describes the state of cancer care in Africa and how it can be improved.
Read moreLilongwe – Polio emergency response teams in Malawi are ramping up disease surveillance and deepening investigations after the country detected a case of wild poliovirus—the first of its kind in Africa since 2016. Determining the extent of the risk and searching for any further cases are among the crucial steps for an effective response to halt the virus and protect children from its debilitating impact.
Read moreKinshasa – It can be hard to tease apart fact from falsehood amid the distorted, oft-repeated COVID-19 stories. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a network of myth busters is on constant watch, tracking and addressing misinformation thanks to government efforts with support from World Health Organization (WHO) and partner organizations.
Read moreUntil recently, Cindy Frederic was among the less than 100 000 Mauritian adults still unvaccinated against COVID-19. Living with a COVID-19 comorbidity, she was anxious about how the vaccine might affect her health.
Read moreWhen Kenya’s Ministry of Health set its sights on reaching 10 million people with the COVID-19 vaccination by the end of 2021, many people like Lilian Anyango were not afraid of the myths circulating about the harm it could cause.
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