In the last nine months, COVID-19 has proved to be unlike any other outbreak the world has seen in the past century. Its impact is beyond health and is expected to last years – if not more. We saw first-hand how ill-prepared we were to deal with the pandemic. Even countries like USA and […]
Category: BMJ Global Health
COVID-19 guidelines for reopening schools: policy considerations for children with special education needs
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significant consequences on all aspects of society and greatly impacts health and education systems worldwide. A recent article in the Lancet evaluates the measures necessary to prevent a second COVID-19 wave in the United Kingdom (UK) and explains that easing of physical distancing, including reopening of schools, […]
Building Back Better – a new hybrid approach to neglected tropical diseases in the COVID-19 era
COVID-19 established its foothold in Africa in April 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued interim guidance which encourage neglected tropical disease (NTD) elimination programmes to temporarily suspend community-based activities where COVID-19 transmission had begun. Governments responded and interventions, including population-based surveys, mass drug administration (MDA), and active case finding, were soon suspended. This […]
How COVID-19 Fractured Medical Aid Delivery
COVID-19 has fundamentally changed our understanding of many aspects of health care, and offers us a different lens through which to view medical humanitarianism. The pandemic has had a significant impact on medical aid; going beyond the obvious financial implications of an economic crisis and extending to personnel, supplies, and disease control. Foreign-aid budget […]
Africa Amid Growing Vaccine Nationalism
Among potential vaccines on clinical trials for the SARS-CoV-2 virus globally, the Ox1CoV-19 VIDA-Trials in Johannesburg is the sole candidate in Africa – a collaboration between Oxford University and University of Witswatersrand. This is worrisome despite capacities to conduct clinical trials in other countries including Senegal, Egypt and Algeria. Determined to increase this number, […]
The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on BAME communities in the UK: An urgent research priority
COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting people from ethnic minorities in the UK and other high‑income countries, exposing longstanding inequalities for minority and marginalised communities. These disparities have been particularly evident in the UK, where Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. An official inquiry commissioned by the UK […]
Historic Economic Downfalls and Cancer Care: The forecast post-COVID
The coronavirus pandemic, a global fight we have not seen since the previous century, undoubtedly has resulted in disastrous effects on the UK and global economy. On 12th August, the UK economy declared an official recession for the first time in 11 years as the economy shrank by 20.4%, the biggest reduction ever seen. […]
COVID-19 in Kenya: 150 days of learning
How does one fight an invisible, insidious, and all but intractable foe worth 30 kb in size? In Kenya, the hundred and fiftieth day of COVID-19 passed on 9th August 2020, nine months after the virus manifested itself in the Chinese province of Wuhan. The pandemic has brought forth some key learnings in the […]
How contextual issues are jeopardising the COVID-19 response in Mali ?
On 25 March 2020, Mali reported its first imported cases of COVID-19. To curb the spread of the disease, the government had quickly introduced a series of initiatives. These were shutting down borders, imposing a nationwide curfew, closing schools, and establishing a call center to report suspected COVID-19 cases and acquire health information. People […]
Saving lives from COVID-19 is everyone’s responsibility
In the past 6 months, scientists and researchers across the globe have made astonishing progress in advancing the development of vaccines for COVID-19. We are also getting much closer to finding effective treatment options. In clinical development terms, the pace of these efforts is unprecedented, with multiple promising vaccine candidates in or near the […]