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 […]
Category: COVID-19
Hospital-based care for newborns in Malawi: Staying the course for improved outcomes amid COVID-19
As a paediatrician and head of the Department of Paediatrics at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) in Lilongwe, Malawi, my focus is improving care for newborns and children in our hospital and supporting the referring districts. My colleagues and I remain committed to caring for small and sick newborns during the COVID-19 pandemic despite the additional […]
Ghana during COVID-19 : Reflections on Social Capital in Community Participation
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the newly emergent coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, has hit Ghana with full blown community transmission to the shock of many policy makers. Effective measures to reduce the transmission of the virus require active support from the population. Ghana’s COVID-19 response plan takes a comprehensive cross-sectoral approach, based on […]
“I can’t breathe” in Kurdistan: Oxygen shortage & COVID-19
On the early hours of June 10th, a nine-year-old boy from Kifri in Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) died from apparent respiratory distress. His family told media outlets that the district general hospital he was taken to did not have enough oxygen supplies to save his life. They also claimed that his father had to […]
COVID-19 in northern Uganda: Resistance, defiance and hospitalising asymptomatic cases
Northern Uganda is emerging from a prolonged civil war which lasted about two decades[1]. During this period many people were killed by the warring groups and the state army, displaced from their livelihood, infrastructure such as hospitals[i][ii]were destroyed[iii]. During this civil war in 2000-2001 that Gulu district had an experience with a plague caused […]
COVID-19 Testing in the Philippines: Enhancing Testing Productivity
The Philippines moved quickly to expand COVID-19 testing capacity, but much of this new capacity remains idle. Emphasis must now shift to increasing productivity, particularly by improving the flow of samples to the laboratories. Preceding entry: Scaling Up Capacity for COVID-19 Testing in the Philippines When the first COVID-19 case was detected in […]
Economic Warfare is Fuelling a Pandemic: US Sanctions to Iran during COVID-19
In March 2020, to the dismay of the public health community, the US government imposed a series of fresh economic sanctions on entities trading with Iran. This is only six days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak “a global pandemic”. While sanctions can have negative effects on population health in times of relative stability, they pose a serious threat to global health […]
COVID-19 and Convalescent Plasma: when compassion and ethics are in conflict.
“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” – Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784), English Author, Poet and Writer. The current pandemic of COVID19 came upon the world suddenly. With little knowledge about SARS CoV2, armed with only with some selected data, extrapolated from SARS, MERS, the world […]
The COVID-19 tracking apps ecosystem unraveled: critical issues for global health
In March and April 2020, an ecosystem of tracing apps suddenly emerged, presenting digital solutions as indispensable for winning the battle against Covid-19. A few months later, the techno-optimism has subsided drastically, ranging from a perception that apps are problematic surveillance tools (Russia, Bahrain and Kuwait) or ineffective (Singapore, France and Iceland) to the […]
COVID-19 : Une nécessité de revaloriser la première ligne des soins Entre détection et protection au Centre de Santé Tshamilemba, Lubumbashi, République Démocratique du Congo
Click here to read the English Version of the COVID-19 in Africa Blog La pandémie de Covid-19 continue à ravager et sévir des populations dans le monde et plus particulièrement en Afrique, y compris la République Démocratique du Congo. Le gouvernement de la République Démocratique du Congo s’est jusque maintenant employé dans la mise en […]