Day: August 26, 2022

In 2021, when the news of cancer hit, Nomina Akhtar felt her world collapsing. It was discovered too late. By the time she knew, it was already stage-3 breast cancer. Read more…

In June 2022, a team of technical experts including epidemiologists and virologists travelled to Afghanistan to review the country’s polio surveillance system, visiting 67 districts in 25 of the country’s 34 provinces. Dr Abdinoor Mohamed, an epidemiologist with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, was one of them. He tells us more.

This week, the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on immunization (SAGE) Polio Working Group convened at WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss policy options and will formulate recommendations for endorsement to the upcoming full SAGE meeting, on 3-6 October 2022.

Summary of new polioviruses this week:

– Pakistan: two WPV1 positive environmental samples

– Mozambique: one WPV1 case

– Central African Republic: two cVDPV2 positive environmental samples

– Chad: five cVDPV2 cases

– Djibouti: one cVDPV2 positive environmental sample

– Somalia: one cVDPV2 case and one positive environmental sample

– Yemen: 10 cVDPV2 cases

Source: Global Polio Eradication Initiative

Big name entertainment providers like Netflix, Showmax and Paramount have been meeting African content creators this week at the Fame Week Africa conference in South Africa. The three-day conference, which ended Friday, was billed as the continent’s premier business conference for the creative and cultural sectors.

A local government official who declined to be named said numerous deals were being concluded on the floor – and predicted that Fame Week Africa would put Cape Town on the world map in terms of film events.

Countries like the United States, Canada and Kenya had government representation there, while businesses in film, TV, animation, music and entertainment technology had cubicles set up in the Cape Town International Convention Center.

Bonolo Madisakwane, the content distribution executive for Paramount Africa, was sitting in one of them.

“Next week is going to be a very busy week for me and my programming team,” she said. "We have received a lot of screeners. I’m very, very hopeful."

She said Fame Week Africa was the biggest event of its kind in Africa since the COVID-19 lockdown and people have taken full advantage of it.

“Most of them I had pre-meetings already but quite a number of them, the minute they see me and I’ve got nobody sitting there with me, they just take a seat and they just pitch whatever it is that they want to pitch and they ask all the questions,” Bonolo said.

One man who was hoping to catch up with the likes of Bonolo was South African actor and social media influencer Ernest St. Clair, who has over 67,000 followers on Instagram. He stars in a new film, “2 Thirds of a Man.

“We shot this film in lockdown and it’s finally released and been picked up,” he said. “We are really hoping for it to be picked up by other channels like Showmax.”

Another participant, Canadian singer Domanique Grant, was there to promote her company that works with brands and artist management and development.

“We help to do everything from sponsoring vocal lessons to bringing them to major conferences so that they can get into the industry,” she said.

Having lived in Uganda, she’s also hoping to reach a wider African audience. She is also at the conference to promote her new album, “Queen/Dom.”

“‘Queen/Dom’ is about generational healing and self-love,” she said.

Jill Casserley, Africa sales manager for RX Global, which organized Fame Week Africa, said she believes there will be more events like this to come and that a lot of business was done at this one.

“I’m sure it will continue,” she said. “People are happy to be back to face-to-face meetings. I think they’re done with virtual markets.”

The event was sponsored by MIP Africa, the International Animation Festival, Muziki Africa, Media and Entertainment Solutions Africa and the city of Cape Town.

Source: Voice of America

Women in East and Southern Africa still die during pregnancy and childbirth due to preventable causes, said Dr. Brian Chirombo, WHO Rwanda Representative, at a high-level meeting to track progress on ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths.

High-impact interventions are needed “to ensure the provision of quality maternal and newborn health care, from pre-pregnancy, antenatal, labour and delivery, as well as postpartum and neonatal periods,” he said.

Significant progress has been made in improving the survival and health of pregnant women and newborns in the East and Southern Africa region. For instance, the maternal mortality ratio (MMR, or number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births) dropped by 49 per cent between 2000 and 2017. However, the MMR remains well above the global average, and the current pace of reduction is not enough to achieve the SDG targets by 2030.

About 77,000 women lose their lives in pregnancy and childbirth every year in the region, according to 2017 estimates by the UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group (MMEIG). For a 15-year-old girl, the probability of dying in her lifetime from maternal causes is 1 in 58, compared to 1 in 11,200 in Western Europe.

While the global neonatal mortality rate was 17 deaths per 1000, in sub-Saharan Africa the rate was 27 per 1000, according to the 2021 Trends in Child Mortality report. Of the 54 countries off track to meet the SDG target of less than 12 deaths per 1000 live births, 40 countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The global health agenda has shifted from a focus on reducing mortality to ensuring that all women, newborns, children and adolescents not only survive, but thrive and realize their rights to the highest attainable standards of health and well-being,” Dr. Chirombo said.

This paradigm shift requires greater investments in integrated initiatives, together with quality integrated reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) interventions that focus on health promotion, disease prevention and treatment.

Tracking progress

To support the implementation of evidence-based maternal and newborn health guidelines, the East and Southern Africa UN interagency team (UNICEF/WHO/UNFPA) organized a regional meeting in Kigali, Rwanda this month. Led by the H6 Eastern and Southern Africa Coordination Team (mainly UNICEF, WHO and UNFPA), the aim of the meeting was to track the progress of Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) and Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality (EPMM) Frameworks.

Many countries have developed policies on RMNCAH and implemented them at every level of the health system, in alignment with the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health 2016-2030 and setting targets towards achieving the SDGs.

The global ENAP, launched in 2014, provides a road map of strategic actions for ending preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths, and contributing to a reduction in complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

Countries shared their successful practices and challenges on universal health coverage, emergency obstetric care, midwifery and newborn health, as they work to accelerate progress on achieving the SDG targets. Opportunities were identified to scale up high-impact interventions in primary health care, from south-south cooperation to harnessing the power of innovation. This included using new digital technologies, such as portable ultrasound, e-learning and mentoring platforms, safe delivery apps and clinical decision support platforms.

Improving midwifery in East and Southern Africa

Midwives are key to reducing maternal and neonatal deaths, and improving their health and wellbeing. While the region has shown improvements in higher education for midwives and their career pathway, a shortage in the number of midwives remains. In addition, a few countries are falling behind in institutionalizing continuous professional development and re-licensing of midwives.

These critical points were discussed during a side meeting held by UNFPA on the State of the World’s Midwifery 2021 report for East and Southern Africa, attended by representatives of ministries of health and midwifery associations, and UNFPA midwifery experts.

Country experiences were shared on developing an enabling environment and equipping midwives with the skills and knowledge they need to ensure healthy pregnancies and safe births. Action plans were developed for improving the state of midwifery in their respective countries, where UNFPA will play a key role in providing technical support to implement these plans over the next two years. The plans included increasing the number of qualified midwives equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to help reduce maternal deaths and accelerate progress on achieving the SDGs.

Source: United Nations Population Fund

The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday that very few people in the United States have received a full series of monkeypox vaccinations.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the large majority of Americans who received a first dose of the vaccine have yet to get their second dose, despite being eligible.

She told a White House briefing Friday that nearly 97% of the inoculations administered so far have been first doses.

Walensky said that while the vaccine was initially hard to get, supplies have now increased.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed for the vaccine to be injected in smaller doses to help stretch supplies.

The Biden administration says it has shipped enough vaccines to jurisdictions around the United States for at least 1.6 million doses.

CDC data show that about 10% of monkeypox vaccine doses have been given to Black people despite the fact that they account for one-third of U.S. cases.

The rate was compiled from 17 U.S. states and two cities.

Walensky said the CDC has taken measures to make the vaccine more accessible to Blacks and other minorities. She said vaccines and educational materials will be available at two upcoming events — Atlanta's Black Pride festival and New Orleans’ Southern Decadence.

Walensky said the agency is starting to roll out such pilot projects and that "they are working."

Most cases of monkeypox in the United States have occurred in gay men, but health officials have stressed that anyone can catch the virus.

More than 16,000 people have been infected with the virus in the United States, more than in any other country.

Walensky noted that the spread of the virus is falling in several major U.S. cities.

"We're watching this with cautious optimism, and really hopeful that many of our harm-reduction messages and our vaccines are getting out there and working," she said.

Across the United States, cases of monkeypox are still increasing. However, officials say the pace of the outbreak appears to be slowing.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization said global cases of monkeypox dropped 21% in the past week.

The WHO said cases appeared to be slowing in Europe but warned that infections in the Americas were on "a continuing steep rise."

"In Latin America in particular, insufficient awareness or public health measures are combining with a lack of access to vaccines to fan the flames of the outbreak," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing.

Monkeypox has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades, but since May, cases have been reported around the world.

The virus is typically spread by skin-to-skin contact with an infected person's lesions. It can also be spread through contact with an infected person's clothing or sheets.

Source: Voice of America