Category: Health Services

The U.N. Children’s Fund warns at least 33,000 severely malnourished children in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region face imminent death if they do not receive immediate help to treat their condition.

UNICEF is appealing to the Ethiopian government to live up to its promise of unimpeded access to conflict-ridden Tigray province. Agency spokesman James Elder warns this man-made disaster will have unimaginably tragic consequences for thousands of children if aid agencies are unable to reach them.

“Incredulously, things can actually deteriorate further for children as food insecurity is expected to worsen over the coming months. So, we risk many more deaths than the 33,000 that we fear if crops cannot be planted. So, it is imperative that parties to the conflict ensures humanitarian access to UNICEF and unimpeded and safe access on the ground to stave off widespread famine," he said.

UNICEF reports at least 140,000 people in Tigray are facing famine-like conditions. Amid this crisis, it projects some 56,000 children will need treatment for severe acute malnutrition. This, it notes is almost six times higher than the average annual caseload for the region.

Elder said helping these children will be difficult. He said the warring parties have inflicted extensive damage to essential systems and services on which children depend for their survival.

He said health facilities have been looted or damaged, and water infrastructure has been destroyed, causing safe drinking water to be in short supply. This, he warns could lead to outbreaks of disease, putting malnourished children at even greater risk of dying.

He said health workers have been attacked and harassed, discouraging many from returning to work.

“Mobile health and nutrition teams need to be able to do their jobs safely. They are trying right now as we speak to do upcoming measles, polio, vitamin A nutrition campaigns. Remember, it is not just the lack of food that kills under-fives, it is other diseases, water and sanitation,” said Elder.

UNICEF is calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities so children can safely receive the lifesaving services they need to begin to rebuild their lives. It says it also needs the cash to be able to fund these services.

The UN children’s agency says it is $13 million short of the $47 million it needs to care for 1.3 million children, many of whom are struggling to survive.

Source: Voice of America

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has delayed plans to lift coronavirus restrictions by a month because of the highly contagious Delta variant, first identified in India.

Johnson said on Monday that restrictions will now be lifted on July 19 instead of June 21.

"I think it is sensible to wait just a little longer," he told a news conference in London.

Johnson said he is confident that the country will be able to reopen on July 19, noting that by then two-thirds of the British population are expected to be fully vaccinated.

"It’s unmistakably clear the vaccines are working, and the sheer scale of the vaccine rollout has made our position incomparably better than in previous waves,” he said.

On Monday, the British government reported 7,742 new confirmed coronavirus cases, and Johnson said cases are growing by about 64% per week.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus now accounts for 90% of new cases in Britain.

In other countries

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is reintroducing a lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of a COVID-19 outbreak.

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said in a televised speech this weekend that complacency has resulted in a spike in COVID-19 cases.

In India, a number of states eased coronavirus restrictions on Monday, including the capital Delhi, as the number of new infections dropped to the lowest level in 74 days. The country reported 70,421 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24-hour period, the lowest since March 31.

Public health officials have cautioned that India’s tolls may be undercounted.

Novavax trials

Also Monday, U.S.-based biotech company Novavax announced that Phase 3 clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine show it more than 90% effective at preventing the disease and providing good protection against variants.

The Novavax vaccine, which is easy to store and transport, is expected to play an important role in boosting vaccine supplies in the developing world.

The White House’s top adviser on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told The Washington Post the vaccine is “really very impressive,” saying it is on par with the most effective shots developed during the pandemic.

Vaccination requirement lawsuit

A federal judge in the U.S. state of Texas on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit challenging a hospital’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement for its employees.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes in the Southern District of Texas wrote that the employees of Houston Methodist Hospital “are not participants in a human trial.” He said, “Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the Covid-19 virus.”

According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the United States has had the highest number of coronavirus cases, at 33.5 million, followed by India, with 29.5 million coronavirus infections, and Brazil, with 17.4 million COVID-19 cases.

Source: Voice of America

International Albinism Awareness Day on June 13 has been observed in Cameroon, with albinos asking for more government and community care and protection. Those living with this hereditary genetic condition that reduces melanin pigment in skin, hair and eyes, say stigma, violence, superstition and killing have greatly lessened, but abuses have not been eliminated.

One hundred and sixty albinos and their family members assembled at the World Association for Advocacy and Solidarity of Albinos office in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, to mark International Albinism Awareness Day.

Among them is 16-year-old albino Ronald Essi, who said he was abandoned because of his condition.

Essi said he wants to become a police officer to defend his country Cameroon and punish civilians who abuse albinos' rights. He said his mother abandoned him when he was two years old. He said his grandmother resisted family pressure to kill him. He said he has been living in the streets since 2015, when his grandmother died.

Essi said a Catholic priest rescued him from the street and sent him to a school in Yaoundé.

Essi is one of the about 2,200 albinos the government says live in Cameroon.

This year Cameroon reported that prejudice and discrimination against albinos in employment and social life had lowered drastically. The government said hunting down albinos for their body parts has been eliminated from many communities.

Witch doctors who claim that albinos bring wealth and good luck to people who have access to their body parts are disappearing. In many communities, albino babies are no longer considered signs of misfortune and buried alive or starved until they die.

Jean-Jacques Ndoudoumou, the founding president of the World Association for Advocacy and Solidarity of Albinos, says albinos are gradually being accepted by communities.

He said the association he leads is happy, as people are increasingly accepting albinos as normal human beings. He said many albinos have graduated from universities and are using the knowledge they acquire to contribute to developing Cameroon. He said complaints of stigma and violence on albinos have greatly declined and there are now marriages between albinos and people without the condition.

Ndoudoumou said his association has instructed all its members to continue teaching people albinos are normal human beings who need special assistance.

Gregoire Amindeh is member of The Association for the Promotion of the Rights of Albinos.

Amindeh said that although Cameroon’s government has done a lot, albinos still urgently need special reading glasses and handheld magnifiers to stop their high school dropout rate from low vision. He said they need subsidies to be treated in hospitals since their skin is extremely sensitive to the sun and can develop cancer. He said skin cancers remain a major cause of death in African albinos.

Pauline Irene Nguene, Cameroon's minister of social affairs, says albinos are placed in the group of people with special protection needs. She said Cameroon ensures the socio-economic integration and protection of albinos, and immediately intervenes to protect albinos whenever cases of abuse are reported.

She said in 2020, staff of her ministry visited more than a hundred villages where abuses of the rights of albinos were reported. She said civilians in the villages were taught in their local languages to respect the health, education and social rights of albinos. She said the government has continued to lobby for private enterprises, schools and outside organizations not to reject albinos looking for positions in their institutions.

Nguene said 60 government offices created in Cameroon’s administrative units receive complaints and immediately help albinos in need.

International Albinism Awareness Day is observed by the United Nations on June 13 every year. This year's theme, “Strength Beyond All Odds,” according to the U.N. highlights the achievements of people with albinism all over the world.

Source: Voice of America

United Nations agencies are warning that tens of thousands of children in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray province are at risk of death from starvation and malnutrition-related illnesses because aid agencies cannot reach the region with humanitarian relief.

Conflict-ridden Tigray remains off-limits to United Nations and private aid agencies despite Ethiopian government promises they would have unfettered access to the region.

UNICEF spokesman James Elder told reporters Friday in Geneva the region is on the brink of famine, adding that, without immediate assistance, Tigray will face a crisis not seen in a decade.

“We are seeing more and more young children and babies slide dangerously close to sickness and potential death from malnutrition, so we have rung alarm bells and alarm bells and here we are now,” he said. “We now have the largest number of people classified as food-insecure in a decade since Somalia. And, as I say that, [there is the] very real risk of deaths of tens of thousands of children.”

An estimated quarter-million people died in the devastating 2010-2011 Somali famine, more than half of them children under the age of five. The United Nations says more than 350,000 people in Tigray are on the verge of famine. It warns an estimated 33,000 severely malnourished children in inaccessible areas are at high risk of death.

The World Health Organization says its teams and mobile health clinics are ready to go into Tigray and administer care but have been turned away by the warring parties.

WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said access to the region is key to tackling what she called a public health emergency.

“Malnourished children are more likely to contract ... any of the infectious diseases, and die of it, such as pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria and measles. Malaria and malnutrition is a lethal combination,” she said. “So, we are over 350 severe acute malnutrition cases among children under five years of age last week only. That was just last week, 18 of them with complications.”

Harris said the WHO is kicking off a cholera vaccination campaign Saturday, as the disease thrives during the rainy season, which begins this month. She said 4,000 people will be inoculated as a preventive measure as Tigray has had outbreaks in the past.

But the campaign’s success requires safe access by health workers, she added.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered troops into the region in November to neutralize leaders of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which ruled the continent’s second most populous country for nearly three decades.

Ahmed, recipient of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, said he sent troops to the area in response to TPLF attacks on federal army camps.

The prime minister promised the violence would be short-lived, but the fighting continues and atrocities such as rape are increasing.

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA - The World Food Program warns the food situation in northern Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region has reached catastrophic proportions and people are beginning to die.

The United Nations warns more than 350,000 people in Tigray are facing near famine-like conditions, and many will not survive without immediate humanitarian assistance.

UNICEF says 30,000 severely malnourished children are among those at risk of death.

Aid agencies are calling for unimpeded access to the region so they can prevent a man-made disaster from happening.

In March, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced humanitarian workers would have unfettered access to northern Ethiopia. However, World Food Program Emergency Coordinator Tommy Thompson says that has not taken place.

Speaking on a video link from Addis Ababa, he says he has come to the Ethiopian capital to persuade authorities to grant agencies the access and protection they need to help the Tigrayan people.

“It is an incredibly dangerous environment for us to all be working in and nine humanitarians have been killed thus far…So, we find ourselves faced often with enormous protection issues of providing assistance to beneficiaries, only to have those beneficiaries robbed violently in the night of the things that had been given to them," Thompson said. "So, it is a crisis that is going to continue unless there is an absolute sea change in attitude on the part of the government.”

Thompson says the WFP is scaling up its food operation in the region and aims to reach 2.6 million people in the next weeks—provided it can access the area. He says that depends on the Ethiopian government and on the Eritrean government as well.

“The Eritreans are the most egregious perpetrators of denial of access as well as other atrocities committed towards civilians," Thompson said. "So, that is a huge, huge problem for us. And having the withdrawal of the Eritrean forces would be a major bonus. But we still have acts committed by the Ethiopian Defense Forces as well as the Amhara militia, which are blocking us access to certain areas as well. So, there is plenty of blame to go around in this.”

Beyond the terrible realities on the ground, Thompson says funding also remains a big problem. He says the WFP needs $203 million to implement its humanitarian operations in Tigray this year. Of that amount, he says the WFP has an immediate shortfall of $70 million to expand its response in providing lifesaving food assistance to people in desperate need.

Source: Voice of America