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This World Health Day, World Health Organisation (WHO) is calling on everyone to participate in building a fairer, healthier world. Matshidiso Moeti The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on inequalities between countries. Amid shortages of essential supplies, African countries have been pushed to the back of the queue in accessing COVID-19 test kits, personal protective equipment and now vaccines. Of the 548 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered worldwide, Africa only had 11 million or 2%, whereas the continent accounts for around 17% of the global population. There are also inequities within countries. Discrimination based on gender, place of residence, income, educational level, age, ethnicity and disability disadvantage vulnerable populations. Recent data from 17 African countries show, for example, that a person with secondary school education is three times as likely to have access to contraception as someone who has not attended school. Those in the highest economic quintile are five times more likely to deliver their babies in health facilities and have their babies vaccinated with BCG compared to those in the lowest quintile. To improve this situation, we need to act on the social and economic determinants of health, by working across sectors to improve living and working conditions, and access to education, particularly for the most marginalised groups. Communities need to be engaged as partners, through their networks and associations, to shape and drive health and development interventions. A key challenge in overcoming inequities is that there is limited data showing who is being missed and why. To address this, national health information systems need to capture age, sex and equity stratified data. This information can then be used to inform decision and policy-making. At WHO, we are working with countries to strengthen capacities to collect, manage and use data, and to enhance monitoring and action to address avoidable inequities. In the past year we have disseminated technical guidance on gender, equity and COVID-19 and trained 30 country teams in gender and health equity integrated programming. The teams are using skills gained to support equitable health response, including to deal with gender-based violence in the context of COVID-19. Investment is also needed to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage, to protect individuals from financial hardship in accessing needed care and to improve service coverage. Most African countries have initiated reforms in these areas believing that these reforms will in turn contribute to building more resilient health systems and societies. Moving forward, leaders need to work together to address inequities in their own countries and abroad in the spirit of international solidarity. Specifically, on COVID-19 vaccines, we strongly encourage pharmaceutical companies to expand their manufacturing capacities to overcome current supply shortages. We also encourage wealthy countries to share their doses with poor ones, so that the most-at-risk popula
A November 26 letter from the presidency asked the head of Uganda's national drug authority to 'work out a mechanism' to clear the importation of the vaccines.
China has about five COVID-19 vaccine candidates at different levels of trials. It was not clear what vaccine was being imported into Uganda.
One of the frontrunners is the Sinopharm vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Product, a unit of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG).
On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates said the vaccine has 86% efficacy, citing an interim analysis of late-stage clinical trials.
China has used the drug to vaccinate up to a million people under its emergency use program.
On Tuesday, Morocco said it was ordering up to 10 million doses of the vaccine.
Record cases
Uganda on Monday registered 701 new COVID-19 cases, the highest-ever daily increase, bringing its national count to 23,200.
The new cases were out of the 5,578 samples tested for the novel coronavirus over the past 24 hours, the country's health ministry said in a statement.
Tuesday's tally was 606, the second-highest ever number of new infections, bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the east African country to 23,860.
Health authorities have blamed ongoing election campaigns which have drawn huge crowds for the rise in infections.
An Eco-Friendly Manufacturing Plant is Turning Plastic into Bricks
After Kenya imposed a ground-breaking law in 2017 on the use, manufacturing and import of plastic bags as part of global efforts to limit plastic waste, four engineers in Nairobi saw an opportunity in the estimated 500 tonnes of plastic waste the city generates daily and founded Gjenge Makers — a company that recycles plastic bottle tops and cooking oil containers into environmentally friendly bricks. Nzambi Matee, a co-founder of Gjenge Makers, explains how it came about.
\"So we started by collecting plastic waste and selling it to recyclers. That was in 2017, and then we realised three to six months later that we were collecting more waste than we could sell, than the recyclers could absorb. So that's when we decided what more we could do with the remaining plastic, as a value-added aspect, to see if we could put a product on the market using the plastic waste, and that's how we started making the paving stones\".
Grey pavers sell for around 8 euros per square meter, while coloured pavers sell for around 10 euros.
Matee describes the logic behind the ecologically-sound operation, \" Once the manufacturers package the soft drinks, or whatever product they are packaging, once the consumer finishes with that product, they have nowhere else to take it other than the litter box. And so, with that, we decided why don't we create a plug where instead of having the plastic to go the dumpsite, we intercept it on the way, and hence we started the making business.\"
The waste is then crushed into small pellets, sorted according to colour, mixed with sand and the desired colour pigment — before being taken onto the production line where they are moulded and put into a hydraulic press.
Ann Muthoni, the Programme Coordinator at Mukuru Slums Development Projects, shares some inside information, \"We had used the ballast before, but most of the trainees were complaining the ballast was damaging their shoes, so the Gjenge pavers, we find them very friendly. Walking on them feels like you are walking on rubber*
Gjenge Makers can currently produce up to 1,500 bricks a day with homeowners and schools as clients.
The West Dumping Plastic Waste in Africa
Although many African countries are making an effort to overcome the pressing issue of plastic waste, their efforts are often thwarted — as many countries in the Western world have used many nations in Africa as their plastic waste dumîng ground.
In April, the American Chemistry Council (ACC) - whose members include Shell, Exxon, Total, DuPont and Dow, companies already guilty of polluting many rivers in Africa via oil drilling and oil spills, proposed investments in recycling in Kenya with a catch.
The recycling investment deal is one only provided that the recipient country accepts US plastic waste i.e. Kenya would get about 500 million tonnes of plastic waste exports from the US per year.
Plastic But Not a Superficial Issue
According to a 2018 United Nations (UN) report, an esti
Sandra Lindsay, the critical care nurse from Queens who was the first in the US to receive the COVID-19 vaccine is now also the first in the country to receive a second dose and be fully vaccinated against the bug.
Document - Summary:
Throughout the course of the past year, we’ve seen the profiles of HBCUs continue to escalate, as everyone fromChris PaultoPharrell Williams(to evenPeyton Manning) has made it their mission to support the next generation of Black royalty. And ever eager to put on for the culture […]
The post Michael B. Jordan Puts on for the Culture With Basketball Tournament for HBCUs appeared first on The New York Beacon.
KENYA IS the last country in East Africa to reopen schools for students after closing...
The post Schools in Kenya reopen after nine-month COVID-19 closure appeared first on Voice Online.
