Paris, France | AFP | Researchers want to know everything about the latest coronavirus, from its mortality rate to its origins, incubation period and much more, and they still have blanks to fill in. – Mortality rate? – COVID-19, as the disease is known, is more lethal than the average …
Read More »WHO sounds alarm over Africa coronavirus preparedness
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | AFP | The World Health Organization warned Saturday that African health systems were ill-equipped to respond to the deadly coronavirus outbreak should cases start to proliferate on the continent. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on African Union member states “to come together to be …
Read More »Discovery of a new HIV strain
What it means for the pandemic | LINDA-GAIL BEKKER | The discovery of a rare new strain of HIV for the first time in nearly 20 years recently made headlines around the world. The big question is what the discovery means for the overall response to the HIV epidemic. A …
Read More »CHINA: The only thing to fear is fear itself, not the virus
Travel restrictions on China fuelling ‘panic:’ ambassador Brussels, Belgium | AFP | Travel restrictions imposed on China over its virus outbreak COVID-19 are only fuelling “panic” and threatening attempts to resume business, the country’s ambassador to the EU warned on Tuesday. Envoy Zhang Ming also told a media conference in …
Read More »First coronavirus case in Africa recorded in Egypt
Cairo, Egypt | AFP | Egypt’s health ministry on Friday confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus, making it the first in Africa. The nationality of the person was not given in the joint statement with the population ministry, which added that they had shown no “symptoms”. Authorities have …
Read More »Top scientists convene to slow coronavirus spread
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Deaths from the coronavirus epidemic have surpassed 1,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last night, as hundreds of health experts began meeting at its headquarters in Geneva to help halt the spread of the disease, now officially known as COVID-19. Records indicate that the …
Read More »WHO warns of ‘very grave’ global virus threat
Geneva, Switzerland | AFP | The head of the World Health Organization on Tuesday warned the novel coronavirus was a “very grave threat” for the world as he opened a conference to combat the epidemic. “With 99% of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, …
Read More »From Singapore to UK via the Alps: how one man spread coronavirus
Paris, France | AFP | A British man managed to pass on the coronavirus to at least 11 other people without ever setting foot in the epicentre of the outbreak in China, in an infectious journey that shows how the deadly virus can spread rapidly around a globalised world. …
Read More »GDP and improved health
How sustained economic growth influences health through nutrition and better living conditions THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | In this column last week I argued that economic growth, in spite of its many limitations, remains the most important driver of improved wellbeing. A key measure of wellbeing is …
Read More »Infant sues Dr Agarwal’s eye hospital for medical negligence
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital has been sued by an infant who lost his sight after wrong diagnosis of his condition and alleged negligence. In a suit filed before the Civil Division of High Court in Kampala, the boy, through his mother Margaret Nabbona contends that …
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