Kenya to Host East Africa Center for Disease Control

After a successful capacity assessment conducted by experts from various international health bodies such as World Health Organization (WHO), African Union (AU), US CDC and China CDC, Kenya has been selected to host the Eastern Africa Regional Collaborating Center of the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This was disclosed by the Health Ministry in a statement earlier this month.

According to the statement, the Africa CDC intends to use this center to monitor and address public health issues in the region as well as to monitor the response to and handling of emergencies and outbreaks within the region.

Kenya is said to have earned hosting rights because of the strength of it's disease surveillance systems and how it was engaged in sending health experts to Liberia and Sierra-Leone during the Ebola epidemic.

There will be a formal endorsement of Kenya to function in her new capacity by the Heads of state during the African Union (AU) summit. Other regional collaborating centers of Africa CDC are: Egypt, Gabon, Nigeria and Zambia.

Also included in the statement was the fact that, “The award is expected to strengthen the country’s health systems by enhancing disease surveillance capacity in terms of infrastructure and human resources, disease outbreak alert systems as well as improve laboratory capacity.”

This is a positive and commendable development and the health sector of Kenya is sure to experience a boost as a result of this.
 
Written By: Ozioma Paul

Ebola - like disease in South Sudan

In past weeks, an Ebola-like disease has hit South-Sudan and has claimed at least 10 lives. The mysterious South-Sudan fever is said to have symptoms similar to Ebola such as bleeding, fatigue and vomiting. However, laboratory tests so far have proven that it is not Ebola and the World health Organization has reported that unlike Ebola, these symptoms quickly disappear when the patients are treated effectively. Other observations and investigations have also revealed that this fever does not seem to be transmissible from person to person as is common with the Ebola virus disease, the mode of transmission is still unclear.

According to the World Health organization (WHO), South Sudan has since last December reported that there have been about 51 reported cases of the “undiagnosed hemorrhagic fever syndrome”. 

All of these cases occurred in the northwest countries and the WHO stated that the spread of this disease to this part could very well be attributed to the North-South Sudan Border movement.This has become a source of serious concern to South Sudan and international health bodies.

Rohit Chitale, an epidemiologist with the United States-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) stated that: “the lab results are not consistent with the symptoms, and that is what is concerning.” Blood samples were taken to WHO laboratories from South Sudan for further tests and reports have shown that although some of these blood samples tested positive to mosquito-borne viruses, none of them tested positive to Ebola or Zika Virus. This leaves the cause of the deaths still unexplained. Further laboratory tests are on-going to reveal the causative agent.

Written By: Ozioma Paul

UN Health Agency launches Program for Outbreaks and Humanitarian Emergencies

The member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) have at the 69th World Health Assembly (Geneva, 2016) reached an agreement to establish a new Health Emergency Program. The assembly which holds every May is attended by delegations from all of the World Health Organization’s member states. Health, financial, and operational policies of the health agency are created or renewed at this gathering.

This new programme is designed to complement and improve upon the health agency’s traditional roles with operational capabilities for outbreak and humanitarian emergencies. The World Health Organization also stated in a news release that the program is designed to equip communities, countries and regions with rapid and comprehensive support in avoidance, recovery and management of disasters, disease outbreaks, and other emergencies.

Under this new programme, while the director-general is to have ultimate authority, the responsibilities of the executive director include overseeing: strategic planning, staff and partner relations, program budget and risk and performance monitoring. The regional directors are also responsible for day to day management of emergencies, partner and intergovernmental relations and enforcing programme standards.

According to the WHO, there has already been financial support for the new program from some member states: Australia, Germany, Japan and Sweden.
With the 130 million people in need of humanitarian assistance worldwide, this agreement by the member states serves as a huge encouragement for the WHO. The director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan welcomed this development as she stated: “I particularly welcome the contribution of $50 million from the government of Japan, a sign of confidence in our new Health Emergencies Programme from a long-standing supporter of WHO’s work for emergencies.”

The member states’ delegates have agreed to a budget of $494 million for the 2016/2017 programme to help fulfill their new responsibilities. This is an increase of $160 million to the already existing budget for WHO’s emergencies work.  

WHO also reported that since February, several components of this new programme have already been used.  A major example according to Peter Graaff, the director of WHO’s Emergency Operations and Ebola Response is when $500 million was released to kick start operations within 24 hours of Dr. Chan’s declaration of Zika epidemic as a public health emergency concern.

This new programme is more standardized and is set to bring significant change in the World Health Organization’s handling of emergencies.

Written By: Ozioma Paul

WHO CONFIRMS ZIKA VIRUS IN AFRICA

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the Regional Director of World health Organization (WHO) for Africa has confirmed the spread of Zika virus in Africa.

The disease is caused by a certain breed of mosquito known as Aedes mosquitoes, it has been linked with microcephaly (a fetal brain abnormality in which babies are born with small brains). Some of the symptoms include mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, malaise or headache and these symptoms often last for 2 to 7 days.

WHO stated that for the first time scientists were able to confirm the spread of the Asian spread of the virus in Cape Verde. Dr. Anna Checkly of the University College London Hospitals also stated that: “There has been an outbreak of the Zika Virus Infection in Cape Verde since October 2015, and today the World Health Organization confirmed that it is the Asian, rather than the African strain of the virus that is causing these infections.” Tests have proven that this Asian strain is the same one said to be responsible for the birth anomalies recorded in Brazil.  Dr. Checkly also warned that the Asian strain of the virus which was confirmed in Africa by the WHO is probably more infectious to humans than the African strain.

As stated by the Global Health Agency, In Cape Verde there has been over 7000 suspected cases and 180 pregnant women have been infected with the virus. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has also stated that already three babies have been born with microcephaly.

Dr. Moeti has implored Africans Countries to increase awareness of the virus among pregnant women. She also advised that travellers protect themselves from mosquito bites although she said she would not recommend any strict travel restrictions.

There is currently no vaccine or specific treatment available to cure this disease. Hence, the best form of prevention and protection available is protection against mosquito bites.

Written by: Ozioma Paul

At the 2016 Unite for Sight Global Health and Innovation Conference in Yale Connecticut

16th to 17th April 2016 was a beautiful weekend with the perfect spring like weather in the downtown New Haven area of Connecticut.

The great Shubert theater alongside other historic venues hosted the Unite for sight 2016 Global Health and Innovation conference.

I was privileged to listen to seasoned speakers give talks on health and technology and to attend the social impact lab (early stage ideas), which featured innovators working to improve the quality of life of people everywhere and especially that of the developing world populace. $10,000 and $2,000 awards were given to qualifying participants of the health innovation competition.

Many sessions were centered on innovations and technology, data, global health, work in Africa and the developing world at large.
 
Challenges such as the need to improve maternal and child health in Haiti, tackling obstetric fistula in Africa, HPV vaccination, cataract eye surgeries, improving access to safe surgeries in resource constrained settings, malaria and mHealth, universal health coverage, challenges with nutrition at different levels (to mention a few) were discussed at the sessions.

The take home point for me, and one of the main highlights of the conference was the emphasis on the creation and development of innovative solutions to address the health and development challenges experienced both in the developed and in the developing world.

Bobby Jefferson, the director, center development informatics, Palladium made it clear that there are funding opportunities available for innovations and especially in Africa. In his talk titled "Innovations in mHealth: lessons from the field," he spoke of the several innovations in sub Saharan Africa that he and his team have been involved with and discussed various ways to improve the adoption of innovative solutions and minimize cost on the journey to establishing the innovation solutions.

Other sessions centered on sustainable development and the climate change agenda were also held.

Participating in the 13th annual Unite for sight conference was educative, informative and magnified the rays of hope for sustainable solutions and development for Africa and the developing world.
It was nice to know that we are not alone in the quest for development within the African health terrain. It was also great to meet with and see so many great minds working to ensure development in the most impoverished regions of the world.

Keep up the good work!

The Ebola virus outbreak is no longer an emergency!!!

The 9th meeting of the Ebola emergency committee organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) Director­ - General under the International Health Regulations (IHR) concerning the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa took place on the 29th of March 2016. It was said at the meeting that the Ebola virus situation in West Africa is no longer a public health emergency of International concern. Hence, the suspension of the temporary recommendations adopted in its response.

The Director - General of the committee alluded to the fact that the meeting advised him that the Ebola situation in West Africa no longer constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International concern. He further reiterated that a cluster of new Ebola cases and deaths have been reported in Guinea and involve a single chain of transmission. In the committee’s view, the affected country(ies) have the required capacity and capability to manage the flare ups. 

He further said that experts on Ebola noted during the meeting that the Ebola response capacity in West Africa is strong. 

Also in anticipation of further flare ups, the committee has kept hundreds of its experienced staff ready to contribute to the kind of emergency response needed to interrupt the transmission chains.

Indeed this is great news! However, the West African community must maintain the capacity and readiness to prevent, detect and respond to any ongoing transmission or flare up of new cases in the future.

Meanwhile, in Liberia, a flare up of Ebola cases is being attended to by the Liberian health authorities. This latest flare up of Ebola in Liberia has been traced to a woman who arrived in Liberia from Guinea on the 21st of March 2016 after her husband supposedly died from unknown causes in Guinea.

Written By: Jimoh Waliu

HUGE DAMAGE CAUSED BY RAINSTORM IN GHANA – 200 PEOPLE DISPLACED

The rains are here again. In some West African countries, the effect of the rains is already being felt by the people even though the rainy season is not yet in full swing.

In Ghana, on Monday, about 200 people were displaced due to the heavy rainstorm that lasted for about an hour at Atomfourso, near Seekwa, in Tain district of Brong Ahafo. The rains came with strong wind and a total number of thirty four houses were destroyed entirely.
The district coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Mr. David Amankwah confirmed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), describing the damage done as “huge”.
Appeals are being made by various stakeholders that mobilization of relief support be made for the affected parties.
The chief of the town, Nana Ekye Nsowah-Adjei highlighted poverty in the region as a principal player in the incident. The residents of the locality generally find it difficult to build sturdy cement - block houses, and this lack of well built homes continually puts the people and their houses at risk whenever there is a rainstorm.
He has joined in the call for help from various quarters, such as from the government and from other well intentioned non-governmental bodies and has suggested to the department of Rural Housing on the need for governmental assistance in designing strong low-cost houses in the region that can withstand occurrences such as this. He also added that only qualified builders with the needed requisite skills should be engaged in the construction of the buildings.

In recent times, neighbouring Nigeria has also had records of flooding in some major cities. It seems as though West African communities fail to adequately prepare for the heavy rains which occur annually at nearly every rainy season.

Efforts are being made by governmental bodies, to scale up weather forecasting and prepare the residents of likely future flood locations ahead of the rains. International bodies such as UNICEF have started synergizing and mobilizing Nigerians that are located in the flood prone regions for an effective flood response.

Written By: Ozioma Paul