Trending
- Brace for High Interest Rates for a Longer Period World Bank Warns Kenya
- Kenya-Ethiopia Trade Relations: Legislators Advocate for Policy Alignment to Boost Ties
- Visualising the state of debt in Africa 2024
- Abu Dhabi radiates optimism as over 300 startups join AIM Congress 2024
- TLcom Capital Raises $154 million in Funding to Boost Its African Growth
- Africa’s $824Bn debt, resource-backed opaque loans slowing growth — AfDB
- LB Investment brings $1.2 trillion portfolio display to AIM Congress spotlight
- AmCham Summit kicks off, setting course for robust future of US-East Africa trade ties
Health
As Africa’s role in the global economy continues to garner prominence, it’s imperative for the continent to seal the gaping hole in its power supply.
Lack of universal power access remains a major roadblock that has retrogressed industrialization and socio-economic development. Statistics from the World Bank indicate that Africa remains the least electrified region in the world, with 568 million people lacking access to electricity.
The Bretton Woods institution, further notes that the Sub-Saharan Africa’s share of the global population without electricity, jumped to 77 per cent in 2020 from 71 per cent in 2018, whilst most regions saw declines in their share of access deficits. It has become a Hobson’s choice for African governments to prioritize the power sector, which is the epicenter of industrialization, working towards Goal 7 of the UN SDGs; which advocates for universal access to affordable, reliable and modern electricity services.
Currently, Africa’s power is …
Even though the EU delegates admitted that; “We recognised, everybody, does, that there is an unbearable vaccination gap that has to be closed … between Africa and Europe,” the diplomats still said no vaccine patent waiver for Africa.
Also, despite scientists warning of the possibility of new Covid variants developing in Africa and the fact that just 5 per cent of Africa has been inoculated, the EU still said no to easing vaccine access to Africa.
The African Union (AU) had expected some sought of EU backing for targeted and time-limited Trips Waiver on vaccines. Trips stand for: Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual-Property Rights and a waiver would have made it affordable for Africa to produce the vaccines in Africa.…
According to SOS Children’s Villages, 3.2 million children under the age of five die every year because of hunger and drought in Africa. In other words, more than half the children who die of hunger-related causes come from the continent.
In the same breath, he said that there has also been inconsistency in the flow of funds to UNICEF to support humanitarian response.
UNICEF said more than 255,000 children received treatment for severe wasting in Somalia last year. On Tuesday, January 2022, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the widespread drought in the Horn of Africa has severely affected the country the most, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency in November.…
For the first time, Pfizer vaccines from the United States have landed in the country.
The country received 795,600 doses of the expected 1.4 million doses of Pfizer vaccine provided by the US Government.
Due to the nature of the Pfizer vaccines, they can only survive in extremely low temperatures which is minus 70
degrees. The government thus had to make prior arrangements with its partners to acquire ultra-cold storage and install it to maintain the quality of the vaccines.
To enable the use of Pfizer vaccines in Kenya, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has recently procured 12 ultra-low temperature freezers and accessories with funding from the Government of Japan.
The Pfizer vaccine is the 4th type of Covid-19 vaccine to be deployed in the country making an approximate number of doses received so far over into the country 6.3 million in their various assortments.
These vaccines will go a …
The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) has reaffirmed its commitment to the governments effort in combating the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement to newsrooms, KEPSA noted that it has been at the forefront in coordinating the private sector response and complementing the government’s efforts towards combating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, general health, and social wellbeing of Kenyans.
“We would like to affirm the government’s position, reiterated by the Health Cabinet Secretary Mr Mutahi Kagwe on private sector’s partnership through KEPSA on the vaccine initiative. We have partnered with the government through the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a bid to support the government in shouldering the burden of vaccinating Kenyans,” KEPSA noted.
This will accelerate the pace of vaccinations and get the country closer to herd immunity by the end of the year and get the economy to rebuild back better.
Also Read: KEPSA’s
…
Kenya and Uganda are among the countries selected for the Phase 1 clinical trial of an HIV vaccine. According to the Globally Relevant AIDS Vaccine Europe-Africa Trials Partnership (GREAT), the first dose will be given in Lusaka, Zambia while Kenya and Uganda will receive the vaccines in a few weeks.
Dr. William Kilembe, project director of the Center for Family Health Research in Zambia (CFHRZ) and trial principal investigator, said that international partnerships are crucial in developing and evaluating HIV vaccine candidates in countries and communities where HIV vaccines will ultimately have the greatest public health impact.
“CFHRZ is proud to be part of the consortium evaluating HIVconsvX and to deliver the first dose of this experimental HIV vaccine in the HIV-CORE 006 trial,” he said.
The trial will see 88 healthy, HIV-negative adults, aged 18-55, who are considered not to be at high risk of infection, receive one …
Kenya’s ministry of health has stepped up its efforts to fight the global pandemic by increasing the number of available vaccines in the country.
The country recently received more than 800,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 as the government pushes the campaign to get more people vaccinated.
The current target is to vaccinate at least 10 million people by December this year.
Is this achievable?
Going by an analysis by AMREF, the country plans to vaccinate 40 per cent of its population by the end of 2022. This translates to about 20 million people from a total population of 49 million.
The government has also revised its vaccine deployment plans. This has been made possible by the availability of multiple vaccines in the country.
The health ministry now plans to vaccinate at least 150,000 people each day before the end of September.
According to Health Principal Secretary Susan Mochache, the
Africa’s healthcare sector is on the verge of digital transformation.
This is according to a policy paper that indicates that while governments are accelerating formal digital health strategies, 41 out of 54 African countries have a digital health strategy in place.
Vodacom’s e-health policy paper also finds that consumers are dramatically increasing their engagement with digital health services via their smartphones. Official data forecasts that by 2025, smartphone reach in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by almost 70 percent.
The policy paper indicates that as a result of increased smartphone reach, informal use of digital healthcare solutions has increased, with 41 percent of internet users across Africa regularly using their mobile phones to search for health information.
Overall, the policy paper notes that there has been an exponential rise in the number of people engaging with digital health services through their smartphones, creating vast potential for countries to deliver access to …
Kenya’s Ministry of Devolution together with the Food and Agriculture Organization say the country requires at least US$87 million to ensure food security in all the 23 Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Counties, between August and December 2021.
In a statement, FAO says several interventions need to be done, at a time when the East African nation has been facing a myriad of challenges in the recent past including two desert locust invasions, the COVID-19 pandemic and poor rains that have resulted in food scarcity.
If sourced, the funding will be used for several interventions and cover various areas, among them provision of feed and supplements and livestock off-take and animal health services.
Additionally, FAO plans to provide drought-resistant seeds to farmers in the counties, as well as milling of staple commodities.
Other interventions include water trucking, rehabilitation and maintenance of water facilities, fuel subsidies for motorized boreholes and water …
