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Health
- Madagascar man freed from 5KG tumor after the four-hour surgery, his family, including his wife, daughter, and sister, were all waiting for him outside
- By age 53, Fidisoa struggled to do the high level of manual labor required from his livelihood
- He said that the benign tumor, a soft lobular fibroma which weighed 5 kilograms, was now gone for good
A father of three can sleep comfortably on his back for the first time in 15 years after having a massive tumor – weighing 11lbs (5kgs) – removed by surgical charity Mercy Ships.
Malagasy builder and rice farmer Fidisoa was 38 when what appeared to be a tiny pimple on his back started to grow, first into a lump and then into the size of a fist. It continued to grow until Fidisoa looked as if he carried a backpack underneath his shirt.
By age 53, Fidisoa struggled to …
- Dr. Patil VijaySinh, an interventional cardiologist at The Nairobi West Hospital, led the team in performing the Renal Artery Denervation procedure.
- Hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure, is a major global health concern, contributing to an estimated 8.5 million deaths in 2015 alone.
- Innovative healthcare techniques like Renal Artery Denervation offer new hope for patients with resistant hypertension.
The Nairobi West Hospital has successfully conducted the first Renal Artery Denervation procedure for resistant hypertension in Kenya and East Africa.
This pioneering procedure marks a significant step forward in the region’s battle against hypertension, a leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide.
Hypertension, commonly known as high blood pressure, is a major global health concern, contributing to an estimated 8.5 million deaths in 2015 alone.
Despite the availability of various antihypertensive medications, only 18-23 per cent of patients achieve optimal blood pressure control.
In Kenya, prevalence of hypertension is …
- Estimates show that family planning in Kenya prevented 2.4 million pregnancies in 2023.
- The 2023 report shows significant achievements in family planning across the globe, even in the face of stagnant funding.
- The contraceptives were procured by UNFPA with more than KES57 Million (£348,000) funding from the UK.
Efforts to make family planning more accessible to women in Kenya received a boost with the handover of 450,000 doses of Subcutaneous Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA-SC), a self-injectable contraceptive that simplifies and enhances the accessibility of family planning.
The contraceptives were procured by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) with more than $378,151 (KES57 Million) funding from the UK Government, and will be distributed by the Ministry of Health to health facilities across the country.
DMPA-SC is a user-friendly injectable contraceptive that can be administered by trained individuals, including community health workers and women themselves, thereby expanding access to family planning …
Johnson & Johnson has recalled five of its aerosol sunscreen products.
The firm announced on Wednesday that it would like to voluntarily recall all lots of five EUTROGENA® and AVEENO® aerosol sunscreen product lines to the consumer level.
“Internal testing identified low levels of benzene in some samples of the products. Consumers should stop using the affected products and follow the instructions set forth below.” The healthcare giant said in a statement.
What Benzene really is
According to an information kit from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), benzene is a chemical that is a colourless or light yellow liquid at room temperature. It has a sweet odour and is highly flammable.
CDC says that direct exposure of the eyes, skin, or lungs to benzene could cause tissue injury and irritation however, presenting with these signs and symptoms does not necessarily mean that a person has …
The Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) says it has stepped up plans to guarantee quality medical products and technologies supply to more than 8,000 facilities in the national public health care system, with a floating of two competitive tenders for pharmaceutical products.
In a statement, KEMSA says the newly floated tenders are open for local manufacturers and related suppliers, including youth, women and persons with disability-owned enterprises, which can participate under the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) program, among other supplier categories.
Kenyan and international bidders seeking to supply Health Products and Technologies (HPTs) under a two-year framework model converged at the College of Insurance, Nairobi, Monday for a pre-bid conference.
The move comes at a time when the Authority is trying to regain trust and revamp its public image following the questionable and inflated Sh7.8 billion Covid-19 supplies tenders in which billions might have been misappropriated or stolen.…
Covid-19 is pushing SubSaharan Africa’s leading economies back into poverty, according to the results of GeoPoll’s six-nation survey on the financial and social impact of the pandemic across the continent.
The poll of 2,400 respondents in South Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Kenya found rising unemployment, further falls in incomes, drastic cuts in spending on essential and non-essential items, and mounting concern over meeting bills in the three months ahead.
“The picture that emerges is of a further sharp deterioration in the financial position of many individual Africans in the first quarter of 2021,” said Scott Lansell, GeoPoll’s VP – International Development.
The poll, which was conducted from March 24th to April 12th, found two-thirds of respondents, at 66 per cent, reporting that their income had fallen since January 2021, with 42 per cent saying it had fallen by a lot. This …
If the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa that was recently adopted by the African Union is anything to go by, only few member states have strong regulatory authorities with the functions necessary to oversee the pharmaceutical markets.
Africa represents 14% of the world’s population, however, it only contributes to less than 0.1 per cent of world’s vaccine. According to data by the World Health Organisation, (WHO) there are fewer than 10 African manufacturers with vaccine production. These are based in five countries namely Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. There is very limited upstream production with most local companies only engaging in packaging and labelling, and occasionally fill and finish steps. Noteworthy, there are about 80 sterile injectables facilities on the continent, which may provide an opportunity for vaccine production given the primary dosage form in Africa is vials.
How does that capacity affect vaccine availability in the continent?
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Tracking and management of COVID-19 and other epidemic-prone diseases in West and East Africa has been made easier.
This follows the upcoming launch of the first ever daily public COVID dashboard for countries in the Horn of Africa next month.
The cross-border data collaboration project involving 23 African countries above the Equator is a USAID-funded Regional Action Through Data (RAD) programme, which is tackling COVID-19 in West and East Africa through two initiatives.
The initiatives involve the sharing of real-time regional disease data online and tech-enabled cross-border immunisations.
These initiatives are enabling governments to better collaborate to protect their roving pastoral populations from epidemics and to overcome the data issues of the Ebola era.
Monthly graphs
According to a press statement that was sent to newsrooms early this week, the tracker shows monthly graphs currently , but soon new daily regional information will be available as well. The dashboard allows …
