TheNewsGuru

Tag: WHO

  • NAFDAC DG reveals her vision for the agency

    NAFDAC DG reveals her vision for the agency

    Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, has said her vision is to take the agency to maturity level four, a global benchmark by the World Health Organisation, WHO.

    In her words: “The next step is maturity level four. We are already working on this. This will bring greater news to the pharmaceutical industry. This will mean that any product approved by NAFDAC in Nigeria can be traded globally. That is where my vision is.”

    Prof. Adeyeye, while speaking in a briefing in Abuja, pointed out that NAFDAC has achieved maturity level three.

    The maturity level three categorisation, apart from assuring Nigerians the drugs approved in the country are of high quality and safe, puts the country in a good place to start manufacturing its own vaccines.

    This makes NAFDAC the third in Africa and among the very few agencies in the world to achieve this global benchmark in terms of quality of medicines, regulatory inspection, laboratory testing, clinical trials, market control etc.

    She said: ”The WHO global benchmarking is all about comparing regulatory agencies with the best in the world. WHO told us we had to meet 868 recommendations before we can get to maturity level three.

    “It sounded impossible, but my Directors stood by me all the way. There is also a group of young people in NAFDAC called the Global Benchmarking Team; they have sacrificed a lot. They marked whichever recommendations we have met.

    “NAFDAC is the third in Africa and only very few in the world (I’m talking of low and middle-income countries). This is a great achievement for NAFDAC.”

  • Deteriorating living condition in Nigeria – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Deteriorating living condition in Nigeria – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Something struck me yesterday as I was leaving my office. Owing to the intense heat and high humidity most residents in my area- men, women, adults, children and babies- were seated outside their respective houses in a bid to receive some fresh air. The residents were completely soaked in their own sweat. Some residents removed their shirts and were using them to fan their bodies. Time was 6.15 pm. Darkness was setting in. As usual, there was no electricity supply in my area. Like most neighborhoods in Lagos my neighborhood has been without electricity supply for months. The deafening and jarring noises and the thick black smoke oozing out from the electricity generators continue to pollute our environment.

    You may be well aware that in 2017 Nigeria was named the second country in the world with the worst electricity supply. These days you cannot do any meaningful work in your office owing to the intense heat. At home you cannot sleep at night for the same reason. Out of frustration you take to the street the next day in search of petrol to power your electricity generator. You are held up in an intractable vehicular traffic jam for three hours. After three hours you finally arrive at the filling station completely exhausted. On alighting from your car, you notice a seemingly endless queue of cars waiting to be refueled. Since you have no other option, you join the fuel queue. After four hours in the queue precisely when it is your turn to buy fuel, a petrol attendant stands up from nowhere and announces that the filling station has suspended selling fuel due to some circumstances beyond its control. You go home tired and depressed. No food. No drinkable water to quench your thirst. No peace of mind. You spend a whole day trying to refuel your car without success. Obviously you cannot boast of having good health.

    Besides, you are a poor man. Your disposable income is very low. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria is now acknowledged as the poverty capital of the world with about 87 million “extremely poor people” thus overtaking India in extreme poverty ranking. In 2018, the African Development Bank (AfDB) revealed that the World Poverty Clock named Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world. In 2017, Nigeria was ranked as the third most-terrorized country in the world. In the same 2017 Nigeria Police was ranked as the worst Police in the world. In the same 2017 Nigeria was ranked by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a country with the 3rd highest infant mortality rate in the world. In the same 2017 Northern Nigeria was ranked as the worst region in the world with the highest number of illiterates.

    On July 25 2018 the BBC reported that “Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children, totaling 13 million, in the world.” In the 2018 Global Rankings of “Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index” of the OXFAM and Development Finance International (DFI), Nigeria was ranked 157 out of 157 countries. In the same 2018, Nigeria overtook India as the country with the highest number of under-5 deaths in the world. In the same 2018 Nigeria was ranked as one of the most dangerous places in the world to give birth to and the 4th country in the world with the worst maternal mortality death rate. In the same 2018 Nigeria was ranked among the worst malaria hit countries in the world. In the same 2018 Nigerian was ranked by the World Bank among the seven worst countries on the World Bank Human Capital Index. In the 2018 Global Hunger Index (GHI), Nigeria was ranked as the 103rd hungriest country in the world out of 119 qualifying countries. In the same 2018, Nigeria was ranked among the worst malaria hit countries in the world. In the same 2018 Nigerian was ranked by the World Bank among the seven worst countries on the World Bank Human Capital Index.

    I am sure you know that about 152 million Nigerians live on less than 1 US Dollar a day, representing about 70 per cent of the country’s estimated population of 200 million. This might have prompted Oxfam to raise the fresh alarm. According to Mr. Constant Tchona, a representative of OXFAM in Nigeria: “The number of people that live below extreme poverty as at April 2018 was 91,501,377 thus reaffirming that Nigeria is the poverty capital of the world. As if that was not bad enough, six months later, the number jumped to 94, 470, 533 people meaning that 2,969, 158 Nigerians have been added into Nigeria’s extreme poverty rate. By comparison, this number is more than the population of Gambia and Cape Verde combined. At the current rate, Nigeria is not only off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but many now believe that up to 25 per cent of the world’s extreme poor will live in Nigeria by 2030”. Perhaps the achievement of the Buhari government in the last seven years is to drag Nigeria into the membership of failed States. Imagine the most populous and most richly endowed African country joining insignificant countries such as Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan and Myanmar as a full-fledged failed State. The Buhari government came to power on the mantra of fighting corruption. Now, seven years on, it is obvious to all and sundry that the Buhari government is corruption personified.

    Frankly speaking, the current deteriorating living condition in Nigeria is worrisome. We cannot get tired of re-echoing ad nauseam that the real crisis afflicting Nigeria (which is more pervasive than the crisis of political leadership), is the human development crisis. Therefore the elimination of avoidable human miseries is a goal which constantly challenges our government. The goal should be to satisfy basic human needs such as ordinary electricity supply, drinking water, shelter, ordinary hygiene, primary health and so forth. Article 25 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right and security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control”. Thus human development is the ultimate focus of all types of development-economic, social, cultural and political. In other words, the people are the wealth of the nation. The basic objective of development is defeated if the human condition under which the live and work is left to deteriorate.

    Agreed, infrastructural developments such as construction of highways, flyovers, skyscrapers and railway lines are crucial to sustainable development. But priority should be given to human capital formation which is the epicenter of all developments. Our greatest challenge is the challenge of being human. We dedicate ourselves to so many unnecessary things forgetting that satisfying the basic human necessities is the most important thing. The basic questions to ask in assessing the performance of any government are: Can the people eat food to keep body and soul together? Can they drink ordinary water? Do they have shelter over their heads? Do they enjoy ordinary electricity supply? Can they buy fuel to power their air-conditioners and electric fans? Can they go to bed and wake up in the morning without any stress caused by lack of sleep? Are their basic human rights guaranteed? Can they escape avoidable diseases? If you take away all that the word “human” and all that the belief in our humanity has given to man, you can finally view man as no more than an extremely clever, adaptable, and extremely mischievous little animal. In the same vein, by failing to provide the basic necessities of life such as electricity supply which is crucial to eking out a simple living the government has reduced man to a clever, adaptable, and extremely mischievous little animal.

    Unfortunately Nigerians, as they say in local parlance, are the architects of their own destruction. The Nigerian crisis is a crisis of failed followership. And failed followership begets failed political leadership. For example, at the threshold to the 2015 presidential election campaigns we were warned that candidate Mohammadu Buhari would make a disaster President, yet many of us ignored the warning and voted for candidate Buhari. After the effusion of four years, President Buhari returned as a disaster President, yet some people still paved the way for him to return to power in 2019 despite his waning intellect and his overbearing old age and ill-health. In his response to the clamour for Buhari by some Nigerians after he (Buhari) had failed, Prof Wole Soyinka said: “It is astonishing to find that the same former slaves, now free of their chains, should clamour to be ruled by one who not only turned their nation into a slave plantation, but forbade them any discussion of their condition.”

    I agree with Prof. Soyinka. Nigerians are their own enemies. Even as we prepare for the 2023 presidential election, some are campaigning for the physically-and-intellectually-drained political Godfather to be our next President. What is wrong with these people? Are they mentally okay? We are still suffering from the calamitous misrule of President Buhari and they are conspiring to bring the tired political Godfather to be our next President. They want us to move from the flying pan to fire. God forbid bad thing. Therefore we must vote wisely in 2023. We must vote for a candidate who will improve the current worsening living condition in Nigeria. Twice beaten thrice shy.

  • WHO issues new guidelines on safe abortion

    WHO issues new guidelines on safe abortion

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released new guidelines on abortion care in a bid to protect the health of women and girls across the world.

    The global health body said in a statement on Wednesday that the new guidelines would also help prevent over 25 million unsafe abortions that currently occur each year.

    According to WHO, based on the latest scientific evidence, these consolidated guidelines bring together over 50 recommendations spanning clinical practice, health service delivery, and legal and policy interventions to support quality abortion care.

    Craig Lissner, Acting Director for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research at WHO, said: “Nearly every death and injury that results from unsafe abortion is entirely preventable.

    “That’s why we recommend women and girls can access abortion and family planning services when they need them’’

    WHO said that when abortion is carried out using a method recommended by WHO, appropriate to the duration of the pregnancy and assisted by someone with the necessary information or skills, it is a simple and extremely safe procedure.

    However, it noted that only around half of all abortions take place under such conditions, with unsafe abortions causing around 39,000 deaths every year and resulting in millions more women hospitalized with complications.

    “Most of these deaths are concentrated in lower-income countries – with over 60 per cent in Africa and 30 per cent in Asia – and among those living in the most vulnerable situations.

    “The guideline includes recommendations on many simple primary care level interventions that improve the quality of abortion care provided to women and girls.

    “These include task sharing by a wider range of health workers; ensuring access to medical abortion pills, which mean more women can obtain safe abortion services, and making sure that accurate information on care is available to all those who need it,” WHO said.

    For the first time, the guidelines also include recommendations for use where appropriate of telemedicine, which helped support access to abortion and family planning services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The guidelines also highlighted the need to remove unnecessary policy barriers that facilitate access to safe abortion.

    “Alongside the clinical and service delivery recommendations, the guidelines recommend removing medically unnecessary policy barriers to safe abortion.

    “Such as criminalisation, mandatory waiting times, the requirement that approval must be given by other people (e.g., partners or family members) or institutions, and limits on when during pregnancy an abortion can take place.

    “Such barriers can lead to critical delays in accessing treatment and put women and girls at greater risk of unsafe abortion, stigmatisation, and health complications.

    “It can also increase disruptions to education and their ability to work,’’ the WHO said.

    The statement quoted Dr Bela Ganatra, Head of WHO’s Prevention of Unsafe Abortion Unit, as saying, “It’s vital that an abortion is safe in medical terms.

    “But that’s not enough on its own.

    “As with any other health services, abortion care needs to respect the decisions and needs of women and girls, ensuring that they are treated with dignity and without stigma or judgment.

    “No one should be exposed to abuse or harms like being reported to the police or put in jail because they have sought or provided abortion care.

    “The evidence is clear – if you want to prevent unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions, you need to provide women and girls with a comprehensive package of sexuality education, accurate family planning information and services, and access to quality abortion care.’’

    WHO said it would support countries to implement these new guidelines and strengthen national policies and programmes related to contraception, family planning and abortion services, helping them provide the highest standard of care for women and girls.

  • Breast cancer is visible in men too-WHO

    Breast cancer is visible in men too-WHO

    Though, breast cancer is commoner in females with about one in every eight women likely to develop it. In fact the strongest risk factor for the development of breast cancer is being a woman but still about 0.5 to one per cent of breast cancers occur in men.

    According to the World Health Organisation, breast cancer is the world’s most prevalent cancer with about 7.8 million women alive having it in the past five years leading to the year 2020.

    A breast has three major parts; lobules, ducts and the connective tissue. It is in the lobules that milk is produced and it is the duct that carries milk to the nipple. The connective tissues are the ones that surround and hold firm the structures of the breast. They are made up of fibrous and fatty tissue.

    The largest chunks of breast cancers are initiated in the ducts or lobules. According to the World Health Organisation, breast cancer arising from the lining cells of the ducts constitute 85 per cent of breast cancer while 15 per cent others originate from the lobules of the breast.

    Most people will first notice breast cancer as an area of the breast with thickened tissue or a lump in the breast or in a nearby armpit. It may also be heralded as a non-cyclical armpit or breast pain or as an area of the skin having an orange skin-like appearance which may be accompanied by skin color changes.

    Sometimes, breast cancer may even start as a rash around one or both nipples or as nipples discharge which sometimes is bloody. In some instances, the presage may be an indentation or an inversion of the nipple. A change in the size or shape of the breast or the peeling, flaking or scaling of the skin of the breast or the nipple may all that would betoken the beginning of a breast cancer.

    Normally, cells in our bodies divide only when there is a need for a new cell. But cells can sometimes, become delinquent to create a mass of tissue called a tumor. A tumor that contains normal cells is said to be benign and the one that contains abnormal cells and function differently from the body normal cells is called malignant or cancerous.

    Cancers are named after the part of the body from which they originate from. So, breast cancer emanates from an uncontrolled division and growth of the breast cells. Just like any other cancer, breast cancer can also invade and extend into surrounding breast tissues and even metastasize into other parts of the body to form new tumors.

    The cause of breast cancer is uncertainly known but being a woman, the age of the woman, genetic factors, family history, personal health history and diet may be contributory to the development of breast cancer. Many risk factors have been associated with the occurrence of breast cancer. Some of these factors such as alcohol consumption, body weight, breast implants, choosing not to breastfeed, using hormone replacement medicines can be controlled.

    But other risk factors like being a woman, getting older, having dense breast, early menarche (starting menstruation before age 12) and late menopause (stopping menstruation after age 55), exposure to radiation (especially to the chest), family history of first degree relatives having breast cancer, previous history of breast cancer diagnosis are some of the risk factors of breast cancer that are non-modifiable.

    Though there is no certainty that breast cancer can be prevented but its risk can be lowered. It is believed that maintaining healthy habits, like limiting alcohol use, being physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, breast-feeding, limiting post-menopausal hormone therapy can lower the risk of developing breast cancer.

    It is also suggested that regular self-breast examination can help individuals in identifying breast cancer early. But mammograms are the best way to find breast cancer early. A mammogram is an X-ray of the breast. In the United States, it is recommended that women between age 50 to 74 who are at an average risk of having breast cancer should get a mammogram done every two years while women between 40 to 49 years of age should consult their physicians to know how often to get a mammogram. However, it should be known that as mammograms have benefits they are also with risks, hence the reason why physicians consultation is advised.

    Breast cancer can be treated using a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, biological therapy and radiation therapy. These treatment options have brought succor and saved lives of many people but melancholically about 685,000 women still died globally from breast cancer in 2020 according to the World Health Organisation. But best successes in treatment have been achieved when breast cancer is identified early. So, in this instance, a stitch in time doesn’t save nine but saves lives.

  • Cases drop for 1st time as Africa’s fourth COVID-19 wave drops — WHO

    Cases drop for 1st time as Africa’s fourth COVID-19 wave drops — WHO

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday said for the first time in Africa since the peak of the Omicron wave, weekly COVID-19 cases dropped significantly and deaths dipped.

    Newly reported cases fell by 20 per cent in the week that ended on January 16, while deaths dropped by eight per cent.

    South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first sequenced, and which has accounted for the bulk of cases and deaths, has now recorded a downward trend for the past four weeks.

    Cases also fell across the rest of the continent, with only North Africa reporting an increase in cases, with a 55 per cent spike.

    The Omicron variant has now been reported in 36 African countries, and 169 nations all over the world.

    According to WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the acceleration, peak and decline of this last wave has been “unmatched”, but its impact has been moderate, with fewer deaths and lower hospitalisations.

    Despite those numbers, Moeti believes that Africa “has yet to turn the tables on this pandemic.”

    “So long as the virus continues to circulate, further pandemic waves are inevitable.

    “Africa must not only broaden vaccinations, but also gain increased and equitable access to critical COVID-19 therapeutics to save lives and effectively combat this pandemic.’’

    The current case fatality ratio (the death toll per infections) in the continent remains the highest in the world, although it dropped during the last two waves of variants.

    In terms of medication, patients with severe forms of the virus are being treated with corticosteroids and medical oxygen. Corticosteroids are largely available and relatively affordable, but availability of medical oxygen remains a challenge.

    In addition, African countries face major impediments in accessing other treatments due to limited availability and high cost.

    Last week, WHO recommended two new drugs, raising the number of WHO approved therapeutics to 11, and the agency is now reviewing the data on two oral medications that promise to reduce risk of hospitalisation.

    Following negotiations with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, the agency is supporting the shipment of a limited number of vials of Tocilizumab, a drug used to treat patients with severe cases.

    Cape Verde and Uganda have already received vials. Burkina Faso, Ghana and Tanzania are due to receive some in the next few weeks.

    Further larger-scale deliveries are expected, with negotiations underway through the ACT-Accelerator partnership.

    For Moeti, the deep inequity that left Africa behind on vaccines must not be repeated with life-saving treatments.

    “Universal access to diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics will pave the shortest path to the end of this pandemic and no region of the world should be left on the fringes of this endeavour,” she said.

    Even though vaccine supplies have been on the rise, the rate of vaccination remains low, with just 10 per cent of the continent’s population fully vaccinated.

    Africa has so far received about 500 million vaccine doses and administered 327 million.

    According to Moeti, significant efforts are needed to ramp up the vaccination to reach a broad swathe of the population.

    By mid-2022, the UN-backed COVAX Facility expects to have enough supply for all participant countries to fully vaccinate 45 per cent of their populations.

  • WHO recommends lifting COVID-19 travel restrictions

    WHO recommends lifting COVID-19 travel restrictions

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged nations to lift or ease COVID-19 travel restrictions, saying they have proven to be of little public health value but detrimental for economic growth.

    On Jan. 13, WHO Emergency Committee on International Health Regulations met via video conference to evaluate latest developments in the pandemic situation across the world.

    This is amid the spread of Omicron strain as the meeting also sought to revisit the COVID-19 response measures.

    A statement released by WHO read“ the committee identified the following actions as critical for all countries; lift or ease international traffic bans.

    “They do not provide added value and continue to contribute to the economic and social stress experienced by states parties.’’

    The committee also said the failure of travel restrictions to restrain the cross-border spread of Omicron has proven their inefficacy.

    “Countries should rely on evidence-informed risk assessment when choosing to introduce travel requirements, namely masking, testing, vaccination, and quarantine, and avoid placing the financial burden on international travellers.’’

    “The WHO advised for international traffic to not require proof of vaccination against COVID-19 for international travel as the only pathway or condition permitting international travel given limited global access and inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines,” the statement said.

    The WHO also urged states to recognise all vaccines that have received WHO authorisation, particularly in the context of international travel.

    The Agency further requested states to uphold research “to derive the optimal vaccination strategy for reducing infection, morbidity and mortality.”

    As of now, the WHO has approved 10 COVID-19 vaccines, including Covovax, Moderna, Comirnaty, Janssen, Astrazeneca, Covishield, Covaxin, Sinovac and Sinopharm.

    Meanwhile, 10 more vaccines are undergoing review process, including Russia’s Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona.

  • COVID-19: Worst of Omicron wave is over – WHO

    COVID-19: Worst of Omicron wave is over – WHO

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed optimism that worst of latest wave of COVID-19 is over, in spite of spread of Omicron variant across the world.

    Omicron continues to sweep the world, but cases seem to have peaked in some countries, which gives the UN health agency hope that the worst of this latest wave of COVID-19 is over.

    Briefing journalists in Geneva, WHO Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus said that more than 18 million cases were reported last week, and the pandemic itself is far from over, so no country is out of the woods yet.

    The number of deaths remains stable, but the agency is concerned about the impact the variant is having on already exhausted health workers and overburdened health systems.

    “I remain particularly concerned about many countries that have low vaccination rates, as people are many times more at risk of severe illness and death if they’re unvaccinated,” he said.

    Omicron may be less severe, but for the WHO chief “the narrative that it is mild disease is misleading, hurts the overall response and costs more lives”.

    Ghebreyesus noted that the virus was circulating “far too intensely with many still vulnerable” and argued that, for many countries, the next few weeks remain critical.

    According to him, the UN-backed COVAX facility delivered its one-billionth dose of vaccine over the weekend.

    The WHO chief said he was proud of the milestone, but believes it’s essential to keep forging ahead with distributing shots fairly, across the world.

    “Vaccines may be less effective at preventing infection and transmission of Omicron than they were for previous variants, but they still are exceptionally good at preventing serious disease and death,” he explained.

    For him, immunisation continues to be “key to protecting hospitals from becoming overwhelmed”.

    The WHO chief also highlighted the importance of tracking new variants, like Omicron, in real time.

    Ghebreyesus believes that the pandemic is “nowhere near over” and, with the incredible growth of Omicron, new variants are likely to emerge.

    So far, more than seven million whole genome sequences from 180 countries have been submitted to GISAID, a global mechanism that provides open access to genomic data and was initially set up to track flu.

    Using all that data, new formulations of vaccines are being developed and assessed for how they perform against different strains.

    Despite those efforts, the UN health agency top official is concerned that the world will enter “a second and even more destructive phase of vaccine inequity”, if it doesn’t change course.

    On Friday, WHO recommended two new COVID-19 treatments to fight severe illness and death: a rheumatoid arthritis drug called baricitinib, and a monoclonal antibody called sotrovimab.

    For him, the challenge, once again, is that high prices and limited supply means access is limited.

    WHO is currently working with its partners in ACT-Accelerator to negotiate lower prices with manufacturers and ensure supply will be available for low- and middle-income countries.

    Next week, the WHO Executive Board, which is made up of 34 Member States, will meet to discuss the world’s health challenges.

    The pandemic will remain at the forefront, but Member States will also be discussing the devastating impact of the pandemic on other health issues, and how the backsliding can be stopped.

    According to the WHO chief, the agency will be working to accelerate progress on negotiations around a global pandemic accord.

    In addition, Ghebreyesus said that January is Cervical Cancer Awareness month.

    In 2020, an estimated 604,000 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide and about 342,000 women died from the disease.

    The main cause of the disease is infection with high-risk types of Human Papillomavirus (HPV), an extremely common family of viruses that are transmitted through sexual contact.

    There are, however, vaccines that protect against high-risk HPV types, which means it should be one of the most preventable and treatable forms of cancer.

  • WHO predicts COVID-19 will end in 2022

    WHO predicts COVID-19 will end in 2022

    World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, has expressed optimism that COVID-19 pandemic will end in 2022.

    Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing on Wednesday that it was two years ago, as people gathered for New Year’s Eve celebrations, that a new global threat emerged.

    Since then, 1.8 million deaths were recorded in 2020 and 3.5 million in 2021, but the actual number is much higher. There are also millions of people dealing with long-term consequences from the virus.

    Right now, Delta and Omicron are driving up cases to record numbers, leading to spikes in hospitalisation and deaths.

    Ghebreyesus said he was “highly concerned” that the more transmissible Omicron, circulating at the same time as Delta, is leading to “a tsunami of cases.”

    Earlier in 2020, during meetings of the world’s biggest economies – the G7 and G20 – WHO challenged leaders to vaccinate 40 per cent of their populations by the end of 2021 and 70 per cent by the middle of 2022.

    With only a couple of days left in the year, 92 out of 194 Member States missed the target.

    He attributed this to low-income countries receiving a limited supply for most of the year and then subsequent vaccines arriving close to expiry, without key parts, like syringes.

    “Forty per cent was doable. It’s not only a moral shame, it cost lives and provided the virus with opportunities to circulate unchecked and mutate,” he said.

    WHO chief warned that boosters in rich countries could cause low-income countries to again fall short and called on leaders of wealthy countries and manufacturers to work together to reach the 70 per cent goal by July.

    “This is the time to rise above short-term nationalism and protect populations and economies against future variants by ending global vaccine inequity.

    “We have 185 days to the finish line of achieving 70 per cent by the start of July 2022. And the clock starts now,” he said

    Early on, the director-general acknowledged that beating the new health threat would require science, solutions, and solidarity.

    While elaborating on some successes, such as the development of new vaccines, which he said “represent a scientific masterclass”, the WHO official lamented that politics too often triumphed over solidarity.

    “Populism, narrow nationalism and hoarding of health tools, including masks, therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines, by a small number of countries undermined equity, and created the ideal conditions for the emergence of new variants,” he said.

    Moreover, misinformation and disinformation, have also been “a constant distraction, undermining science and trust in lifesaving health tools”.

    He highlighted as a case in point that huge waves of infections have swept Europe and many other countries causing the unvaccinated to die disproportionally.

    The unvaccinated are many times more at risk of dying from either variant.

    As the pandemic drags on, new variants could become fully resistant to current vaccines or past infection, necessitating vaccine adaptations.

    For Ghebreyesus, as any new vaccine update could mean a new supply shortage, it is important to build up local manufacturing supply.

    One way to increase production of life-saving tools, he said, is to pool technology, as in the new WHO Bio Hub System, a mechanism to voluntarily share novel biological materials.

    He also pointed to the new WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, based in Berlin, Gerrmany.

    The WHO chief called for the development of a new accord between nations, saying it would be “a key pillar” of a world better prepared to deal with the next disease.

    “I hope to see negotiations move swiftly and leaders to act with ambition,” he said.

  • WHO will miss global 40% vaccination target

    WHO will miss global 40% vaccination target

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) will miss its target to vaccinate 40 per cent of the population in every country by the end of the year, with the shortfalls especially serious in Africa.

    Of the WHO’s 194 member countries, about half of them will not meet the goal.

    In about 40 countries not even 10 per cent of the population had been vaccinated.

    The WHO has pinned much of the blame on vaccine hoarding, particularly among a handful of wealthy Western countries, which are already administering booster jabs.

    Worldwide, more than 8.6 billion vaccine doses had been administered by Tuesday, but mostly in high-income countries that had the resources to secure their own contracts with vaccine manufacturers.

    Dozens of countries are dependent on supplies from COVAX, the UN-backed vaccine-sharing programme intended to get shots in the arms of people in lower-income countries.

    Prosperous countries have been slammed for not doing enough to support global vaccine equity through COVAX.

    Vaccine shipments via the scheme have picked up in recent weeks, however.

    By the last week of December, COVAX had delivered 722 million doses.

    The data paints a damning picture: the WHO says that while in Germany about 171 vaccine doses per 100 inhabitants had been administered, in Madagascar it was just under 2.7 and in the Democratic Republic of Congo 0.32.

    In most African countries, the number is at most in the low two-digit range.

    The pharmaceutical industry is convinced that it is not a lack of doses that is responsible for the imbalance.

    According to estimates by the pharmaceutical association IFPMA, about 1.4 billion vaccine doses were manufactured in December alone.

    Rather, it says, vaccination scepticism is high in many countries and many have a problem with vaccine distribution.

    The WHO counters that the countries would be ready if they received the doses in an organised and timely fashion.

    Many rich countries have collectively pledged more than a billion doses as donations.

    However, according to the WHO, deliveries often take a long time to materialise.

    Some of the jabs also have only a few weeks left until the expiry date, which makes distribution in poorer countries, especially complicated.

  • Who are you? – Hope Eghagha

    Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

     

    ​In the course of our lives, we must have encountered theinterrogative question that titles this essay and its variant, that is, ‘who are you or/and ‘what are you? We may also have asked the same question of someone who may be standing at the door or at the other end of the phone or in a situation where someone attempted to flaunt/abuse authority or power. Who are you to determine my life? What are you? Are you God? At other times, the question comes only to the mind when an inexplicable incident occurs. Who is this man that is talking like this? Why is this person talking down to everyone? Who is she?

    Very early in church we were drilled, thrilled and educated on the sermon What is man? Our teachers and preachers profoundly drew our attention to the vanity of that being called man, that being who returns to the dustafter death, that being who is different from an animal onlybecause of the hope of resurrection. The verse at Psalm 8:4 ‘what is man that you are mindful of him’ was thus etched in my mind. The bible also says at Ecclesiastes 3: 19-20: “all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust and all turn to dust again”. What is man that he should raise his ugly shoulders in the presence of the Almighty? What makes you superior to the other man? Your wealth, your power, your car, your status, or your mansion? All is vanity!

    ​The title question and its variants raced through my mind last week when I witnessed a burial at Atan Cemetery in Lagos near University of Lagos, that cemetery which by all standards ought to have been shut down as a resting place for the dead. Is there any corpse that can really rest in peace in that violated and decrepit Cemetery except perhaps for the Military section or the recently set up Ebony section? There the notion of the archetypal six feet grave is buried in history. The cemetery is a study in chaotic order, putrefying assemblage off dead flesh, representing an assault and sacrilegious insult on the dead. A city that does not honour the dead or the memory of the dead is a dead society. Some cynics ask me why Lagos should worry about the resting place of the dead if living persons dwell in decrepit hovels in the name of residential accommodation! Accommodation in Lagos is fitting subject for another day!

    ​The burial was of a woman who was not known by society. She never made the headlines. She never flaunted her pictures on social media. She was once the wife of a big man, a big man who became reduced in size after retirement. The marriage ended. She fell into hard times. Died in penury. Almost at the mercy of good hearted people in the twilight of her life. She had a child who had not found her feet in the world, if a place she had secured. As I walked into the cemetery I saw gravestones and tombs of the rich and powerful. ‘In ever loving memory of…’ Another tombstone from 2009 read ‘Though you are gone father, you remain in our hearts..’. I wondered: are the children still alive? Which hearts? There was the tombstone of a 17years old. Beautifully adorned. Perhaps to reduce the pain of an early death on the parents. Certainly a rich family. Even in death, there is class in burial rites and resting places. Sometimes,beside a gleaming tombstone, we would see a caved-in grave. If you looked well, you would see some bones. A skull. And I asked myself: who are you?

    ​Who are you? I have also run into this interrogation when someone asked the question: do you know who I am? Don’t you know me? Hehehehehe! Underneath the question is the assertion ‘I am a big man’ or ‘I am a big woman’ or ‘the wife of a big man’ or ‘I am the boss of the place’ or ‘I am the owner of that big car’. In Delta State, those rascally fellows would retort to that arrogant question: Na you deyfeed me?

    ​ The final place is so humble. So crammed with no space between one grave and the other. This is how it all ends for us all. Whether the grave is beautiful or dirty or narrow it is a grave. The body is lowered. It is a final act. Some who had asked the question: do you know who I am? Are there, dry of bones, ignored by the living, forgotten by society. Some who built mansions in Ikoyi or GRA in Ikeja are confined to one tiny space next to the grave of a pauper. They do not talk to one another. No expensive handsets. No arguments. No ethnic conflicts. No kidnappings. No lust for beautiful women or handsome rich men! No cars. They are not aware of their place of abode. The memory of them is fading or faded. So, who are we?

    ​After Julius Caesar is assassinated and Mark Antony arrives the scene, he makes a powerful speech which I used to illustrate the vanity of power through contrast when I teach Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to final year students of English: ‘O mighty Caesar, dost thou lie so low? Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils shrunk to this little measure? Fare thee well! He also refers to Caesar as ‘thou bleeding piece of earth. In the final analysis, that is what we are. Living dust and dead dust.

    ​So, that moment when we think we are powerful over people, over tenants, over students, over citizens, over the country, let us remember that we are nothing but the dust. There is this Bishop who used to say to us in our days in government that political office holders should be compelled to visit the mortuary once every year. It is sobering to do so. It is a reminder.

    ​Mr. Man, Mrs. Woman, Mr. Cultist, Mr. Politician & Ms. Politician, Mr. Legislator & Ms. Legislator, Mr. Pastor,Mr. Managing Director, Mr. Governor, Mr. President! Whoare you? You are a mere mortal. What are you? You are dust, waiting to return to the dust after death. What is man? Man is vanity. His pride, arrogance, lust for power, for women, for beauty, for control and manipulation, and for money is vanity. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, is vanity. So, never say ‘Who are you or what are you? Never say ‘Do you know what/who I am? If you have any doubt, go to the morgue or attend a burial where a powerful man is being lowered into the grave!