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Up to one in five people can get long COVID — a condition in which someone keeps on feeling ill for months after their initial symptoms have cleared up. (Paul Botes)
AFRICAN PARADOX

No Covid-19 apocalypse in Africa, as WHO expects a steep drop in fatalities

Countries on the continent responded effectively to the virus despite the dire predictions of some in the West

  • Seth Onyango
4 min read
After 30 years of research, the World Health Organisation is finally recommending the widespread use of a malaria vaccine. (Photo Illustration by Frank Bienewald/LightRocket via Getty Images)
ANOPHELES MOSQUITO

WHO announces first global malaria vaccine for children at risk

After 30 years of research, the World Health Organisation is finally recommending the widespread use of a malaria vaccine

  • Eunice Masson
3 min read
ALLOYCIOUS DAVID

West Africa readies for Ebola battle

Guinea is fighting the virus with a vaccine used in the DRC, while their neighbours Sierra Leone and Liberia increase border surveillance

  • Abdul S Brima
5 min read
A child gets vaccinated for polio by a community health worker during a UNICEF-supported measles and polio immunisation campaign in Ifo, one of the three main refugee camps near the town of Dadaab in the north-eastern province of Kenya on August 2, 2011. The campaign aimed at immunising 250,000 children under the age of five inside the refugee camps in the next several weeks. On this day alone, the goal was to immunise over 5,000 children within Ifo camp. The new arrivals, who escaped instability and drought from Somalia, were particularly vulnerable to infections as they arrived weakened and usually having never been immunised before.
AFRICA

Good news: Africa is declared free of wild polio

The global polio eradication initiative, involving governments, the World Health Organisation and other institutions, was launched in 1988. It took three decades of immunising…

  • Simon Allison
3 min read
A staff member of the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) screens passengers at a bus station after the government suspended all unnecessary movements for two weeks to curb the spread of COVID-19 Coronavirus in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 22, 2020. – African countries have been among the last to be hit by the global COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic but as cases rise, many nations are now taking strict measures to block the deadly illness. (Photo by Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP)
AFRICA

Covid-19 in Africa: The good news and the bad

What might Africa look like in the wake of the pandemic? There’s enough change happening to keep both optimists happy and pessimists glum

  • Simon Allison
  • Judd Devermont
11 min read
Malaria cases could increase drastically during the Covid-19 pandemic.
AFRICA

Malaria deaths could double during Covid-19 pandemic, warns WHO

The World Health Organisation said people could die of preventable illnesses if steps to control malaria as well as immunisation for measles, yellow fever and polio are interrupted

  • Abdul S Brima
2 min read
Leading from the front: Dr Matshidiso Moeti is the World Health Organisation’s regional director for Africa. She hasn’t been sleeping much recently, but is trying to exercise more and stay positive. (L Cipriani/WHO)
BOTSWANA

Meet the doctor leading Africa’s fight to contain the coronavirus pandemic

Dr Matshidiso Moeti’s father helped to eliminate smallpox. Now she’s leading Africa’s efforts against the coronavirus

  • Simon Allison
6 min read
One major challenge that the WHO has identified is what happens if the coronavirus spreads into informal settlements and other densely populated areas on the continent. (AFP)
AFRICA

WHO: Half of Africa’s countries can still avoid a serious outbreak

But only if draconian border closures are accompanied by effective public health interventions

  • Simon Allison
3 min read