Health in West Africa

  • Healthcare Property holds benefits for Africa

    CANADA, 2017/08/20 As Africa tries to build up a listed real estate industry, healthcare real estate investment trust (REITs) become additional attractive on the continent. They would formalise an industry with much potential, advises Ortneil Kutama, Africa Property News Media Director. “REITs are well structured and provide investors with tax benefits and regular gain in theory as long as they make consistent profits,” Kutama said. Nations like South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco and Nigeria, which have growing populations, improving hospitals and healthcare industries, could gain capital boost. If the hospitals in these nations were listed, investors could bring that major capital boost.
  • Buhari Among African Presidents Who Lack Faith in Own Health Systems

    ANGOLA, 2017/08/18 The Presidency, yesterday, drew back from joining the fray next President Muhammadu Buhari was listed by the BBC part African presidents who have "an apparent lack of faith in the health systems at home." The other presidents listed included Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Patrice Talon (Benin), Abdelaziz Bouteflika (Algeria), and Jose Eduardo dos Santos (Angola).
  • WHO lauds Africa’s progress in malaria, HIV control

    BOTSWANA, 2017/07/29 The World Health Organisation (WHO), has commended the African region for making significant evolution in malaria control in the last five years. Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, said malaria incidence and mortality rates had declined by 42 % and 66 % respectively between 2000 and 2015. Moeti made the commendation in Kigali, Rwanda, while speaking at the Initial Africa Health Forum, launched by WHO, Africa and the Government of Rwanda.
  • WHO Africa Health Forum App Leads the Way

    BOTSWANA, 2017/07/16 You can meet the majority interesting people at conferences. If you can make your way through the sea of people to get to them. The initial Africa Health Forum organised by the World Health Organisation African region was no different - hundreds and hundreds of enthusiastic participants filling the Kigali Convention Centre in Rwanda, determined to find their way to universal healthcare (UHC) on the continent. The forum promised to examine WHO AFRO's vision for health and development across the continent, explore concrete ways for partners to contribute to the work of the organization, meet the challenges that young people face, and provide a platform to talk about innovative strategies for the public health challenges that Africa just can't seem to shake.
  • Gambia: The Country On Funding Drive to Become First Sub-Saharan Nation Free of Malaria

    GAMBIA, 2017/07/14 "This last mile is the majority difficult - we need additional support to sustain the gains we have made from presently on donors often turn their attention elsewhere as cases drop" Gambia could become the initial country in sub-Saharan Africa to eliminate malaria on its track record of combating the mosquito-borne disease but additional donor funds are needed for the "last mile" of the drive, health experts said on Wednesday. The prevalence of the malaria parasite in children under five has plunged to 0.2 % from 4 % in 2011, according to the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP).
  • Malaria drug could cut women’s risk of other infections

    NIGERIA, 2017/04/30 A drug used to combat malaria in pregnant women could as well treat sexually transmitted infections (STIs), a study shows. Results of the study by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, a medicine recommended during antenatal care visit for intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp) of malaria in pregnant women in malaria-endemic areas could cut the risk of getting STIs such as gonorrhoea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, and bacterial vaginosis.
  • Côte d’Ivoire invests to revamp health care system

    CôTE D'IVOIRE, 2016/12/26 Ivoirian authorities are preparing to roll out universal health coverage (couverture maladie universelle, CMU) to improve lower-gain citizens’ access to care. Passed by the National Assembly in 2014, the CMU aims to cover all residents through a dual-pronged approach, with a basic general scheme (régime général de base, RGB) and a non-contributory medical assistance scheme (régime d’assistance médicale, RAM). A pilot programme with students is scheduled to begin in January 2017, two years next the programme’s planned roll-out, with it slated to be fully operational by 2018, local media reported before this year. Enrolment is by presently under way, with some 600,000 individuals currently in the database.
  • Commemorating World AIDS Day in West and Central Africa with new push for innovative prevention efforts

    SENEGAL, 2016/11/28 This year, West and Central Africa will be commemorating World AIDS Day in the context of a powerful commitment to the new HIV Emergency Plan for the region. The focus is on HIV prevention under the theme Hands up for #HIVprevention. “We are happy to commemorate this year’s World AIDS Day in the full knowledge that regional leaders have committed to a new plan that will multiply by three the number of people on HIV treatment,” says the UNAIDS Director of the Regional Support Team for West and Central Africa, Dr Djibril Diallo.
  • Benin accepts TRIPS amendment to ease poor countries’ access to affordable medicines

    BENIN, 2016/11/24 The protocol amending the TRIPS Agreement, which was agreed in 2005, is intended to formalize a decision to relieve poorer WTO members’ access to affordable medicines. The protocol allows exporting nations to grant compulsory licences (i.e. licences granted without the patent holder’s consent) to their generic suppliers to manufacture and export medicines to nations that cannot manufacture the needed medicines themselves. These licences were originally limited to predominantly supplying the domestic market.
  • Nigeria vaccinates 25 million children from polio in areas freed from Boko Haram

    NIGERIA, 2016/09/06 An emergency polio vaccination campaign aimed at reaching 25 million children this year has begun in parts of Nigeria newly freed from Boko Haram Islamic extremists, with fears that a lot of additional cases of the crippling disease will likely be found. Two toddlers discovered last month were Nigeria's initial reported polio cases in additional than two years, putting the world on alert just months next the African continent was declared free of the disease. One member of the Rotary Club's "End Polio Presently" drive said he almost cried at the same time as he got the news. It was a major blow to world efforts to stamp out polio, which persists in only two other nations, Pakistan and Afghanistan.