HealthCare
Scammers are Selling Fake COVID-19 Vaccines for up to $1,200
Underground scammers are selling fake COVID-19 vaccines. The majority of sellers originated in France, Germany, the UK, and the USA, and the prices per dose range from $250 to $1,200, with an average cost of about $500. Scammers and buyers usually get in contact via encrypted messaging apps like Wickr and Telegram, while payments are requested in the form of cryptocurrency, primarily Bitcoin. The majority of these underground sellers have made between 100-500 transactions. With the information available to Kaspersky experts, it’s impossible to tell how many doses of the vaccine being advertised online are actual doses (many medical facilities have found themselves with leftover doses) and how many advertisements are a scam. “You can find just about anything on the Darknet, so it’s not surp...
Vodacom Launches First-of-its-Kind Mobile Health Service in DRC
Vodacom and Mondia have partnered to launch ‘Mum & Baby’ across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Mum & Baby is a free-of-charge mobile health intervention service that provides subscribers with maternal, neonatal and child health information designed to encourage good health practices amongst pregnant women, mothers, partners and caregivers. Mondia creates Mum & Baby’s tailored content in the local language and includes expert articles, videos and information-sharing SMS messages. Mum & Baby’s future enhancements in the DRC will provide interactive tools including a due-date calculator, an immunisation calendar, medication reminder, medication safety information and other health tools and services. “Accessing healthcare services in Africa can be challenging, and ...
3 Reasons Data Management can Unlock the Value of Healthcare Data
Data in the healthcare sector is heavily regulated, with numerous laws and regulations governing how data needs to be processed, protected and retained. This has become more important than ever in light of the COVID-19 crisis, which has made healthcare data an increasingly attractive target for cybercrime. However, the pandemic has also highlighted the need to be able to analyse and share data effectively, as the world strives for improved treatment protocols and ideally an effective and safe vaccination. Data management has become a critical tool to unlocking the value of healthcare data, during the pandemic and beyond. Here are three ways effective data management can provide value: /* custom css */ .tdi_3_0c4.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_0c4.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0...
Ghana Set to Receive Free Covax COVID-19 Vaccines
Image sourced from TimesLIVE Ghana is set to receive 600,000 COVID-19 vaccines from Covax. After a year of disruptions and more than 80,700 Ghanaians getting infected with the virus, the path to recovery for the people of Ghana is expected to finally begin. “We are pleased that Ghana has become the first country to receive the COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility. We congratulate the Government of Ghana – especially the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, and Ministry of Information – for its relentless efforts to protect the population,” reads a statement from UNICEF. “As part of the UN Country Team in Ghana, UNICEF and WHO reiterate our commitment to support the vaccination campaign and contain the spread of the virus, in close cooperation with all partners, including Gavi and...
How Technology Enables Better Healthcare in 2021
Sourced from Getty Images. The future of healthcare is shaping up in front of our very eyes with advances in digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, 3D-printing, robotics and inventory management. With the need for digital acceleration to support the healthcare landscape since the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, technology has played a critical role to improve the standards of patient healthcare and enable health-workers. Other industries, such as the entertainment and retail sectors, have met the challenge of evolving consumer expectations through digital transformation. This has allowed them to provide a more seamless experience, while fundamentally changing the way their businesses operate. The new reality for healthcare requires the redesign of health and care sys...
Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Proven ‘Less Effective’ Against South African Virus
Image sourced from TimesLIVE A lab study by Pfizer and BioNTech has shown that its COVID-19 vaccine has proven ‘less effective’ against the South African variant by producing “lower levels of neutralizing antibodies”. According to Bloomberg, the results are “part of tests of its vaccine against a lab-created virus that had all the mutations found in the South African variant, which is thought to spread faster than earlier versions”. “The mutant virus has become a stumbling block for vaccine campaigns, with South Africa halting the rollout of AstraZeneca Plc’s shot after a study showed it didn’t work as well in preventing mild illness involving the variant first identified there”. The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine – of which South Africa has received one million doses – has proven ‘minimally...
Senate asked to probe public hearing on medical council bill
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), the umbrella body of health workers in the country, has demanded that Senate probe the recent public hearing of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) Bill as it accused Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Dr. Ibrahim Oloriegbe, of disenfranchising its members. JOHESU Chairman, Comrade Joy Bio Josiah flayed what he called “vindictive and discriminatory” attitude of Dr. Oloriegbe against other medical professional bodies as he gave his constituency, MDC and NMA more time to canvass their views on the contentious bill. “We challenge Oloriegbe and the NMA to produce video and audio evidence contrary to this. The point here is Oloriegbe does not understand the philosophy and basics of running Public Hearings because he pointedly domina...
Solarise Africa Expands Footprint to Rwanda, Zambia and Uganda
Sourced from Saur Energy. Solarise Africa is set to expand to three new countries in Africa after signing a partnership agreement with Centennial Generating Co. This partnership will see the Pan-African energy leasing company add seven projects in Rwanda, spread across education, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, hospitality, and agriculture sectors, two additional projects in Zambia and one upcoming project in Uganda, to the Solarise Africa portfolio. The Solarise team is a customer-centric, responsive and predictable partner, which aligns with our company’s approach to working with customers”, says David John Frenkil, Founder and MD of Centennial. “By partnering with Solarise, we are offering both battery energy storage and solar projects to commercial and industrial facilities. These p...
AstraZeneca Vaccine Only ‘Minimally Effective’ Against South African COVID-19 Variant, says Researchers
Image sourced from TimesLIVE The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has proven ‘minimally effective’ against the South African variant, according to the Wits Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics (VIDA) research unit. So far, South Africa has received one million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. In an official report, researchers from South Africa and the UK found that “viral neutralisation by sera induced by the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 coronavirus vaccine against the B.1.351 coronavirus variant were substantially reduced when compared with the ‘original’ strain of the coronavirus”. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_ec0.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_ec0.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } Professor of Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, Sarah Gilbert revealed that efforts are alrea...
2023: Group begs Yahaya Bello to join presidential race
As the preparations for Nigeria’s presidency in 2023 intensifies, a diaspora group known as Governor Yahaya Bello Solidarity Movement, has joined the voices calling on Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello to join the race. Coordinator of the group, Joy Robinson, in a statement issued in Abuja said, that their decision to back the governor is because there’s need for what she called a competent, energetic, detribalised, progressive, courageous and a religious leader to oversee the affairs of the country. The group noted that anybody with such qualities would assist in taking the country away from the current social and economic problems facing the country, saying Bello possessed all these in addition to being a youth with a track record of performance. According to it, “After considerin...
MTN Donates $25 million to the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccination programme
Sourced from TheTechieGuy (https://thetechieguy.com/) MTN is donating $25 million to support the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. This is expected to secure up to seven million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for health workers across the continent, which will contribute to the vaccination initiative of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). “The devastating impact of COVID-19 has been unprecedented and profound. Public and private partnerships are needed if we are to succeed in the fight against the pandemic and restore social and economic norms for our continent and our communities,” says Ralph Mupita, President and CEO of MTN. South Africa’s President and Chairperson of the African Union, Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the African Union ha...
Google Plans to Help Speed Up Delivery of Vaccines
Image sourced from Pymnts Google revealed that it will be giving $150 million to promote vaccine education and making it easier to find locally relevant COVID-19 information. The company is also going to use its technology to improve vaccine distribution. “The pandemic has taken a devastating toll on communities worldwide. While there is much uncertainty still ahead, the development of multiple safe vaccines in such a short time gives us reason for hope. Now the work begins to ensure that everyone can benefit from this triumph of scientific achievement, and quickly,” says Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. To aid in the distribution, Google Cloud will help healthcare organizations, retail pharmacies, logistics companies, and public sector institutions make use of innovative technol...
