World Health Organization
FIFA partners AU, WHO, CAF to promote campaign against domestic violence in Africa
FIFA is joining forces with the African Union, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to jointly address the issue of domestic violence by launching the #SafeHome campaign across the African continent. The initiative is designed to support women and children victims of domestic violence, particularly as stay-at-home measures in response to COVID-19 have put them at greater risk. A number of African football stars are supporting the campaign via video awareness messages distributed on social and traditional media. The African Union-FIFA-CAF memorandum of understanding, which was concluded in February 2019, covers joint campaigns on topics of mutual interest and the promotion of gender equality, a key principle. Other areas of collaboration includ...
PTF decries continued refusal by hospitals to treat patients for fear of coronavirus
The Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 (PTF) has decried the continued refusal by medical institutions including federal tertiary institutions to receive and treat patients for fear COVID-19. PTF lamented that this development has resulted in several unfortunate and avoidable fatalities. Meanwhile, the PTF will conclude its assessment on the impact of the measures put in place and further recommendations would be submitted to the President for a decision within the next seventy hours. Chairman of PTF and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, who disclosed this at the daily Press Briefing in Abuja, noted that Nigeria is having more deaths from non-attendance to other diseases than even COVID 19 adding that the reason for the greater emphasis on COVID 19 is ...
FIFA, WHO, EU launch campaign to help domestic violence victims amid coronavirus lockdown
FIFA, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission have announced the #SafeHome campaign designed to support women and children at risk of domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic. With many families all over the world quarantined during the pandemic, there have been spikes in recent reports of domestic violence as at-risk women and children are forced into dangerous situations at home. The three organisations have launched a five-part video campaign designed to raise awareness, with several past and present footballing stars taking part. Among the players featured are Alvaro Arbeloa, Rosana Augusto, Vítor Baia, Khalilou Fadiga, Matthias Ginter, David James, Annike Krahn, Marco Materazzi, Milagros Menendez, Noemi Pascotto, Graham Potter, Mikael Silvestre, Kelly ...
Hydroxychloroquine Trials for COVID-19 Suspended by WHO
Sourced from Getty Images. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it is pausing clinical trials on the use of the controversial malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat patients with COVID-19. This was one of four experimental treatments being investigated by the organization and has been under intense scrutiny for some time after it was championed by tech mogul Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump. “The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board,” says Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, during a press briefing. This “Solidarity trial” is the WHO’s global investigation into experimental treatments for COVID-19 – including hyd...
US coronavirus death toll exceeds 90,000 as Donald Trump urges reopening
The coronavirus death toll in the United States surpassed 90,000 on Monday as the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases exceeded 1.5 million across the country, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. The grim milestones came as President Donald Trump tweeted to “REOPEN OUR COUNTRY!” and the White House attempted to shift blame, including onto its own scientists, for the high number of deaths. On Sunday, members of Trump administration disagreed on whether the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) let the country down with testing efforts. “Early on in this crisis, the CDC, which really had the most trusted brand around the world in this space, really let the country down with the testing,” Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, told NBC’s Meet the Press programme....
Nigeria overtakes Ghana as confirmed coronavirus cases hit 84,000 in Africa
The World Health Organization, WHO, regional office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Africa has risen to over 84,000 in the past 24 hours. The UN health agency gave the update on its official Twitter account on Monday morning. According to the tweet, COVID-19 has killed 2,700 people on the continent, while 32,000 people have recovered from the virus. “Over 84,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent – with more than 32,000 recoveries & 2,700 deaths,” it said. Nigeria is now the highest country in West Africa, with 5,959 cases and 182 deaths, followed by Ghana with 5,735 cases and 29 deaths. The Africa CDC COVID-19 dashboard showed that South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco have continued to top the list of countries w...
No ‘miracle cure’ for coronavirus until clinical trials prove Madagascar’s herbal medicine
Scientists are putting an herbal remedy from Madagascar, purported to cure COVID-19, to the test. Researchers at Germany’s Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, in Potsdam, are collaborating with a U.S. company, ArtemiLife, to test an extract from the plant Artemisia annua to determine its effectiveness in speeding recovery from the virus. “We are working with two independent laboratories to ensure the highest possible quality and exclude any bias in the results,” Peter Seeberger, lead researcher, told VOA in an email response. Seeberger is hopeful the first results will be back soon. “We have collected a significant body of data but are again repeating the work to make sure any results are reproducible multiple times,” he said. “Within the next couple of weeks, we will be in a ...
ExxonMobil presents ambulances, other items to support coronavirus response
File Photo Mobil Producing Nigeria, an ExxonMobil affiliate, and operator of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation/Mobil Producing Nigeria Joint Venture has presented two ambulances, 20 additional vehicles and medical supplies to various state governments and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, to assist in the nation’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement obtained by newsmen, the company stated: “The Akwa Ibom State Government is receiving two ambulances for emergency cases and 15 other vehicles, while Rivers State is receiving five vehicles. “Medical supplies, including World Health Organization certified COVID-19 test kits, sample collection kits and hospital beds valued at more than N90 million will be distributed to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control,...
Nigeria warns recovered coronavirus patients not to reveal drugs used on them to stem self-medication
The federal government has told COVID-19 survivors to stop giving details of the drugs used for their treatment, so they don’t encourage self-medication. The Chairman, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, made the plea at a press briefing in Abuja. This follows recent revelations by some high-profile survivors, who spoke about the drugs administered on them during their treatment. Mustapha, who is also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, expressed concern that some of the testimonies disclosing the prescription for treatment could encourage patients to indulge in self-medication instead of seeking help from health authorities. “The PTF congratulates and appreciates the testimonies of Nigerians who have recovered from COVID-19, which has given us more insights ...
WHO warns virus may be here to stay as toll nears 300,000
The coronavirus may never go away and populations will have to learn to live with it just as they have HIV, the World Health Organization has warned, as the global death toll from the disease nears 300,000. There were also gloomy forecasts from the US Federal Reserve, which said prolonged shutdowns to stem the spread of the virus could cause lasting economic damage in America. Washington ratcheted up tensions over the pandemic by accusing China of trying to steal research into a vaccine, while US President Donald Trump upped the rhetoric with a colourful phrase that could anger Beijing. “We just made a great Trade Deal, the ink was barely dry, and the World was hit by the Plague from China. 100 Trade Deals wouldn’t make up the difference — and all those innocent lives lost!” Trump tweeted....
WHO: Coronavirus may never go away
The new coronavirus may never go away and populations around the world will have to learn to live with it, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday. As some countries around the world begin gradually easing lockdown restrictions imposed in a bid to stop the novel coronavirus from spreading, the WHO said it may never be wiped out entirely. The virus first emerged in Wuhan in China late last year and has since infected more than 4.2 million people and killed nearly 300,000 worldwide. “We have a new virus entering the human population for the first time and therefore it is very hard to predict when we will prevail over it,” said Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies director. “This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away,” he told a ...
Nigeria increases coronavirus testing above 27, 000
The Federal Government on Monday said the country has ramped up testing for the coronavirus to 27,078. Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health, disclosed this in Abuja at the Presidential Taskforce (PTF) briefing on COVID-19 in the country. Ehanire said this has yielded about 4,399 cases in 35 states with a gender ratio of 30 per cent to 70 per cent of men and women. He said 778 persons have been discharged with 143 deaths. The minister added that personnel in federal hospitals participated in a multi-national teleconference with medical and academic experts in Beijing on the COVID-19 treatment strategy of China. “Our COVID-19 response must become a concerted national collaborative drive to become more effective. “This requires synergies across all tiers of government levels which should be...
