The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), has said that six states, Cross River (397), Zamfara (25), Ebonyi (11), Abia (9), Bayelsa (3) and Kano (2), reported 447 suspected cholera cases in weeks 5 to 9 of 2023.
The NCDC, via its official website on Monday, said, however, that 12 states have reported suspected cholera cases since the beginning of 2023 – Abia, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Kano, Katsina, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Sokoto and Zamfara.
The agency said that as of March 5, a total of 922 suspected cases, including 32 deaths (CFR 3.5%), were reported from the 12 States in 2023, including Cross River (16), Ebonyi (six), Abia (six), Niger (two), Zamfara (one) and Bayelsa (one).
The NCDC’s epidemiological report showed that of all the cases recorded since the beginning of 2023, Cross River state accounted for 70 per cent of the cumulative cases across the country, with its 647 cases.It said that Cross River’s 16 deaths, accounted for 50 per cent of all cholera deaths in the country.
The NCDC said:
“National multi-sectoral Cholera Technical Working Group (TWG) continues to monitorresponse across states.
It said that of the suspected cases since the beginning of 2023, the age group above 45 years is the most affected for males and females.
The NCDC said that of all suspected cases, 54 per cent were males and 46 per cent were females.The World Health Organization (WHO), defined cholera as an acute diarrheal illness caused by infection of the intestine with Vibrio cholera bacteria.
WHO said that people can get sick when they swallow food or water contaminated with cholera bacteria. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but can sometimes be severe and life-threatening.
It said that about one in 10 people with cholera will experience severe symptoms, which, in the early stages, include, profuse watery diarrhoea, sometimes described as “rice-water stools”, vomiting, thirst, leg cramps and restlessness or irritability.
The World Health Organisation says Tanzania confirmed its first-ever cases of Marburg after conducting laboratory tests in the country’s northwest Kagera region.
WHO, in a statement on Wednesday, said lab tests were carried out after eight people in the region developed symptoms of the “highly virulent” disease, including fever, vomiting, bleeding and kidney failure.
Five of the eight confirmed cases have died, including a health worker, and the remaining three are being treated. The agency also identified 161 contacts of those infected, who are currently being monitored.
“The efforts by Tanzania’s health authorities to establish the cause of the disease is a clear indication of the determination to effectively respond to the outbreak.
We are working with the government to rapidly scale up control measures to halt the spread of the virus and end the outbreak as soon as possible,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.
While this is the first time Tanzania has recorded a Marburg case, the country has first-hand experience responding to other crises including COVID-19, cholera and dengue within the past three years.
In September 2022, WHO conducted a strategic risk assessment that revealed the country was at high risk for infectious diseases outbreaks.
“The lessons learnt, and progress made during other recent outbreaks should stand the country in good stead as it confronts this latest challenge. We will continue to work closely with the national health authorities to save lives,” Ms Moeti said.
Marburg virus commonly causes hemorrhagic fever, with a high fatality ratio of up to 88 per cent. It is part of the same family as the virus that causes Ebola. Symptoms associated with the Marburg virus start suddenly, with high fever, severe headache and intense malaise.
The virus is commonly transmitted to humans from fruit bats and spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials.
While there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the virus, supportive care, rehydration and treatment of specific symptoms increase chances of survival.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the rollout of the first malaria vaccine in Africa.
The WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who confirmed the development at a media briefing on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland, said the rollout of the vaccine aimed at reducing infant mortality arising from malaria across the continent.
He said the RTS,S vaccine would be made available to countries after successful pilot programmes in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
The RTS,S vaccine, also known as Mosquirix, was developed by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Ghebreyesus said: “I started my career as a malaria researcher, and I longed for the day that we would have an effective vaccine against this ancient and terrible disease. And today is that day, a historic day. Today, the WHO is recommending the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine.
Using this vaccine in addition to existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.
“It is safe. It significantly reduces life-threatening, severe malaria, and we estimate it to be highly cost-effective.
“Malaria has been with us for millennia, and the dream of a malaria vaccine has been a long-held, but unattainable dream. Today, the RTS,S malaria vaccine, more than 30 years in the making, changes the course of public health history. We still have a very long road to travel. But this is a long stride down that road.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday the third wave of COVID-19 was stabilising in Africa.
The WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, disclosed this to journalists at a media briefing in Abuja.
He, however, added that the number of new cases was still very high with 248, 000 reported in the past week.
The WHO official stressed that trend in Africa was that each new wave struck the continent “faster and harder, reaching a higher number of new cases, more rapidly than the previous wave.”
He said: “This puts an increasing strain on already stretched health facilities and health workers.
The good news is that, increasing vaccine supplies raises hope that the continent will meet the target of vaccinating 10 percent of the population by the end of September.”
He noted that equitable access to safe and effective vaccines was critical to ending the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Mulombo added: “However, to understand the recent upward trend that Nigeria is experiencing, we must remind ourselves that weak observance of preventive measures, increased population movement and interaction had heightened the risk of COVID-19 resurgence in many states.
These factors can contribute to increased case numbers. This ebb and flow in the pandemic’s transmission dynamics is expected and is likely to continue until a sizeable proportion of the Nigerian population is vaccinated.
“We have also been asked, at what point would WHO reconsider its position on booster doses”?
“The answer is, first, WHO is looking carefully at the outcome, which is of most relevance from a public health perspective, that is the severe disease, hospitalization and death outcomes.
“The second consideration is the consistency of the findings. Acting on a single study is just not a sound policy basis. So, we are including the entirety of the evidence.
The third consideration is around the issue of the risk groups. Recommendations around the use of booster doses will very much be tailored to risk groups which may experience some change in the performance of the vaccines over a period.”
The use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been suspended in the Republic of Ireland.
The National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) recommended the move following reports of serious blood clotting events in adults in Norway.
In a tweet, the Irish Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said it was a “precautionary step”.
The World Health Organisation has said there was no link between the jab and an increased risk of developing a clot.
The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said it was aware of the suspension in Ireland and was “closely reviewing reports”.
“But given the large number of doses administered, and the frequency at which blood clots can occur naturally, the evidence available does not suggest the vaccine is the cause.”
On Friday, the World Health Organisation said countries should not stop using the vaccine over fears it causes blood clots as there is no indication this is true.
More than 110,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered in Ireland, which is about 20% of all doses given to date.
Brazil has recorded 268,370 fatalities since the pandemic began
Brazil has exceeded 2,000 Covid-related deaths in a single day for the first time, as infection rates soar.
The country has the second highest death toll in the world, behind the US, with a total of 268,370 fatalities. Wednesday’s total was 2,286.
Experts warn the transmission rate is made worse by more contagious variants.
On Wednesday, former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hit out at President Jair Bolsonaro’s “stupid” decisions made during the pandemic.
Mr Bolsonaro, who was pictured wearing a mask for the first time in a month on Wednesday, has consistently sought to downplay the threat posed by the virus. Earlier this week he told people to “stop whining”.
The surge in cases has put health systems in most of Brazil’s largest cities under immense pressure, with many close to collapse, Brazil’s leading public health centre Fiocruz warns.
Margareth Dalcolmo, a doctor and researcher at Fiocruz said the country was “at the worst moment of the pandemic”.
“2021 is still going to be a very hard year,” she told AFP news agency.
The latest deaths mean Brazil has a rate of 128 deaths per 100,000 population – 11th highest amongst 20 of the worst affected countries in the world. The highest rates are in the Czech Republic with 208 deaths per 100,000 people and the UK with 188 deaths per 100,000 people, according to Johns Hopkins University in the US.
Thursday is the anniversary of a pandemic being declared by the World Health Organization. Worldwide more than 118 million cases of the virus have been recorded, and more than 2.6 million deaths.
What’s the situation in Brazil?
On Wednesday, the country recorded 79,876 new cases, the third highest number in a single day. A surge in cases in recent days has been attributed to the spread of a highly contagious variant of the virus – named P1 – which is thought to have originated in the Amazon city of Manaus.
A total of 2,286 people died with the virus on Wednesday.
Reports say the capital Brasilia has now reached full ICU capacity, while two cities – Porto Alegre and Campo Grande – have exceeded capacity.
In its report, the institute warned that figures point to the “overload and even collapse of health systems”.
Brazilian epidemiologist Dr Pedro Hallal told the BBC’s Outside Source TV programme: “If we do not start vaccinating the population here very soon, it will become a massive tragedy.”
Dr Hallal, who works in Rio Grande do Sul, said people felt “abandoned by the federal government”.
Mr Bolsonaro has belittled the risks posed by the virus from the start of the pandemic. He has also opposed quarantine measures taken at a regional level, arguing that the damage to the economy would be worse than the effects of the virus itself.
Preliminary data suggests the P1 variant could be up to twice as transmittable as the original version of the virus.
It also suggests that the new variant could evade immunity built up by having had the original version of Covid. The chance of reinfection is put at between 25% and 60%.
image captionThe new coronavirus variant first detected in Brazil has led to a surge in deaths in the country
Last week, the Fiocruz Institute said P1 was just one of several “variants of concern” that have become dominant in six of eight states studied by the Rio-based organisation.
“This information is an atomic bomb,” said Roberto Kraenkel, of the Covid-19 Brazil Observatory, told the Washington Post newspaper.
World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has described the situation in Brazil as “very concerning” and warned of a possible regional spillover.
Covid-19 deaths are currently five times lower than they were in March and April, when the first wave hit the continent, the WHO’s European director, Dr Hans Kluge, told a news conference on Thursday.
One reason for the increase in cases seen in recent weeks is more young people testing positive for the virus, he said, adding that the lower mortality rate was because that demographic was less likely to die from Covid-19 than older people.
But projections of the course of the disease in Europe were “not optimistic”, he explained.
If European governments relax their restrictions, the course of the virus indicates that by January 2021 the daily mortality rate will be four to five times higher than it was during April, Dr Kluge said.
But if 95% of people wear masks and other social distancing measures are applied, Europe could avoid about 281,000 deaths by February, he added.
He said that governments must consider mental health and domestic violence when imposing restrictions, and do everything possible to keep schools open.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has called on countries to step up their preparations, advising governments to co-ordinate contact tracing and the eventual deployment of vaccines.
A test that can diagnose Covid-19 in minutes will dramatically expand the capacity to detect cases in low- and middle-income countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
The $5 (£3.80) test could transform tracking of Covid-19 in less wealthy countries, which have shortages of healthcare workers and laboratories. A deal with manufacturers will provide 120 million tests over six months.
The WHO’s head called it a major milestone.
Lengthy gaps between taking a test and receiving a result have hampered many countries’ attempts to control the spread of coronavirus.
In some countries with high infection rates, including India and Mexico, experts have said that low testing rates are disguising the true spread of their outbreaks.
The “new, highly portable and easy-to-use test” will provide results in 15-30 minutes instead of hours or days, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference on Monday.
Drugs manufacturers Abbott and SD Biosensor have agreed with the charitable Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to produce 120 million of the tests, Dr Tedros explained.
The deal covers 133 countries, including many in Latin America which is currently the region hardest-hit by the pandemic in terms of fatality and infection rates.
“This is a vital addition to their testing capacity and especially important in areas of high transmission,” Dr Tedros added.
“This will enable the expansion of testing, particularly in hard-to-reach areas that do not have laboratory facilities or enough trained health workers to carry out tests,” he said.
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