Africa
60% of foreign-trained doctors fail Nigerian practice exams
More than half of the foreign-trained doctors and dentists failed examinations to secure practice licence of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), this year, says a Daily Trust report. A total 334 doctors and seven dentists who graduated...AU strategy to end Aids, TB and Malaria by 2030 adopted
AU heads of state and governments have adopted the AIDS Watch Africa Strategic Framework that will bolster the work of the highest level continental vehicle for joint action, advocacy and accountability towards ending Aids, TB and malaria. During...SSA in the grip of a rapidly expanding diabetes epidemic
Sub-Saharan Africa is in the midst of a rapidly expanding diabetes epidemic that could have devastating health and economic consequences for the region unless quick and decisive action is taken to turn the tide, according to a major new report from...Nigeria launches mass meningitis vaccination campaign after 336 deaths
Nigeria is launching a mass vaccination campaign as part of its emergency response to an outbreak of meningitis in its north-western states, as the death toll climbed to 336, said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. Reuters Africa reports...Kenyan public service doctors reject no-private-work clause
Public service doctors in Kenya have removed a contentious clause barring them from private practice in a document filed recently in court, says a Daily Nation report. The doctors version of the return-to-work formula (RTWF) struck off the clause,...Mozambique warns that cholera outbreak not slowing
Mozambique is battling a cholera outbreak that has infected 1,222 people and killed two, the country's health ministry said, warning that it has been unable to slow its spread. The Times quotes deputy director of public health Benigna Matsinhe as...
Ebola nurse's death to be investigated among claims of treatment being refused
March 8th, 2017 The 2014 West African Ebola outbreak killed 11,310 people. Liberian nursing assistant Salome Karwah was not one of them. The disease that tore through her town in August of that year took her mother, her father, her brother, aunts, uncles, cousins...Drug resistant malaria detected in Africa for the first time
For the first time in Africa, researchers said, they have detected a malaria parasite that is partially resistant to the top anti-malaria drug, artemisinin, raising concern about efforts to fight a disease that sickens hundreds of millions of people...Officials of Kenyan doctors' union jailed; Zim doctor's strike looms
A Kenyan court has jailed seven union officials over a doctors’ strike, while in Zimbabwe, government doctors are bracing for a crippling strike. Business Day reports that the sentencing prompted the union to say it was calling off talks with the...Most Zimbabwean deaths in SA linked to HIV/Aids
Figures from Zimbabwe’s South African Consulate show that more than 300 Zimbabweans die in SA every month, with more than a third of deaths related to HIV/Aids. Zim News reports that this is according to the consul-general to South Africa,...Doctors and professors arrested in swoop on human organ trafficking
Egyptian authorities have announced the arrest of 25 members of an international network allegedly trafficking in human organs, including university professors and doctors, reports The Times. "Today at dawn, the largest international network for...GSK and Nigerian govt freeze pneumonia vaccine price
Nigeria has in conjunction with pharmaceutical company GSK pledged not to increase the price of pneumonia vaccines for 10 years. THISDAY reports that the plan would ensure that children in the country do not die of the disease, which is now the...Africa to pilot malaria vaccine projects
The World Health Organisation has confirmed that the world’s first malaria vaccine will be rolled out in pilot projects in sub-Saharan Africa. Funding is now secured for the initial phase of the programme and vaccinations are due to begin in...Pfizer follows GSK on PCV vaccine price cut
The international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has welcomed pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s to follow an earlier GSK decision to lower the price of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) for children caught in...Zimbabwe's 'national crisis' over typhoid and cholera
An acute and growing shortage of medicines in Zimbabwe is worsening the spread of typhoid and cholera throughout the country, aid agencies have warned. Parliamentarians called on President Robert Mugabe to declare a national health crisis as...