Africa
Delay in final exams may leave Zim with shortage of junior doctors
Zimbabwe could find itself without junior doctors because the University of Zimbabwe is still delaying setting final exams for fifth-year medical students from 2019. The Times reports that this is the warning the from the Zimbabwe Health Doctors...China's plan to build Africa's CDC headquarters 'a threat to Africa'
The Trump administration has cited concerns over Beijing’s scientific spying programme as the reason it wants to block a Chinese plan to build an $80m headquarters for the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Ethiopia, amid...Killer disease stumps Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
Speaking on the strange killer disease in Benue State, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was working hard to unravel the mystery. According to a Daily Post report, the minister said...Zimbabwe junior doctors end strike but senior doctors remain out
Some Zimbabwe junior doctors have ended their more than 100 days of industrial action, after the intervention of Catholic bishops but because many senior doctors remain on strike, hospital treatment remains patchy, writes MedicalBrief. Patients...Desperate Zimbabweans go to Zambia for medical care
The Zimbabwe government has, with immediate effect, hiked by 600%, fees at all public hospitals, something that is set to add more misery to suffering locals. New Zimbabwe reports that the new charges would most likely see an increase in the number...
Malawian albinos are being kidnapped and sacrificed
January 8th, 2020 Nowhere is it more dangerous to be an albino than in Malawi, where they are captured by the albino-hunting gangs and either killed immediately or taken to places of ritual sacrifice. For Malawi’s 10,000-odd albinos, being born with the...Zimbabwe senior doctors stop work as public hospital strike spreads
Senior doctors at Zimbabwe's public hospitals have gone on strike to protest against the dismissal of junior colleagues who have boycotted work over pay for nearly three months, deepening a crisis in the country's health sector. Channel News Asia...Zimbabwe fires 211 striking doctors
211 junior and middle level doctors at Zimbabwe state hospitals who had been striking for two months to press for higher pay have been fired following disciplinary hearings, says an IoL report. Last month, a Zimbabwean court has ordered doctors on...Lesotho and Namibia hit by disease outbreaks
South Africa’s neighbours, Lesotho and Namibia, have been hit by disease outbreaks, says a Cape Times report. Lesotho has reported measles in the Qacha’s Nek district, while a protracted outbreak of hepatitis E in Namibia continues to be...Zimbabwean ministers spar over starving hospital patients
Reports of Zimbabwe patients starving while in hospital came to light in parliament after Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri asked Labour and Social Welfare Minister Sekesai Nzenza what her ministry was doing to address the critical issue. “My...Zimbabwe achieves betterTB treatment coverage than SA
Zimbabwe is among the countries with high tuberculosis (TB) burdens that achieved treatment coverage levels of more than 80%, in 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reveals in its latest Global TB Report. IoL reports that in the same...Zambia's first local polio case since 1995, from vaccine
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Zambia has reported its first local case of polio since 1995, in a 2-year-old boy paralysed by a virus derived from the vaccine. According to a US News report, the WHO said the case was detected on the...DRC's Ebola epidemic contained in a 'smaller geographical area'
Efforts to halt an Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo have made "significant progress", with the virus now contained to a far smaller and mainly rural area, News24 reports the World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced. "We have...Harvard scrambles to distance itself from honour to Zimbabwe's first lady
The Global Health Catalyst (GHC) group has “clarified” its honouring of Zimbabwe’s first lady Auxillia Mnangagwa hours after several US diplomats wrote to ask it to rescind the honour. A Daily Maverick report says at the same time, Harvard...Zimbabwean doctors protest ZHDA president's abduction
A group of Zimbabwean doctors marched at the country's biggest hospital Sunday, demanding the release of one of their leaders who they say was abducted after calling for a pay strike, says an IoL report. Several government critics, including a...