HomeAfrica
Africa
Lack of testing raises fears that pandemic epicentre is moving to Africa
As the daily number of new COVID-19 infections appears to be falling in parts of the world, some fear the epicentre of the virus...
Africa's COVID-19 numbers expected to rise sharply
Africa will likely see higher numbers of coronavirus cases in coming weeks because of the likelihood some are slipping through the net, the head...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
Malawian albinos are being kidnapped and sacrificed
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Burundi starts Ebola vaccinations for health workers — WHO
The Burundian Ministry of Public Health and AIDS Control has kicked off the vaccination campaign for front-line staff against the Ebola virus disease. The...
Two Ebola treatment trials show promise of a cure
A trial of four experimental Ebola treatments carried out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been stopped early after two of...
Congo doctors arrested for murder of WHO medic
Three Congolese doctors have been arrested in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the killing of a World Health Organisation (WHO) medic, BBC News...
More Ebola cases in eastern DRC 'cross-roads' city
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are racing to contain an Ebola epidemic, after a gold miner with a large family contaminated several...
Concern over contraceptive solutions for women at high risk of HIV
Over the past three days, the World Health Organisation guideline development group has been meeting to discuss its recommendations for the use of contraceptive...
Lesotho opens 'lowest cost in world' cannabis processing plant
Lesotho, long home to an illicit cannabis farming industry, is poised to become one of the world's biggest producers of medicinal cannabis oil with...
Death toll in the DRC Ebola outbreak passes 1,500
More than 1,500 people have died in a nearly 10-month-old outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC Health Ministry is...
Bafflement as WHO says DRC Ebola crisis 'not an international health emergency'
Controversially, the World Health Organisation has decided that while the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo - with new cases this week...
85 health workers killed or injured in DRC as epidemic pass 2,000
A mob killed an Ebola health worker and looted a clinic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, underscoring a breakdown in public trust that...
WHO issues new Ebola vaccine recommendations
The World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) has issued new recommendations to address vaccination challenges in the ongoing Ebola outbreak in...
Madagascar's devastating measles epidemic takes 1,200 lives
As Madagascar faces its largest measles outbreak in history and cases soar well beyond 115,000, an IoL report says that resistance to vaccinating children...
Hospital reports a jump in cholera cases in Kenyan capital
The Kenyan capital of Nairobi has experienced a jump in cholera cases, one of the city's top hospitals has announced, adding that eight of...
Merck Foundation to train specialist Zimbabwean doctors in India
Merck Foundation has announced that it will train medical personnel from Zimbabwe in various specialities in India starting this year, says an African Daily...
Disease costs continent almost $2.4trn a year — WHO
Disease is causing an “astounding” drain on Africa’s economy, costing the continent almost $2.4trn each year. The Daily Telegraph reports that this is according...
DRC Ebola outbreak spreading at its fastest rate yet
Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak is spreading at its fastest rate yet, eight months after it was first detected, The Times reports the...
Zim doctors protest over shortages upping mortality risk
Picketing doctors say that patients in Zimbabwe's biggest state hospital are dying due to a lack of medicines and basic supplies, brought on by...
Efforts to curb DRC's Ebola outbreak are failing — MSF
The international president of Medécins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) has issued a scathing analysis of the efforts to control the 7-month-old Ebola...
Tunisia's health minister resigns over new-born baby deaths
Tunisia's Health Minister Abderraouf Cherif has resigned following the deaths of 11 new-born babies at a hospital in the capital, Tunis. BBC News reports...
Poorer African nations rank high in disease-fighting league table, but SA languishes
African countries with modest national incomes are outperforming some richer nations on the continent in the fight against diseases of poverty known as neglected...
Zimbabwean doctors's strike collapses
Zimbabwean doctors have ended a 40-day strike for better pay and conditions that crippled public hospitals without a deal on salary increases, their union...
Zimbabwe fires 550 doctors and radiographers over 'unlawful' strike
A month-long impasse between government and doctors over pay and conditions has left Zimbabwe’s health care system in a critical state, after the government...
Zimbabwe doctors strike, demanding pay in hard currency
Doctors in Zimbabwe have gone on strike in protest over poor working conditions and have also demanded that the government pay their salaries in...
Kenya bans Marie Stopes from offering abortion services
Kenya has banned the international charity Marie Stopes from offering abortion services to women and girls after complaints it was promoting the termination of...