Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Health & Science

Africa’s malaria deaths could double due to coronavirus fallout

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By Skylar Thoma

MAIN IMAGE: The WHO warns that as many as 769,000 people could die from malaria this year if current efforts to combat the disease, such as the distribution of treated mosquito nets, are interrupted. SOURCE: Twitter @WHO

As many as 769,000 people in Africa could die from malaria this year as efforts to combat the disease are interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, the WHO warned Thursday.

The global health body’s Regional Director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti warned that malaria deaths could soar if the distribution of treated mosquito nets is interrupted.

She said a recent analysis had found that if the net distribution outlets were closed and malaria case management was halted, malaria deaths could match numbers last seen in 2000.

In 2018, Africa recorded 213 million malaria cases and 380,000 deaths, accounting for the vast majority of malaria deaths worldwide.

WHO officials are concerned that as countries combat the coronavirus pandemic, malaria will not be the only disease that spikes – other diseases will also not get the attention or resources they require.

These fears are based on the experience of the 2014 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa. According to Moeti, malaria and other diseases were reponsible for more deaths than the Ebola virus itself during that epidemic.

“Let us not repeat that again with COVID-19,” Moeti said.

Moeti urged countries to follow the updated WHO vaccination guidelines, which recommend that countries prioritize routine vaccinations for children and adults who are at risk of catching diseases like influenza. Vaccination campaigns for diseases where there is no active outbreak may need to be put on hold.

She said one in four African children remain under-immunised. “To protect communities from diseases like measles, polio and yellow fever, it is imperative that routine immunization continues,” she said.

The Measles and Rubella Initiative reports that 24 countries have postponed their measles vaccination campaigns as a result of the coronavirus. The global coalition warned that over 117 million children are at risk of not getting a vaccine for measles, despite the fact that a vaccine has been available for over 50 years.

“Disease outbreaks must not remain a threat when we have safe and effective vaccines to protect us”, WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference on Friday. “While the world strives to develop a new vaccine for COVID-19 at record speed, we must not risk losing the fight to protect everyone, everywhere against vaccine-preventable diseases”.

Health officials are also concerned that as some countries begin to allow people to return to work and begin to reopen commercial buildings, there may be an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease, reports Reuters. The severe form of pneumonia develops in water pipes that have not been used for an extended period, meaning building owners have been advised to take extra sanitation precautions as they reopen.

New US Covid statistics suggest communities of color hit hardest by virus

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By Renny Simone

MAIN PHOTO: A map of the United States, with red circles indicating Covid hotspots (Martin Sanchez on Unsplash)

New data suggest that the coronavirus, which has been described by some as ‘the great equaliser’ due to its virtually universal impact, is not as egalitarian as it first appeared. Factors like race and class are increasingly being recognized as having a significant impact on how – and how badly – people are affected by the virus. 

Statistics from the US are beginning to show Covid-19’s disproportionate impact on Americans of color. In Chicago, where 30% of the population is black, African Americans account for more than half of reported cases and nearly 70% of deaths, according to data reported by The Hill. Statistics published by the Louisiana Department of Health tell a similar story: black Louisianans make up less than a third of the state’s population, but account for more than 70% of Covid-related deaths.

Steven Thomas, director of the Center for Health Equity at the University of Maryland, has warned against ignoring race in coronavirus interventions.

“With a colorblind policy — ‘Hey, we’re all in this together’ — we’ll be left with an explosion of Covid-19 concentrated in racial and ethnic minority communities”, Thomas told Politico.

Demographic data from the national epicenter of the outbreak appear to supports Thomas’ view. Two of New York City’s hardest-hid neighborhoods, Corona and Elmhurst, Queens, have large communities of color, according to the 2010 census.

However, neither New York City nor New York State have released race-based data on coronavirus infections – a fact that has drawn criticism from some activists and officials.

In a letter addressed to Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYC Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams called on the city to “make all data on testing, including disaggregated by race, available to the public.”

Without race-based data, he wrote, it will be impossible to design policy that helps those at greatest risk of contracting the virus. “Tracking and publishing this data is critical to facilitating the allocation and distribution of resources to the areas most in need.”

But the issue is bigger than the immediate crisis, experts of health equity have pointed out. “A pandemic just magnifies the disparities in health care that many communities of color face,” Dr. Summer Johnson McGee, dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven, told Reuters. 

Ibram Kendi, Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University, pointed to other complicating factors – including mass incarceration, homelessness, and undocumented status – that put people of color at higher risk. The “racial pandemic within the viral pandemic”, Kendi explained in The Atlantic, reflected and reproduced race-based inequalities in America.

“Sometimes racial data tell us something we don’t know. Other times we need racial data to confirm something we already seem to know,” he said.

As experts call on the government to make race a focus of response efforts, the debate has made its way to social media. Madonna was roundly criticized for calling coronavirus ‘the great equaliser’ in a video she filmed from her rose-petaled bathtub. 

One Twitter user blamed “environmental racism” for the disproportionate death rates of black Chicagoans. 

https://twitter.com/606hoodlum/status/1246968693332066310

Another called “systemic racism … a matter of life and death.”

New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who covers racial injustice, agreed. “When Covid-19 first hit America hard last month, the narrative was that it was the great equalizer,” she said, in the first tweet of a longer thread. “But those of us who understand racial caste in America knew this could never be true.”

Lab tests give new hope for patients

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News of the day from Timeslive.co.za:

By Hannah Green

Researchers at the University of Johannesburg may have come up with a silver bullet for certain cancers.

Laboratory tests suggest a newly discovered family of silver-based anti-cancer drugs could provide smaller dosages‚ lower toxicity and fewer adverse side-effects.

Read more about their discovery at Timeslive.co.za.

UJ team discovers silver lining in the dark clouds of cancer

Best lamb baa none, and now ewe can buy organic

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If you count sheep to fall asleep, you can now do it organically.

CHOPS AWAY: A merino ram shows off his agility to Karoo farmer Willie Esterhuizen and son Jacques.

Willie and Sonja Esterhuizen, of Britstown, in the Karoo, are South Africa’s first internationally certified organic sheep farmers.

The couple took a year converting their thousands of merinos into a certified organic flock, meaning no growth hormones or routine antibiotics are used and the sheep eat material not treated with herbicides or pesticides.

“Their health and wellbeing are top priority,” said Willie, whose family has farmed Elandsfontein for three generations.

The abattoir they use is certified organic, and the meat is sold at a certified butchery in Durbanville, Cape Town.

Elandsfontein’s certification means that its meat is produced to the organic standards of the EU and countries including Australia and Turkey, according to Marianna Smith of Ecocert Southern Africa.

Esterhuizen said organic food was a “growing niche market” and provided export opportunities. Going organic did not increase productivity, but meant the farm could charge more for its meat.

Stellenbosch University agricultural students helped make the farm organic.

“We still need to convert a small portion of our farming operations to 100% organic standards, but because of the valuable relationships with researchers in sustainable agriculture who are studying our endeavours we were able to get international certification,” said Esterhuizen.

The next step is to investigate the production of organic wool and lanolin, a wool by-product used in cosmetics.

“There is not yet a market for organic wool in South Africa, because it is so expensive to wash and process it,” said Esterhuizen.

Stellenbosch student Sarah Erasmus got a PhD in food science this month for research showing Karoo lamb’s unique taste comes from a diet of fragrant indigenous bushes.

Emily Rizzo is on an SIT Study Abroad programme. She wrote this story in association with Round Earth Media

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