Istanbul, Turkey | AFP | In full protective gear, two doctors climb the stairs four at a time. Their first task of the day: to test a woman who has had contact with a coronavirus patient in Istanbul. Visibly perturbed by the appearance of men in white bodysuits on her landing, …
Read More »Tunisia hopes novel methods will aid virus fight
Tunis, Tunisia | AFP | The feared impact of coronavirus on Tunisia’s fragile public health system has provoked a flurry of innovation from robotics to digitalisation efforts to bolster the North African country’s pandemic response. The government has even turned to students for help, asking the engineering school in Sousse, south …
Read More »Struggle, fear and heartbreak for medical staff on virus frontline
Rome, Italy | AFP | Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have become the unwitting heroes of the coronavirus pandemic, winning applause from balconies and streets around the world. From Yaounde to Rome to New York, the pandemic has infected more than 1.9 million people and claimed 118,000 lives. Hospital workers are …
Read More »Struggle, fear and heartbreak for medical staff on virus frontline
Rome, Italy | AFP | Doctors, nurses and healthcare workers have become the unwitting heroes of the coronavirus pandemic, winning applause from balconies and streets around the world. From Yaounde to Rome to New York, the pandemic has infected more than 1.9 million people and claimed 118,000 lives. Hospital workers are …
Read More »Smartphone vs virus, is privacy always going to be the loser?
Paris, France | AFP | In Europe, officials, doctors and engineers are looking at how smartphones could be enlisted in the war against the spread of the new coronavirus. One obvious attraction for health officials is the possibility of using smartphones to find out with whom someone diagnosed with COVID-19 has …
Read More »Medical workers protest harassment during curfew
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Medical workers under their umbrella organization, the Uganda Medical Association are threatening to lay down their tools if the government doesn’t clarify how they are to operate in the wake of Coronavirus Disease (COVID -19) which came with lockdowns, in among others, public transport. …
Read More »Ugandan doctors seek right to advertise amid pressure from herbalists
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Doctors are urging the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Council to put in place a mechanism or guidelines that can enable them to advertise their services. Dr Fredrick Nelson Nakwagala, a Senior Health Researcher and head of the Directorate of Medicine at Mulago …
Read More »DR Congo makes new push to fight year-old Ebola epidemic
Goma, DR Congo | AFP | An Ebola epidemic raging in eastern DR Congo marks its first year on Thursday in a mood of fear mingled with hope that fresh money and a change of leadership will turn the tide. So far, 1,790 people have died of the dreaded haemorrhagic virus …
Read More »Cuban doctors kidnapped by suspected Al-Shabaab militants in Kenya
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Suspected Somali Al-Shabaab jihadis kidnapped two Cuban doctors Friday and killed their police protection officer in northeastern Kenya, police sources said. They said the two doctors and their guard were on the way to work in the town of Mandera when they were attacked. “It …
Read More »AI system spots childhood disease like a doctor
Paris, France | AFP | An artificial intelligence (AI) programme developed in China that combs through test results, health records and even handwritten notes diagnosed childhood diseases as accurately as doctors, researchers said Monday. From the flu and asthma to life-threatening pneumonia and meningitis, the system consistently matched or out-performed primary …
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