Tag Archives: health

Beni, DR Congo | AFP | The World Health Organization (WHO) said Saturday that 16 staff members have been temporarily evacuated from DR Congo’s restive eastern city of Beni after a shell hit the building they were staying in. The incident occurred in the Ebola-plagued region during clashes between UN …

Libreville, Gabon | AFP | The African Union on Saturday warned Gabon to respect constitutional order after a high court intervened in a crisis surrounding the country’s hospitalised President Ali Bongo. A statement by AU Commission chair Moussa Faki Mahamat emphasised that the 55-member group of African nations had a …

Beni, DR Congo | AFP | Efforts to fight an Ebola outbreak in DR Congo’s restive eastern Beni region were suspended Saturday after clashes just a “few metres” from a local emergency centre and the hotels of several response teams, the health ministry said. UN peacekeepers from the MONUSCO mission …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Since starting treatment five years ago, 50-year-old Alice Chenyika kept her blood pressure under control by adhering to doctors’ strict instructions to take two daily doses of nifedipine. Now Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis has pushed prices up, and the medicine is far beyond her reach …

Havana, Cuba | AFP | Cuba announced Wednesday it will pull thousands of its doctors out of Brazil in response to president-elect Jair Bolsonaro’s “direct, contemptuous and threatening” remarks about its medical aid program. The far-right leader has repeatedly criticized the Communist-run island’s “More Doctors” program — which sends thousands …

Why some are safer than others Kampala, Uganda | GLENDA MARY DAVISON | Recent media reports revealed that digital home pregnancy tests being sold at leading pharmacies in South Africa and the UK were consistently giving false positive results. Both countries acted quickly. The home pregnancy kits, reportedly manufactured by a …

Why do you crave fatty foods after drinking even when you know it’s a bad combination? Kampala, Uganda | AGENCIES | You know the drill: You’ve been good all week, watching what you eat. So you accept that happy hour invitation from your co-workers to have a few drinks on Friday …

Harnessing data, awareness and investment to tackle Africa’s wastewater woes Kampala, Uganda | AGENCIES | With an estimated 56 per cent of Africa’s urban population living in slums, wastewater management on the continent is a problem that needs urgent attention. In the streets of Kibera, one of the world’s largest informal …

Lagos, Nigeria | AFP | Suspected cholera cases have jumped in northeast Nigeria where Boko Haram violence has forced tens of thousands of people to seek refuge in crowded camps, the Norwegian Refugee Council said Monday. The humanitarian group said 10,000 people have been affected by the fast-spreading cholera outbreak …

Paris, France | AFP | Pneumonia will kill nearly 11 million children under five by 2030, experts warned Monday on a global day aimed at raising awareness of the biggest infectious killer of infants worldwide. While in the developed world the severe lung infection mainly affects the elderly, in developing …