Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) on Thursday urged African countries not to destroy Covid-19 vaccines that have expired. This advice came following confusion in Malawi and South Sudan they said they would discard more than 70,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jab that were out of date. The WHO's Africa regional director Matshidiso Moeti said."Our advice would be that countries should ensure that they store the vaccines safely as we continue to study and try to get definitive advice on whether the vaccines can be used for longer." “My understanding is that the expiry date could be several months longer than had initially been envisaged. But we will look for the definitive information,” she added.

Ahead of the World’s Malaria Day on April 25, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an initiative to help eradicate malaria in 25 countries by 2025. The health agency is determined to eliminate the deadly disease that kills about 400,000 annually across the world. The WHO through the launch of an initiative in 2017 has supported 21 countries in their drive to eradicate malaria by 2020, of which eight countries succeeded, reporting zero caseloads of human malaria by 2020 including Iran, China, and Paraguay.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised an alarm that despite the Covid-19 vaccine rolled out in the last month, the infection and death-related cases of the coronavirus are still rising.

A device the size of a wristwatch can examine sweat and spot signs of an imminent, and deadly, cytokine storm that is caused by Covid-19 and other infections. The phenomenon occurs when chemicals in the bloodstream, referred to as cytokines, reproduce rapidly and run out of control. These tiny chemicals are designed to limit and control the immune system and when they go crooked it can lead to inflammation and organ damage. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors recognized that patients who developed a “cytokine storm” a surge of pro-inflammatory immune proteins, were often the sickest and at highest risk of dying. A cytokine storm can however occur in other illnesses, such as influenza. Presently, scientists report preliminary results on a sweat sensor that acts as an early warning system for an impending cytokine storm, which could assist doctors more effectively treat patients. The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2021 is being held online between April 5 and 30. Live sessions will be hosted between April 5 and16, and on-demand and networking content will continue through April 30. The meeting features nearly 9,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has yesterday disclosed that fatalities due to covid-19 were diminishing as the agency recorded zero death since Tuesday in Nigeria.

The United Nation International Children Endowment Fund (UNICEF)has warned Nigerian authorities that the success of wiping the wild poliovirus may be in vain except preventive measures is put in place as follow up.