January 2021 theStandard; A decision by the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to use a couple’s picture in its commercial advertisements is to cost the taxpayer Sh10 million. The Court of Appeal declined to set aside conditions set by the trial court for the corporation to appeal against the ruling, …
Read More »KENYA: The plastic threat to your health
January 2021 thestandard; You may soon be confronted with graphic health warnings on your pizza box or candy wrapper of possible cancer risk. Why, because the plastics contain components known as endocrine disrupting chemicals that are causing great harm to health. Similar restrictions are also being contemplated on a host …
Read More »Europe has kept its schools open for much of the pandemic. Now closures loom
January 2020 CNN; The coronavirus pandemic transformed the working and social lives of millions of European adults in 2020. Children too have suffered immensely, with months of confinement only giving way to some sense of normality when schools in most countries reopened in the summer and autumn. Now even that is under …
Read More »Vaccine Rollout – Here Is Where South Africa Stands
December 2020 GroundUp; Johnson & Johnson is trying to get approval for a vaccine against Covid-19 that only requires one shot. Details of the vaccine’s trial are expected to be released in January. Only a massive global rollout of an effective vaccine can end the Covid-19 pandemic in the short …
Read More »KENYA: Country Faces Full Blown Health Crisis As Doctors’ Strike Begins
December 2020 Nation; The crisis at public hospitals is expected to grow worse as doctors join nurses and clinical officers in boycotting work. For two weeks, public hospitals have been manned by doctors after the other healthcare employees went on strike. The new crisis comes at critical time – the …
Read More »New COVID strain: Six key questions answered
December 2020 Aljazeera; A new variant of the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is spreading rapidly in the United Kingdom and prompting high levels of concern among its European neighbours, some of which have cut transport links. The strain, referred to by some experts as the B.1.1.7 lineage, is not the first …
Read More »Why Aga Khan Hospital has banned the use of valve facemasks
The Aga Khan University Hospital announced on Wednesday that it has banned the use of facemasks with valve respirators within its premises. The move is effective immediately, meaning neither staff nor members of the public going to any of its facilities will be let through while wearing them. While health experts …
Read More »UK: ‘New variant’ of coronavirus identified – Hancock
December 2020 BBC; A new variant of coronavirus has been found which is growing faster in some parts of England, MPs have been told. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said at least 60 different local authorities had recorded Covid infections caused by the new variant. He said the World Health Organization …
Read More »Covid-19: First vaccine given in US as roll-out begins
December 2020 CNN; The first Covid-19 vaccination in the United States has taken place, as the country gears up for its largest ever immunisation campaign. An intensive care nurse in Long Island, New York, is believed to have been the first person to be given the jab. Millions of vials …
Read More »INDIA: Mystery illness investigators in India find excessive levels of lead, nickel in patients’ blood
December 2020 CBC; Indian health officials have found traces of nickel and lead in a few of the blood samples taken from hundreds of patients who have been hospitalized by a mysterious illness in a southern state, officials said. The Andhra Pradesh state government said in a statement Tuesday night that …
Read More »