WORLD NEWS

March 2016 IRIN; Angola is facing a public health emergency. Its under-funded hospitals, inadequate at the best of times, have been overwhelmed by a series of disease outbreaks, and the government has been forced to turn to private business and well-wishers for help. No one knows the true mortality figures …

March 2016 SciDevNet; In 2008, Liza (name changed) moved to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, from her rural home town where she had been gang-raped by armed forces. She left traumatised and terrified. The event changed her life completely. Not only did she contract HIV from the rape, Liza also became severely …

March 2016 Guardian; A renowned scholar and university teacher, Prof. Osato Giwa-Osagie, has tasked the public sector to establish more in-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), training centres in public hospitals across the country. This, he said, would help in addressing and reducing issues related with reproductive health that has plagued women in …

March 2016 voanews; The World Health Organization reports that an outbreak of yellow fever in Luanda, the capital of Angola, has now spread to seven other provinces as well as to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.  WHO is calling for a large-scale vaccination campaign to stop the spread …

March 2016 ThomsonReutersFoundation; Two years after the world’s worst known outbreak of Ebola was first identified, West Africa is still experiencing small flare-ups, the most recent in Guinea. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the deadly haemorrhagic virus could resurface at any time, since it can linger in …

March 2016 News24; The High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday dismissed an urgent application trying to prevent the Gauteng health department from discharging 54 patients from Life Esidimeni hospital which houses about 2 000 mental health patients. “The court agreed with the department that it has not reneged on an …

March 2016 UNICEFNews; The Government of Malawi and UNICEF have started testing the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones) to explore cost effective ways of reducing waiting times for HIV testing of infants. The test, which is using simulated samples, will have the potential to cut waiting times …

March 2016 NewEra; Non-training of specialists in primary health care, non-maintenance of infrastructure, ageing hospitals, shortages of crucial equipment and the procurement of health equipment without prior consultation with operators on the appropriate equipment needed, are but some of the many problems besieging the public health system. In addition, service …

March 2016 herald; Sixtynine mothers died while giving birth last year at Harare Central Hospital and Government is making serious efforts to reduce maternal mortality in the country, an official has said. Officially opening the newly refurbished maternity ward at Harare Central Hospital, vice chairperson of the hospital’s management board, …

March 2016 ThomsonReutersFoundation; By eating less meat and more fruit and vegetables, the world could avoid several million deaths per year by 2050, cut planet-warming emissions substantially, and save billions of dollars annually in healthcare costs and climate damage, researchers said. A new study, published in the Proceedings of the …