Non-European doctors have become indispensable for France as the country’s healthcare system struggles to deal with the coronavirus crisis. But with foreign university degrees, they are not seen as equals to their French counterparts, and are often both paid and respected less.

Nesrine Mahfoudhi works in a Covid-19 unit in a French hospital. Like all of her coworkers, she has had to cope with the unprecedented spike in patients due to the coronavirus. But one thing sets her apart: she earned her medical degree outside the EU, meaning she does not have the same professional status as European doctors.

“We work more than our French co-workers, out of necessity. We’re paid less than them. My head of service trusts me. He’s considered me as a real doctor since I started working here. So I don’t see why the French government doesn’t consider us as doctors as well,” she says.

She is not alone. Thousands of foreign doctors practice in France, often in less secure jobs and with a lower pay, and many of them have become indispensable in dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

“Many emergency departments wouldn’t be able to function without doctors with foreign medical degrees. These doctors have done so much for France,” Mathias Wargon, head of the ER at the Delafontaine Hospital in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

Many now hope that a healthcare law passed by lawmakers last year will make it easier for foreign doctors to receive the same professional recognition as their French colleagues.

Source: France 24

More than a thousand COVID cases have been confirmed in conflict-prone Cameroon, provoking fears that the situation may get out of hand if the virus spreads to refugee camps and areas where internally displaced persons from the country’s separatist crisis and Boko Haram terrorism live. Rights groups are asking for humanitarian assistance, saying resources are already stretched tackling Boko Haram terrorism, separatist conflicts, the spillover of the carnage in neighboring CAR and now, COVID-19.

Cameroon’s prime minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, in a declaration broadcast on all local radio and TV stations, said schools that were closed March 17 will remain closed for at least the next 45 days, since COVID-19 cases have increased from barely a hundred in March to over 1,000 on April 18.

“The resumption of classes on the indicative date of 1st June,” he said. “It is understood that this measure is subject to change, depending on the evolution of the pandemic.”

Ngute called on Cameroonians to remain indoors, practice hygiene methods and wear masks if they must go out. He said COVID-19 has killed 23 Cameroonians and 180 have recovered, while more than 800 are still being treated in already-overcrowded health facilities.

Strained resources

Cameroon Civil Society Group leader Edward Nfor said the country may not be financially and materially able to handle its increasing COVID-19 cases because it’s also tackling Boko Haram terrorism on its northern border with Nigeria, separatist conflicts in the English-speaking regions and the spillover of the carnage in neighboring Central African Republic.

“With the COVID just coming in, I find it very difficult for the state of Cameroon,” he said. “There are alarming numbers of refugees coming in from the Central African Republic and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Just imagine that the COVID-19 enters into these refugee camps. I find Cameroon in a very delicate situation.”

Issa Tchiroma, Cameroon employment and vocational training minister, said Cameroon finds itself in a difficult situation because most of its resources are already invested in crisis and humanitarian assistance.

Cameroon has not disclosed how much it spends in the separatist conflict that has killed 3,000 people since 2017 and in the war against Boko Haram terrorism.

Already affecting exports

Antonio Pedro, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa director for central Africa, said exports that Cameroon relies on for income are already affected by the spread of COVID-19.

“We have seen oil prices go down from $65, 60 to 30. Coffee, cocoa, wood, palm oil —  the demand in the major importing countries will go down, and prices are also being revised downwards,” he said.

In a report published April 17, the International Rescue Committee describes Cameroon as one of the world’s most forgotten crises, facing three distinct emergencies, from armed violence in the northwest and southwest to an influx of refugees from Nigeria and Central Africa Republic.

The IRC said that more than 700,000 people in some places have been forced to flee their homes and are living in cramped, crowded informal camps, meaning COVID-19 will spread rapidly throughout the population.

The IRC said that Cameroon, with almost 4 million people in need of humanitarian aid and the highest COVID-19 caseload across the Sahel and East Africa, faces increased danger from the pandemic. And with 2.5 million people already in need of urgent medical care without the outbreak, the health system is clearly ill prepared to handle a rapid escalation in cases, despite the best efforts of the government and its partners.

Source: VOA

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed “systemic weaknesses” in global health systems, the G20 said Monday, but there was no mention of Washington’s contentious decision to halt World Health Organization funding.

The statement came after health ministers from the 20 most advanced economies held a virtual meeting on Sunday hosted by the group’s current president Saudi Arabia following criticism the institution was slow to address the pandemic.

“Health Ministers recognised that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted systemic weaknesses in health systems,” they said in a joint statement.

“It also has shown vulnerabilities in the global community’s ability to prevent and respond to pandemic threats.

“Ministers addressed the need to improve the effectiveness of global health systems by sharing knowledge and closing the gap in response capabilities and readiness.”

The worldwide death toll from the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 164,016 on Sunday, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

More than 2,363,210 declared cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December.

The novel coronavirus has upended the lives of billions of people as nations imposed lockdown measures to curb its spread, sending the global economy into a tailspin.

The G20 statement was silent on US President Donald Trump’s decision last week to cut off Washington’s bilateral funding to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Trump has accused the UN body of mishandling the coronavirus crisis.

The US contributed $400 million to the WHO last year.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has condemned the US suspension of funds, saying it was “not the time to reduce” the WHO’s resources.

The WHO remained “absolutely critical” in the global fight against the virus, he said.

Source:  AFP

Confirmed cases of coronavirus passed the 20,000 mark barely 24-hours after the deaths topped 1,000. This is according to tallies from the John Hopkins University tracker.

The figures as of 13:30 GMT stood at 100,075 with 4,600+ recoveries and 1,026 deaths leaving a little over 13,350 active cases.

Egypt remained the continent’s most impacted whiles the North African region generally contributed for some of the highest numbers. Egypt with 2,844 cases, Morocco with 2,600+ cases and Algeria with 2,418 confirmed cases.

South of the Sahara, South Africa’s 2,700+ cases was the highest with Cameroon in a distant second with 1,017, Ivory Coast’s 732, Djibouti’s 732 and Ghana’s 641 completed the top five slots.

Meanwhile the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, has warned that cases could spike across the continent as more testing is rolled out in the coming weeks.

Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus this year even under the best-case scenario, according to a new report released Friday that cites modeling from Imperial College London.

Under the worst-case scenario with no interventions against the virus, Africa could see 3.3 million deaths and 1.2 billion infections, the report by the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa said.

Even with “intense social distancing.” under the best-case scenario the continent could see more than 122 million infections, the report said.

Any of the scenarios would overwhelm Africa’s largely fragile and underfunded health systems, experts have warned. Under the best-case scenario, $44 billion would be needed for testing, personal protective equipment and treatment, the report said, citing UNECA estimates. The worst-case scenario would cost $446 billion.

Source: Africa News

Australia on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, including the World Health Organization’s handling of the crisis.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the country would “insist” on a review that would probe, in part, China’s early response to the outbreak in Wuhan, the city where COVID-19 emerged late last year.

“We need to know the sorts of details that an independent review would identify for us about the genesis of the virus, about the approaches to dealing with it (and) addressing the openness with which information was shared,” she told public broadcaster ABC.

Payne said Australia shared similar concerns to the United States, whose President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of “mismanaging” the crisis and covering up the seriousness of China’s outbreak before it spread.

Trump has also announced that Washington will halt payments to the UN body that amounted to $400 million last year.

“I’m not sure that you can have the health organisation which has been responsible for disseminating much of the international communications material, and doing much of the early engagement and investigative work, also as the review mechanism,” Payne said.

“That strikes me as a bit poacher-and-gamekeeper.”

Payne added she believed the fallout from the pandemic was set to change the relationship between Australia and China “in some ways”, with her concern around Beijing’s transparency now “at a very high point”.

Health Minister Greg Hunt backed the call for an independent review, saying Australia had achieved success in limiting the spread of the virus in part by going against WHO advice.

Australia — which has recorded 6,600 coronavirus cases and 70 deaths linked to COVID-19 — was one of the first countries to impose a ban on travel from China.

“Australia has been able to have, by global standards, just a profoundly important and successful human outcome, but we have done that by following the course that our medical experts here in Australia set out,” Hunt said.

“We do know there was very considerable criticism when we imposed on the 1 February the China ban from some of the officials and the WHO in Geneva.”

Hunt said although the WHO had “done well” in fighting diseases like polio, measles and malaria, its coronavirus response “didn’t help the world”.

“We have done well because we made our own decisions as a country,” he added.

In recent weeks, Australia has seen the rate of new cases slow dramatically, leading health authorities to declare the country has “flattened the curve”.

Tough restrictions on movement and gatherings are set to remain in place for at least the next month as officials attempt to keep the virus spread under control.

Source:  AFP

South Africa is into the extension of the national lockdown. Questions remain on the minds of citizens across the continent whether stepped-up measures such as lockdowns have made a difference?

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the World Economic Forum on Covid-19 in Africa held a briefing on 16 April.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa confirmed that there are now 17 000 Covid-19 cases and 900 deaths in Africa to date. South Africa, Algeria and Cameroon account for half of the cases.

When a vaccination becomes available is there protocol set in place to ensure the vulnerable get it first?

“We build on lessons of the past, like Ebola,” said Elsie Kanza, Head of Africa, World Economic Forum. New partnerships were called upon to ensure the safe and effective distribution of vaccines, “It is all about solidarity” which was reiterated by Dr Simon Missiri, Regional Director for Africa, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “Politicians’ first response is to protect their people but we need solidarity… which we know is difficult to practice.”

Dr Moeti said the WHO Africa is encouraging African countries to get involved in clinical vaccine trials to contribute to the global Covid-19 vaccine effort.

Lockdown and other measures: A balancing act of the health of citizens or the economy

South Africa’s swift methods such as social distancing, the closing of schools and lockdown seem to have slowed down the Covid-19 curve. “Lockdown measures are difficult but this needs to be supported with strong communication,” Dr Moeti added.

It is important that countries who implement measures such as lockdown, do them gradually. This is to minimize the frustrations put on communities.

Kanza expressed concern over the socio-economic impacts of communities in Africa. She said that it is likely that one-third of Africans are likely to lose their jobs. This is due to the many sectors of industry closing such as restaurants and non-essential services as well as those in the informal sector. Dr Moeti confirmed that the WHO Africa budget is $300 million which is worked out over six months.

It is difficult to balance the health or the economy of communities. Dr Missiri explained that non-standard solutions need to be implemented in ‘slum-like areas’ or highly densely populated communities.

“What is more important? Loss of life or economic downturn?” posed Dr Missiri.

Estimation or trajectory of Covid-19 in Africa:

Dr Michel Yao, WHO Emergency Operations Programme Manager, said it is difficult to make a long-time estimation. There are many factors to take into account such as geography or whether public health measures are working to flatten the spread.

Culled from Sandtonchronicle

The number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the world has risen to more than two million, out of whom over 130,000 have died, but experts believe the figures understate the true toll of the contagion.

The death toll and number of infections have roughly doubled in 13 days and continue to grow steadily.

Some European countries like Germany think they have passed the peak of the disease and begin to take careful steps to lift restrictions imposed to slow the virus.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday announced first steps in undoing coronavirus lockdowns for the coming weeks, with most shops allowed to open although schools must stay closed until May 4.

Shops up to 800 square meters will be allowed to reopen once they have “plans to maintain hygiene”, Merkel said, while schools will gradually reopen with priority given to pupils about to take exams.

However, outbreaks in many parts of the world are still considered far from their peaks.

In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended a nationwide lockdown for nearly three more weeks. The decision is going to leave more than one billion people under severe restrictions.

Deaths from thepandemic in Italy rose by 578 on Wednesday, down from 602 the day before, while the number of new cases slowed to 2,667 from a previous 2,972, continuing the recent downward trend.The number of new cases was the lowest since March 13, but the daily tally of deaths remains stubbornly high.

In France, the death toll increased to 17,000 on Wednesday, but the total number currently hospitalized fell for the first time since the epidemic began.

Meanwhile, nearly 700 sailors assigned to the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle’s naval group tested positive for the coronavirus. The country’s armed forces ministry said on Wednesday 1,767 mariners, nearly all from the Charles de Gaulle itself, had been tested and results showed at least 668 to be infected with the new coronavirus.

In the United Kingdom, the number of people who have died in hospitals from the coronavirus has risen to 12,868, according to Health Ministry figures.

The United States marked a record 2,569 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, the heaviest daily toll recorded by the country since the outbreak first began, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

In the US, the lack of testing capacity has emerged as a signature failure of the Trump administration’s response and now threatens to hamper efforts across the country to plan for an eventual reopening of the economy, the New York Times reports.

Turkey confirmed 115 more deaths from the novel coronavirus in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 1,518.The total number of registered coronavirus cases surged to 69,392 as 4,281 more people tested positive for the virus, Health Minister FahrettinKoca said on Twitter.

Libya’s internationally-recognized government, in the west, imposed a curfew for 10 days effective from Friday, April 17, the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) said in a statement. Libya’s National center for disease control reported 36 cases of coronavirus in Libya and only one death.

More than 500,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus globally, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

China has the highest number of recovered people with 78,282.

However, experts believe the real numbers of infections and deaths are much higher than the official figures suggest, and the official numbers are just bleak markets that understate the true spread of the disease, mainly because of a lack of testing and the extent to which different countries test their citizens.

Source: Presstv

People infected with the new coronavirus may start spreading the virus several days before they have any noticeable symptoms, according to a new modelling study published Wednesday.

The study comes as nations have broadened restrictions aimed at curbing the epidemic, amid concerns over patients who may be infectious despite not showing signs of ill health.

The findings challenge key assumptions behind measures put in place to stop the spread of the pandemic, such as tracing contacts of an infected person only as far back as the time at which they began to show symptoms.

Experts have long conjectured that some people who do not even know they are infected may transmit the virus.

But the new study suggests that even those who get visibly sick may be highly infectious before the onset of symptoms.

“More inclusive criteria for contact tracing to capture potential transmission events two to three days before symptom onset should be urgently considered for effective control of the outbreak,” the authors said in the paper published in Nature Medicine.

– Infectious before symptoms show –

Researchers compared clinical data on virus shedding from patients at a hospital in China with separate data on “transmission pairs” — where one person is believed to have infected the other — to draw inferences about periods of infectiousness.

The research team co-led by Eric Lau of the University of Hong Kong took throat swabs from 94 patients admitted to Guangzhou Eighth People’s Hospital and measured infectiousness from the first day of symptoms for 32 days.

They found that the patients, none of whom were classed as severe or critical, had the highest viral load soon after the onset of symptoms, which then gradually decreased.

The study used publicly-available data on 77 transmission pairs, within China and internationally, to assess how much time elapsed between the onset of symptoms in each patient.

It assumed an incubation period — the time between exposure to infection and appearance of symptoms — of a little over five days.

The authors inferred that infectiousness started 2.3 days before symptoms appeared and was at its peak at 0.7 days before the first signs of illness — although they cautioned that pinpointing the exact timing of the onset of symptoms relied on patient memory.

They estimated that 44 percent of secondary cases in the transmission chains were infected during the pre-symptomatic stage.

Infectiousness was predicted to decrease quickly within seven days.

– ‘Important implications’ –

Responding to the study, Babak Javid of Tsinghua University School of Medicine in Beijing said the findings would have “important implications” for measures to control the pandemic, such as whether masks should be worn by those with no symptoms.

“This is important because current public health control measures advised, for example, by the WHO and UK government assume that maximum contagion is after symptom onset. Hence one reason masks are not advocated for wearing by asymptomatic members of the public,” he said.

Javid added that several studies had now suggested that a large number of patients shed the virus before they show signs of illness and said the findings are “likely to be real and robust”.

At the beginning of this month China said it had more than 1,300 asymptomatic coronavirus cases, the first time it has released such data following public concern over people who have tested positive but are not showing symptoms.

As the pandemic has spread, many nations that initially advised only individuals with symptoms to self-isolate and wear masks have expanded their responses to measures that apply across the board.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said up to a quarter of people who are infected may be asymptomatic.

Source:  AFP

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says the number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Africa has risen to over 14,000.

The UN’s health agency gave the update on its official twitter account @WHOAFRO on Monday.

“COVID19 cases in Africa rise to over 14,000 – with 2,523 recoveries and 754 deaths reported,’’ it said.

The breakdown on the WHO African Region COVID-19 dashboard showed that South Africa, Algeria and Cameroon had continued to top the list of countries with the highest reported cases.

South Africa has 2,173 cases and 25 deaths followed by Algeria with 1,914 cases and 293 deaths, while Cameroon has 803 confirmed cases with 10 deaths.

According to the dashboard, the countries with the lowest confirmed cases are South Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, Burundi and Mauritania and Gabo Verde.

It showed that South Sudan and Sao Tome and Principe were the lowest confirmed cases, which had four cases each with zero death.

Burundi is the second country with the lowest confirmed cases with five reported cases and zero death.

Mauritania and Gabo Verde are in the third category with the lowest cases as the country had recorded seven confirmed cases each with one death.

Also, the dashboard showed that coronavirus cases had risen to 323 in the past two days from 288 confirmed cases with 10 deaths in Nigeria.

The agency, however, thanked the health workers at front lines of the coronavirus response.

“We in the health care profession are the ones to step in to help people in times like these; we have to be psychologically prepared,’’ Joyce Kaguura, ICU Nurse, Kenyatta University Hospital, responded.

Source: Pmnewsnigeria

Cameroon has required the wearing of face masks by all of its citizens and begun large scale production of Chloroquine to treat COVID-19. The country says its hospitals are already overwhelmed, with more than 850 confirmed cases within 6 weeks, yet it expects confirmed COVID cases to rise into the several thousands.

Almost everyone on the streets of Yaounde began wearing masks Monday. Police were out to enforce the measure, taken by the government to limit the spread of COVID-19. 22-year old Christian Yubin speaking via a messaging App said the police forced him to buy and wear a mask.

“Temperatures are very high, up to 35 degrees and they are asking us to wear masks which suffocate us. I think the best thing to do is to respect social distancing. Stay far from people,” said Yubin.

Dr. Georges Alain Etoundi Mballa, director of pandemics and epidemics at Cameroon’s public health ministry said they are insisting on preventive measures because hospitals are already being overwhelmed by the number of COVID infected persons.

He said with the ever-growing number of infected persons, the government has asked people who are feeling better in hospitals, including COVID-19 patients, to return to their homes, where they will have medical follow up by hospital staff. He said the government is also transforming football stadiums and gymnasiums into facilities where COVID-19 infected persons will be received for treatment.

Production of chloroquine

Madeleine Tchuente, Cameroon’s minister of scientific research and innovation, said besides the obligatory wearing of masks, the government has ordered the production of the drug chloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients. She said they have started producing 6,000 tablets per day and expect to drastically increase production when they get some more ingredients from China.

Tchuente said President Paul Biya has ordered them to produce at least eight million tablets of chloroquine each day as the situation is getting worse. She said Cameroon has the know-how and laboratories to produce the chloroquine but what they lack are the necessary active pharmaceutical ingredients they can import from China and India, and that China has assured Cameroon that the ingredients will be shipped in two weeks.

Chloroquine is one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs. It has also attracted attention over the past few decades as a potential antiviral agent. Last week, Cameroon announced that it had seized counterfeit chloroquine from at least 300 pharmacies and hospitals and closed two fake pharmaceutical companies as thousands of its citizens were rushing for the drug with the unproven believe that it can stop COVID-19 infections.

Emmanuel Anyangwe Ngassa, a Cameroon-born medical doctor practicing in Germany, said U.S president Donald Trump is leading many African countries to believe there is a cure for COVID-19, when scientists have not yet announced any. He spoke via a messaging App from Bonn.

“What is the essence of that drug? Chloroquine has not been proven to treat COVID-19 successfully. It was unfortunate that Donald Trump took this thing up, spoke about it and publicized it,” he said.

The rush for chloroquine as a treatment to COVID-19 began in Cameroon in March after France announced that half of 14 patients who underwent chloroquine therapy got better and when U.S President Donald Trump referred to it as a potential cure for the ravaging coronavirus disease.

Source: VOA