Feature Stories

Myths and misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines are rife in Lesotho, where over 85% of nearly 500 health workers surveyed recently report widespread misconceptions.

A Medical Doctor with an MSc in Public Health and over 20 years of experience, Dr Carolina Leite led Cabo Verde’s programme to fight malaria and waterborne diseases and served as Director of Patient Management, Medical Records and Statistics at the Agostinho Neto Central Hospital in Praia before joining the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009.

The World Health Organization (WHO), a South African consortium and partners from COVAX, are working to set-up a technology transfer hub for mRNA vaccines in South Africa to help boost and scale up vaccine production in Africa.

When a man in Temessadou M’Boket – a village in the densely forested southern Guinea region – died in early August 2021 after suffering fever, headache and haemorrhage, a medical team was quickly dispatched, and within hours of his death, laboratory analysis revealed that he had been ill with Marburg.

As COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out in Africa, understanding the effectiveness of these vaccines in real world settings is crucial for countries to plan and refine their vaccination programmes and other public health measures.

Africa’s largest-ever vaccination drive is well underway.52 African countries are rolling out COVID-19 vaccines and over 73 million doses have been administered on the continent.  

With 620 million COVID-19 vaccine doses set to arrive in Africa through COVAX alone by the end of 2021, African countries are set to roll out a range of different vaccines, each with their own unique storage, transport and administration requirements. 

A medical doctor with experience in over 15 countries in Africa and the Americas, Dr Paluku was Chief Medical Officer for North Kivu province in his native Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before joining the World Health Organization (WHO) back in 2001.

When Togo launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on 10 March, health workers on the frontlines of the pandemic were identified among the priority groups.

On one of Naomi Otua’s regular trips to visit her grandson James in the town of Assin Fosu in Ghana’s Central Region, she noticed something was seriously wrong. The 10-year-old’s eyes were jaundiced and he had lost a significant amount of weight. Worried, Otua decided to take James to the Suhum Government Hospital.