scholarly journals Imported bancroftian filariasis discovered in a patient infected with Plasmodium falciparum: First case of concomitant parasitism in the Al-Buraimi Governorate, Oman

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Muqeet Ullah ◽  
Ahmed Yar Mohammed Dawood Al Balushi ◽  
Nader Rahid Salim Al Aliyani ◽  
Biju Kalarikkal ◽  
Reeher Ian C. Miranda ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wuchereria Bancrofti ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Global Burden ◽  
Bancroftian Filariasis ◽  
African Region ◽  
Laboratory Findings ◽  
Anopheles Species ◽  
First Case ◽  
Nigerian Woman ◽  
Sub Saharan

Malaria and lymphatic filariasis (LF) are endemic in tropical and subtropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. Ninety-two percent (200 million) of malaria cases in 2017 were detected in the WHO African Region. This accounts for approximately 30% of the global burden of LF disease and includes 405.9 million people at risk in 39 out of 46 member countries. Anopheles species of mosquitoes transmit Wuchereria bancrofti in most parts of Africa. Our case of a 23-year-old Nigerian woman highlights incidental laboratory findings showing the first malaria/filariasis coinfection in the governorate (province). This coinfection was ascertained during the usual medical screening before recruitment in Oman, which is routinely conducted for every expatriate.

The urgent need for health impact assessment: proposing a transdisciplinary approach to the e-waste crisis in sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinah Tetteh ◽  
Lara Lengel
Keyword(s):  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Health Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Concern ◽  
Electronic Waste ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Environmental Communication ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Region ◽  
Sub Saharan

Electronic waste (e-waste) is a growing health and environmental concern in developing countries. In the sub-Saharan African region e-waste is considered a crisis with no end in sight yet; there is lack of structures and regulations to manage the problem. In this article, we discuss the potential of Health Impact Assessment (HIA) in addressing the health, environmental, and social impacts of e-waste in sub-Saharan Africa. We draw from environmental policy, environmental communication, global health policy, and health communication to argue that managing e-waste could be framed as ongoing HIA where all the steps of HIA are performed on a rolling basis with input from local communities. Further, we suggest that HIA should be infused into recycling legislation to help streamline the practice in order to make it safe for health and the environment and to maximize the economic benefits.

scholarly journals SARS-COV-2 induced Parkinsonism: The first case from the sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 100116
Author(s):  
Biniyam A. Ayele ◽  
Hanna Demissie ◽  
Meron Awraris ◽  
Wondwossen Amogne ◽  
Ali Shalash ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
First Case ◽  
Sub Saharan

A critical analysis of water PPP failures in sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Salman Tariq ◽  
Xueqing Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Construction Management ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
First Case ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Sub Saharan

PurposeTop-down pressure from donors, public sector inefficiencies and fund deficits have steered the introduction of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in sub-Saharan Africa. However, PPP activities in the water sector have been quite insignificant compared to other infrastructure sectors in this region. In addition, a number of water PPPs have encountered great difficulties and subsequent failures. This study aims at unveiling the underlying reasons behind failures.Design/methodology/approachThis study has classified the failure types of water PPPs and reviewed the development of water PPPs in sub-Saharan Africa to identify failed ones. Eight failed case studies are completed through the rigorous approach of event sequence mapping.FindingsNine root causes of water PPP failure are identified through a thorough examination of these failed water PPP cases and the interrelationships between these failure causes are established. The failure causes are further generalized through literature focusing on water PPP failures in developing countries and problematic issues that hinder the implementation of successful water PPPs across different Sub-Saharan African countries. Recommendations are provided for future improvements in carrying out water PPPs in Sub-Saharan Africa by learning past lessons and drawing experiences.Originality/valueThis is the first case study on water PPP failures in Sub-Saharan Africa from a construction management perspective. This study will help governments and the private sector in developing stronger future water PPPs.

scholarly journals Physiotherapy in the management of non-communicable diseases: facing the challenge

2005 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Frantz
Keyword(s):  
Burden Of Disease ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Global Burden Of Disease ◽  
Global Burden ◽  
Non Communicable Diseases ◽  
Epidemiological Changes ◽  
Rising Incidence ◽  
Sub Saharan

There is mounting evidence of the rising incidence and prevalence of non-communicable diseases in developing countries. Governments are facing serious challenges in health care due to the rising trends in non-communicable diseases as a result of demographic and epidemiological changes, as well as economic globalization. Cardiovascular disease, cancers, diabetes, respiratory disease, obesity andother non-communicable conditions now account for 59 percent of the 56.5 million global deaths annually, and almost half, or 46 percent, of the global burden of disease. It is estimated that by 2020, non-communicable diseases will account for 60% of the global burden of disease. The burden of non-communicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa is already substantial, and patients with these conditions make significant demands on health resources. How do these changes affect physiotherapists? This paper aims to highlight the need for physiotherapists to shift their focus from curative to preventive care in order to face the challenge of non-communicable diseases.

scholarly journals Early estimates of COVID-19 infections in small, medium and large population clusters

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. e003055
Author(s):  
Amir Siraj ◽  
Alemayehu Worku ◽  
Kiros Berhane ◽  
Maru Aregawi ◽  
Munir Eshetu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Population ◽  
Face Mask ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Local Context ◽  
African Region ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

IntroductionSince its emergence in late December 2019, COVID-19 has rapidly developed into a pandemic in mid of March with many countries suffering heavy human loss and declaring emergency conditions to contain its spread. The impact of the disease, while it has been relatively low in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as of May 2020, is feared to be potentially devastating given the less developed and fragmented healthcare system in the continent. In addition, most emergency measures practised may not be effective due to their limited affordability as well as the communal way people in SSA live in relative isolation in clusters of large as well as smaller population centres.MethodsTo address the acute need for estimates of the potential impacts of the disease once it sweeps through the African region, we developed a process-based model with key parameters obtained from recent studies, taking local context into consideration. We further used the model to estimate the number of infections within a year of sustained local transmissions under scenarios that cover different population sizes, urban status, effectiveness and coverage of social distancing, contact tracing and usage of cloth face mask.ResultsWe showed that when implemented early, 50% coverage of contact tracing and face mask, with 33% effective social distancing policies can bringing the epidemic to a manageable level for all population sizes and settings we assessed. Relaxing of social distancing in urban settings from 33% to 25% could be matched by introduction and maintenance of face mask use at 43%.ConclusionsIn SSA countries with limited healthcare workforce, hospital resources and intensive care units, a robust system of social distancing, contact tracing and face mask use could yield in outcomes that prevent several millions of infections and thousands of deaths across the continent.

scholarly journals Landscape analysis – assessing countries' readiness to scale up nutrition actions in the WHO African region

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (52) ◽  
pp. 6260-6273
Author(s):  
U Trübswasser ◽  
◽  
C Nishida ◽  
K Engesveen ◽  
F Coulibaly-Zerbo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Child Nutrition ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Landscape Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
World Health ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
African Region ◽  
Human Resource Capacity ◽  
World Health Assembly Resolution ◽  
Sub Saharan

The purpose of this paper is to describe the use of the Landscape Analysis to assess strengths and weaknesses in combating malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Landscape Analysis is an inter-agency initiative to assess gaps and constraints and to identify opportunities for effective nutrition actions in order to accelerate intersectoral action for improving nutrition. In-depth Country Assessments to evaluate countries' "readiness" to scale up nutrition action have been conducted since 2008 in Sub-Saharan Africa. "Readiness" was assessed in terms of the commitment and capacity of each country and the focus was high stunting burden countries. The main focus was countries with heavy burden of undernutrition. From 2008 to September 2011, a total of 14 countries had undertaken the Landscape Analysis Country Assessment. Nine of them were in Africa: Burkina Faso, Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, and South Africa. Three additional countries (Guinea, Namibia and Tanzania) were also planning to complete the Landscape Analysis Country Assessment in early 2012. From the findings in the nine countries, the following recommendations have been made: • Existing nutrition architectures and coordination mechanisms should be strengthened and better utilized; • Nutrition needs to be mainstreamed and integrated in relevant sector policies; • Advocacy at high levels is needed to highlight the importance of the lifecourse perspective, focusing particularly on nutrition interventions from preconception until the first two years of life; • National nutrition policies need to be translated into programmatic actions; • Human resource capacity for public health nutrition needs to be built with high quality in-service trainings in the short-term and long-term strategies to provide pre-service trainings; • Community-based outreach should be strengthened by using existing channels; • National nutrition surveillance systems need to be strengthened to ensure adequate use of data for monitoring, evaluation, and planning purposes. As part of the implementation of the 2010 World Health Assembly resolution on Infant and Young Child Nutrition (WHA 63.23) WHO has proposed a process to help countries in developing scale-up plans, which incorporates the Landscape Analysis Country Assessment as a tool to help countries in undertaking the initial context mapping. The countries that have already undertaken an in-depth Country Assessment, such as the Landscape Analysis Country Assessment, are ready to move forward in implementing the next steps in developing scaling-up plans to accelerate action in nutrition. At the same time, WHO will support additional countries that have expressed interest in conducting the Country Assessment.

scholarly journals Ten-year plateau phase in human immunodeficiency virus induced motor neuron disease upon antiretroviral therapy: a first case from Eastern Africa.

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Marjolein De Bruin ◽  
Emmanuel Assay ◽  
Asha Osman ◽  
Kajiru Kilonzo ◽  
William Howlett ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
Case Report ◽  
Antiretroviral Therapy ◽  
Motor Neuron ◽  
Motor Neuron Disease ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
First Case ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
Sub Saharan

We report an individual with rapidly progressive motor neuron disease (MND), phenotypically compatible with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The patient described in this case report proved positive for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and was initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Following ART he clinically stabilised over 10 years and deteriorated again due to noncompliance or ART resistance. HIV infection can give rise to an MND mimic, HIV-ALS. The improvement in response to ART supports the notion that HIV-ALS is a treatable entity also in Africa. This is the first case report of a patient with HIV-ALS and long term follow up in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report raises the suggestion that an additional (retro)virus can play a role in the aetiology of ALS.

scholarly journals Sub-Saharan Africa preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic: A perspective of early career African scientists

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 163
Author(s):  
Gisele Umviligihozo ◽  
Lucy Mupfumi ◽  
Nelson Sonela ◽  
Delon Naicker ◽  
Ekwaro A. Obuku ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Case Fatality ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Health Interventions ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Public Health Interventions ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
First Case ◽  
Sub Saharan

Emerging highly transmissible viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2 pose a significant global threat to human health and the economy. Since its first appearance in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province, China, SARS-CoV-2 infection has quickly spread across the globe, with the first case reported on the African continent, in Egypt on February 14th, 2020. Although the global number of COVID-19 infections has increased exponentially since the beginning of the pandemic, the number of new infections and deaths recorded in African countries have been relatively modest, suggesting slower transmission dynamics of the virus on the continent, a lower case fatality rate, or simply a lack of testing or reliable data. Notably, there is no significant increase in unexplained pneumonias or deaths on the continent which could possibly indicate the effectiveness of interventions introduced by several African governments. However, there has not yet been a comprehensive assessment of sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic that may have contributed to prevent an uncontrolled outbreak so far. As a group of early career scientists and the next generation of African scientific leaders with experience of working in medical and diverse health research fields in both SSA and resource-rich countries, we present a unique perspective on the current public health interventions to fight COVID-19 in Africa. Our perspective is based on extensive review of the available scientific publications, official technical reports and announcements released by governmental and non-governmental health organizations as well as from our personal experiences as workers on the COVID-19 battlefield in SSA. We documented public health interventions implemented in seven SSA countries including Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Cameroon, Zambia, South Africa and Botswana, the existing gaps and the important components of disease control that may strengthen SSA response to future outbreaks.

scholarly journals Evidence-based health security: The nexus of governance and pandemic preparedness

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Greenhill ◽  
J Johnson ◽  
P Malone ◽  
A Westrum
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Expert Panel ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Limit State ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Pandemic Preparedness ◽  
African Region ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Preparedness Planning ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract Background Pandemic preparedness continues to be an important focus of the global health security agenda. Many nations in the sub-Saharan African region remain at high risk for a major pandemic due to limited capacity and endemic co-morbid conditions in their populations. While the literature does suggest that state capacity influences health, no studies to date indicate an association between state capacity and pandemic disease distribution, particularly in the presence of other endemic diseases. Methods This mixed methods study will contribute to existing research by examining how economic and sociopolitical attributes of state capacity influence pandemic-prone disease distribution in sub-Saharan Africa. A convergent mixed methods design was used to collect and analyze quantitative state capacity attributes and prevention, and control using correlation in six sub-Saharan countries. Results of the quantitative study were triangulated through the use of an expert panel and results integrated for an overall interpretation and conclusion. Results Variables in the study showed statistically significant relationships between proxies of state capacity and the follow areas: control of pandemics and prevention of pandemics. The Expert Panel interviews illustrated convergence between the correlated results. Conclusions This study brought forward associations with expert confirmation suggestive of areas for national governments in sub-Saharan Africa to further review and improve. While many internal factors limit state capacity in these nations (e.g. human and fiscal resources), external funders may consider adding information from this study and other metrics to test progress. Key messages Evidence is valuable for pandemic preparedness planning. Nation state capacity is a factor in pandemic preparedness.

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