Farmers and women groups engaged in the shea butter and groundnut business in the Upper West Region say they have lost about GH¢5 million in revenue after their produce was downgraded on the international market for containing traces of a chemical called pirimiphos-Methyl. The chemical, they alleged, was being used by AngloGold Ashanti Malaria Control … Read more
Youssou Ndour, Senegal’s most famous musician, is throwing his weight behind malaria eradication in his homeland to combat an illness that has for too long held back Africa’s economic development. Malaria killed more than 400,000 people last year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) — the vast majority of them children living in sub-Saharan … Read more
Scientists announced Thursday that they have developed a vaccine to shield endangered chimpanzees and gorillas against Ebola, which has wiped out tens of thousands of the wild apes in three decades. The vaccine is given orally, the developers said, which means it can be put into food bait and left out for the animals to … Read more
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Ministry of Health (MoH), has discredited rumours of an Ebola outbreak in the country. An audio clip circulating on various social media platforms, suggested that the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) was in Ghana, but some government officials wanted to keep it a secret from the public. But a … Read more
The Ghana Health Service has debunked information circulating on social media, suggesting that there is an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Ghana. A statement signed by the Acting Director General Health Service asking the public to ignore the false information contained in an audio recording, said the same audio popped up as far … Read more
For the first time in Africa, researchers said Wednesday they have detected a malaria parasite that is partially resistant to the top anti-malaria drug, artemisinin, raising concern about efforts to fight a disease that sickens hundreds of millions of people each year. The discovery means that Africa now joins southeast Asia in hosting such drug-resistant … Read more
The market in Ambam, a colonial town with brick-red cottages and rusty roofs, near the southern borders with Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, is a cluster of booth-sized shops and stalls. Under one stall, a small deer with a slit throat lies next to a porcupine in the mid-January heat. Nearby, other game, concealed in jute … Read more
The majority of cases in the world’s largest outbreak of Ebola were caused by a tiny handful of patients, research suggests. The analysis, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows nearly two thirds of cases (61%) were caused by 3% of infected people. The young and old were more likely to have … Read more
The majority of cases in the world’s largest outbreak of Ebola were caused by a tiny handful of patients, research suggests. The analysis, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows nearly two thirds of cases (61%) were caused by 3% of infected people. The young and old were more likely to have … Read more
Doctors have raised fresh concerns that drug-resistant forms of malaria may be emerging across Africa. A key malaria treatment has failed for the first time in Britain to cure four patients who had become infected after travelling to Uganda, Angola and Liberia. They initially responded well to an anti-malarial therapy (artemether-lumefantrine) but relapsed a month … Read more
A highly effective vaccine that guards against the deadly Ebola virus could be available by 2018, says the World Health Organization. Trials conducted in Guinea, one of the West African countries most affected by an outbreak of Ebola that ended this year, show it offers 100% protection. The vaccine is now being fast-tracked for regulatory … Read more
play videoA campaign has been launched to treat patients with disease that affects poor communities Transmitted through mosquitoes, more than three million people in Kenya are at risk of a disease that some believe is the result of witchcraft. Elephantiasis affects mostly poor communities where sanitation levels are low and mosquito breeding is rampant. After … Read more
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Malaria Report 2016 reveals that children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa have greater access to effective malaria control. The report indicates that across the region, a steep increase in diagnostic testing for children and preventive treatment for pregnant women had been recorded over the last five years. It … Read more
Morocco eliminates trachoma – the leading infectious cause of blindness Transmitted through contact with eye and nose discharge of infected people, particularly young children, it affects populations in 42 countries, and is responsible for blindness or visual impairment in around 1.9 million people Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged the elimination of trachoma as … Read more
An employee at the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease in Winnipeg has potentially been exposed to the Ebola virus. The employee was working on Monday in a lab with pigs that had been infected with the deadly virus when they noticed a tear in their protective suit. Officials with Canada’s public health and food … Read more
The lingering shadow of Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone Hassan sits silently and stares into the distance, he has tired of brushing his hair and an upright comb is tangled into the back of his curls. The 17-year-old speaks quietly, using few words in a calm and gentle manner, but people in his community are … Read more
A government of the New Patriotic Party, under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, would resolve the nation’s health challenges based on seven principles. The principles hinge on ensuring and mainstreaming a Health-in-All Policy approach with government agencies taking into account the health implications of their work programmes. It would introduce a ‘One Health approach with health … Read more
Over 190,000 persons in the country are blind, according to the 2015 Ghana Blindness and Visual Impairment Study (GBVIS) conducted under the auspices of the Ghana Health Service. The prevalence rate of blindness among those aged 50 years and above was 4.0% and increases with age to 19.12% in those aged 80 years and above. … Read more
The malaria death rate in sub-Saharan Africa has declined by an estimated 57% since 2000, according to new data published in the New England Journal of Medicine. That’s from 12.5 deaths per 10,000 population per year in 2000 to 5.4 in 2015. The four countries with the highest rates of malaria deaths in 2000 – … Read more
When I was attending middle school at Kyebi, in the Eastern Region, my task each morning was to go to the River Birem, where I would bathe and bring some water home. I wasn’t the only one – scores of my schoolmates from Kyebi Government School and the rival State Primary School, congregated on the … Read more