insight

The WHO has recently published its progress report covering the period between 2016-2021, on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. NIFDAR as an organisation continues to support our partners in effectively managing the cohort of people living with HIV and STDs. Find below, link to the report:

The Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) for Covid-19 was developed by WHO. It aims to build on achievements made on tackling the disease, but also focus on the new challenges e.g. risks related to new variants. It lays a road map on how to reach the end goal(s): effectively manage Covid-19, reduce global deaths from the virus, and limit its spread.

The COVID pandemic has exposed long-standing structural fault lines in societies – especially in health systems. These same inequalities also drive another major global health concern: antimicrobial resistance.

Worldwide, tuberculosis (TB) remains a significant cause of disease and deaths. Around 9.9 million people had the disease in 2020. The burden is higher in low- and middle-income countries. Africa accounts for 25% of TB cases.

Things could have been much worse. SARS-CoV-2 is not as lethal as other epidemic viruses, such as HIV or Ebola. Indeed, the fact that the virus is relatively benign for the majority of people is why it has spread so successfully. Although many have suffered and died, the pandemic is likely to affect many more in terms of mental health or complications due to delayed medical care, while a great amount of suffering will also probably be caused by the subsequent economic chaos. These are the issues that need addressing in future responses.

Kelly Chibale, University of Cape Town The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced the first six African countries that will receive technology to produce messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. This comes off the back of the news that a South African consortium – part of the WHO’s technology transfer hub set up in 2021– had successfully replicated Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. Ina Skosana

The world has not yet won the war against malaria. While the total number of cases has declined from about 81.1 cases per 1,000 population to 59 per 1,000 since 2000, there were still an estimated 240 million cases and 600,000 deaths in 2020 globally.