Malaria Kills More Than Earlier Thought

More than 1.2 million people died from malaria worldwide in 2010, but the death rate is falling due to improved programmes to roll out treatment and bed nets.
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No Time to 'Give Up' On HIV-Fighting Gel

Africans tracking the worldwide HIV epidemic have not found much to celebrate since Aids began ravaging the continent 30 years ago, but researchers are optimistic.
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Chad: Why Polio is So Hard to Eliminate

(file photo) Poor-quality emergency immunization campaigns and low routine polio immunization coverage are helping the virus to spread in Chad.
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Liberia: No Time for Complacency in HIV Fight

Until a few years ago, many Liberians were dismissive about the threat posed by the virus that causes Aids. The Aids acronym was mocked as: the American Intention to Discourage Sex. (Photo courtesy Boakai Fofana/allAfrica.com)

(file photo) Côte d'Ivoire is abandoning free health care, except for pregnant women and children, after a brief experiment because of theft, poor management and skyrocketing costs. (Photo courtesy Daily Nation)

A global health coalition have announced their support for eliminating 10 Neglected Tropical Diseases by 2020. (Photo courtesy Gavi Alliance)

The Global Fund has saved millions of lives, but as it marks its 10th anniversary it finds itself the subject of questions and concern. (Photo courtesy David Poland/PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative)

Raw sewage. Authorities say some 900 residents of Zimbabwe's capital have been diagnosed with typhoid, which can be spread through contaminated water. (Photo courtesy IRIN)

Kenya: Shortage of HIV-Test Kits Raises Concerns

Voluntary counselling and testing centres around Kenya are turning people away due to a shortage of HIV testing kits after the recall in December of more than one million faulty HIV tests. (Photo courtesy Tom Otieno)

If there was no HIV/Aids, South Africa would have 4.4 million more people than today. This significant slow-down in population growth is causing a slow down in economic growth and resulting in social ills. (Photo courtesy Manoocher Deghati/IRIN)

(file photo) The marginalized western Ugandan Basua community is fighting extinction; forcibly removed from their forest home two decades ago, they have struggled to cope with modern life and have been ravaged by health crises. (Photo courtesy UNHCR/G.Gordon)

A health worker in the DRC. The country has received U.S.$9.1 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund to fight cholera, which has affected more than 22,000 people and killed 500 in the past year. (Photo courtesy Gwen Dubourthoumieu/IRIN)

A severe shortage of clean drinking water in parts of Côte d'Ivoire is reaching critical levels and threatening public health, say residents and officials. (Photo courtesy WaterAid/Benedicte Desrus)

The escalation of the nodding disease syndrome in northern Uganda could have been avoided if government had implemented research recommendations made by health experts in 2009, a report says. (Photo courtesy James Eriku/Daily Monitor)

In a recent survey a greater number of women than men said that after circumcision they were more likely to have more than one sexual partner - 22 percent compared with two percent of men. Women were also more likely to have sex without a condom - 28 percent against two percent of men. (Photo courtesy IRIN)

Swaziland is still short of lab reagents needed for CD4 count testing, which is used to initiate and monitor patients on antiretroviral treatment, and HIV-positive people are growing increasingly frustrated as the country enters its fourth month without a way to establish the strength of their immune system. (Photo courtesy Daily Nation)

Eastern and southern Africa, the regions most affected by the HIV/Aids epidemic, is making great strides to scale up access to prevention and treatment services. (Photo courtesy Kenneth Odiwuor/IRIN)

The majority of the estimated 15 million HIV-infected people eligible for of anti-retroviral treatments reside in eastern and southern Africa, and it is crucial that access to treatment there also be scaled up. (Photo courtesy Daily Nation)

People queue up to see the doctor at the Gongoni health centre in Malindi, Kenya. Experts say including males in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission is crucial because it is a family issue. (Photo courtesy Allan Gichigi/IRIN)

The Rwandan government plans to circumcise two million men in the next two years in an ambitious program that aims to reduce the HIV transmission rate by 50 percent. (Photo courtesy Edward Echwalu)

(file photo) At a hospital in Pallisa District, healthworkers have built a makeshift shelter under a tree to help mothers deliver their babies, Daily Monitor has learnt. (Photo courtesy Marc Hofer/UNESCO)

Botswana has marked many "firsts" in Africa's fight against the HIV virus. Here are details of the most important events in its battle. (Photo courtesy Kenya Aid)

Following the tragic killings two employees, the medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières sees itself forced to end all activities in Somalia's capital, including the closure of two separate 120-bed medical facilities. (Photo courtesy Claire Barrault/ECHO)

Cases of multi-drug resistant TB continue to increase, with 76 cases recorded so far, a senior health official has said. According to records, 27 people with MDR-TB were put on treatment in 2009 and the cases rose to 74 in 2010. (Photo courtesy Siegfried/IRIN)

In some parts of western Tanzania, circumcision levels are as low as 20 percent but a recently launched program aims to circumcise 2.8 million males aged between 10 and 34 within five years. (Photo courtesy Edward Echwalu/IRIN)

Faced with rising energy prices and frequent electricity blackouts, hospitals and medical clinics in Kenya are turning to solar energy to provide life-saving power. (Photo courtesy Graeme Williams/MediaClubSA)

Reducing methane and black carbon emissions could quickly tackle climate change while improving food security and people's health, especially in developing countries, a study says. (Photo courtesy Sasol)

Since re-emerging in the 1970s, yaws has affected an estimated 460,000 people - mostly children - in poor, tropical rural areas, mainly in Africa and Asia. (Photo courtesy Hezron Njoroge/Nation)

The U.S. National Institutes of Health is releasing research findings that could have a direct effect on the well-being of the millions of children, adolescents and young adults infected with HIV or with fully developed Aids. (Photo courtesy IRIN)

Next year supplies of rats will be sent to Angola, another country struggling with millions of land mines left behind after the war, which ended in 2002. (Photo courtesy Ilona Eveleens/RNW)

Cervical cancer affects millions of Zambian women each year. But it is quickly being brought under control thanks to new vaccinations, screening programmes and possibly even former U.S. president George Bush. (Photo courtesy Business Daily)

Young boys play in a river known to be a source of waterborne diseases. With the advent of the rainy season and poor sanitary and hygienic facilities, rural and peri-urban communities are vulnerable to waterborne diseases. (Photo courtesy Kate Holt/IRIN)

A 2008 survey found that pain was the main complaint for 87 percent of patients in Zambia, while 98 percent of health workers lacked the skills to assess and deal with pain properly. (Photo courtesy Euan Denholm/IRIN)

"I had no power, I could not even walk. I just had to be lifted by someone. When bathing, when going to the toilet, when going anywhere," Geoffrey Mwila says in a soft voice.

Forty-three-year-old Mwila, lying in bed, coughs often in between his short sentences. Weakened by HIV, he was severely affected by tuberculosis and found himself on the verge of death only a few weeks ago.

His unbuttoned shirt reveals an extremely frail body, but compared to when he was first brought to this hospice, he has improved miraculously.

A recent report estimates that nine African countries have lost U.S.$2 billion worth of investment in training and educating doctors who have subsequently migrated abroad. It needn't be this way. (Photo courtesy Stephen Mudiari/ Daily Nation)

The Kenyan government has changed its HIV testing algorithm following the withdrawal of a widely used brand of HIV test on warnings from the UN World Health Organization. (Photo courtesy SimplyAvoir/Flickr)

At the Malaria Forum hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in October, the latest findings on what is currently the most viable malaria vaccine candidate in medical history, known as RTS,S, were announced. (Photo courtesy Gates Foundation)

Home-Based Care has been and will continue to be an integral part of care given at community and household level because the patient remains part of their homes as brothers, sisters, parents and children. (Photo courtesy Ryan Youngblood)

A young man has taken a bold step by trekking across Gambia and campaigning against the HIV/Aids epidemic. (Photo courtesy Glenna Gordon/IRIN)

(file photo) While mothers take pride in bearing children and happily watching them grow healthily, Santa Alok's memories of giving birth only bring her pain and sorrow. (Photo courtesy Abbie Traylor-Smith/Oxfam)

Polio's Last Percent

Positively Proud

Africa: 10 Big HIV Stories of 2011

(file photo) An HIV/Aids orphan sits on an old bus seat. It's been a roller coaster of a year regarding HIV and Aids. And with new evidence of the effectiveness of treatment as prevention, experts are increasingly talking about "the end of Aids". (Photo courtesy IRIN)

The cholera outbreak that has infected thousands of people across the Democratic Republic of Congo is almost over in the worst-affected province, but fresh cases are being recorded in two other areas. (Photo courtesy Gwen Dubourthoumieu/IRIN)

While antiretroviral drugs have significantly improved the life expectancy of people living with HIV, the virus can make people more susceptible to non-communicable diseases. (Photo courtesy Daily Nation)

In eastern Senegal, the prevalence rate of HIV has raised concerns among NGOs and health officials. Prostitution is widely practiced in this gold-bearing region, but gold is both a blessing and a curse. (Photo courtesy Siegfried Modola/IRIN)

Illegal Abortions Common Despite Risks

In Uganda, it's a criminal offence for any woman to abort a pregnancy or for any person to assist in abortions. Still, illegal abortion is a widespread practice, which sometimes ... Read more »

Malaria Kills More Than Earlier Thought

More than 1.2 million people died from malaria worldwide in 2010, but the death rate is falling due to improved programmes to roll out treatment and bed nets. Read more »

Top Headlines

Liberia: No Time for Complacency in HIV Fight (allAfrica.com)
West Africa: Yellow Fever Outbreaks Hit Cameroon and Ghana (UN News)

Africa: Study - Malaria Death Toll Nearly Twice the Official Count, Kills Many Adults (KPLU)
Africa: Malaria Kills Nearly Twice as Many People Than Previously Thought (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation)

Zimbabwe: Improved Aids Levy Collections Fill Part of Funding Gap (PlusNews)
Africa: Malaria Kills Twice As Many People As Previously Thought, Research Finds (Guardian Network)

Zimbabwe: Typhoid Outbreak Hits Harare (RNW Africa)
Africa: BCI and IBCN Collaborate to Fight Breast Cancer (Public Agenda)

Sierra Leone: Saudi Arabia Dispatches 30 Doctors to Country (Concord)
Tanzania: To Get a Healthy Nation, We Must Invest in Health (Citizen)

Zambia: Abortions Still Provided By Clinics Despite Illegality (RNW Africa)
Zimbabwe: We Can't Arrest Typhoid On Our Own - Harare (The Herald)

Zimbabwe: Typhoid Outbreak Is 'Biological Warfare' - Mugabe Party (Monitor)
Africa: Malaria Mortality 'Underestimated' (IRIN)

South Africa: Cancer - Know Your Chances (Health-e)
Kenya: Nation Has Enough Cash for HIV Till 2016 - Government (Nairobi Star)

South Africa: Six Malaria Cases Confirmed in Tshwane (SAPA)
Ethiopia: Experts Pledge to Eradicate 'Neglected' Diseases (IRIN)

Ghana: Malaria Prevention - 13 Winning Moves for Workers (Public Agenda)
Ghana: Capitation Talks End in Deadlock as Ashanti Group Gears Up for Demonstration (Ghanaian Chronicle)

Nigeria: Lassa Fever - and the 'Joker' Was Death (1) (Vanguard)
Kenya: Are You Abusing Antibiotics? (Business Daily)

Kenya: Residents Protest Neglect By Voi Doctors (Nairobi Star)
Kenya: Plug Loopholes to Ensure Success of Medical Scheme (Business Daily)

Kenya: Rising Cases of Cancer Trigger Multi-Billion Shilling Investments (Business Daily)
Tanzania: More Call for Doctors to End Strike (Daily News)

see more »

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 130 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Top Headlines: Health and Medicine

Liberia: No Time for Complacency in HIV Fight (allAfrica.com)
West Africa: Yellow Fever Outbreaks Hit Cameroon and Ghana (UN News)
Africa: Study - Malaria Death Toll Nearly Twice the Official Count, Kills Many Adults (KPLU)
Africa: Malaria Kills Nearly Twice as Many People Than Previously Thought (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation)
Zimbabwe: Improved Aids Levy Collections Fill Part of Funding Gap (PlusNews)
see more »

Reporting on development issues is assisted by AllAfrica's Development Reporting Fund, with major support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Other funders include the Carnegie Corporation and the Science Initiative Group.

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