SDG 2&3: UNICEF, WHO seek breastfeeding-friendly environments for Nigerian mothers & babies

In a joint statement to commemorate the 2021 World Breastfeeding week, the UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, and the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros  Adhanom  Ghebreyesus observed that the exclusive breastfeeding rates in Nigeria still falls significantly below the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals target. 

As a vital source of nutrition that can save children’s lives and contribute to improved health outcomes for children and mothers, breastfeeding is a critical key in achieving SDG 2 & 3 — which include ending hunger, improving nutrition and promoting health and wellbeing. 

The statement noted that in Nigeria, where 1 in 8 children do not reach their 5th birthday and 3 in 10 children are stunted, optimal breastfeeding practices are known to reduce neonatal and child morbidities and mortality rates as well as stunting reduction. 

It was noted that from available statistics in Nigeria,  the average duration of exclusive breastfeeding is approximately 3 months and only 3 out of every 10 children under 6 months of age were exclusively breastfed (29 percent). 

While pointing out that is an improvement from the 17 percent in 2013 to 29 percent  in 2018 (NDHS, 2013; 2018), the statement said it still falls significantly below the target of 50 percent set by the World Health Assembly to be achieved in 2025 and the SDG target for 2030. 

"The percentage of children who were breastfed within 1 hour of birth (42 percent) remains less than 50 percent. Breastfeeding rates in Nigeria reduces with age, 83 percent of the children are breastfed up to one year while 28 percent are breastfeeding till two years. Furthermore, the proportion of children who are not breastfeeding increases with age.

 “At the start of this year, governments, donors, civil society and the private sector united to launch the Nutrition for Growth Year of Action. The Year of Action is a historic opportunity to transform the way the world tackles the global commitment to eliminate child malnutrition. Breastfeeding is central to realising this commitment."

In the statement, it was stressed that initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, followed by exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continued breastfeeding for up to two years or beyond, offer a powerful line of defence against all forms of child malnutrition, including wasting and obesity.

"Optimal nutrition provided by breastfeeding along with nurturing, care, and stimulation strengthens a child’s brain development with positive impacts that endure over a lifetime.

"Breastfeeding also acts as babies’ first vaccine, protecting them against many common childhood illnesses.

The statement noted that while there has been progress in breastfeeding rates in the last four decades – with a 50 per cent increase in the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding globally – the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the fragility of those gains.

“In many countries, the pandemic has caused significant disruptions in breastfeeding support services, while increasing the risk of food insecurity and malnutrition. Several countries have reported that producers of baby foods have compounded these risks by invoking unfounded fears that breastfeeding can transmit COVID-19 and marketing their products as a safer alternative to breastfeeding."

Nigeria screens 143,000 pregnant women for HIV, 7,076 on ARV treatment

NO less than 143,000 pregnant women have been screened for HIV at the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research, NIMR, Lagos, even as 7,076 of those screened are enrolled on antiretroviral drug treatment.

The Deputy Director Research, NIMR, Prof Oliver Ezechi, who disclosed this recently, said the mother-to-child- transmission rate of HIV at the institution is less than 1.5 percent.

“Over the years, we have screened 143,000 pregnant women.  and enrolled 7,076  HIV positive pregnant women on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, PMTCT, programme, out of this figure, 6,411 have returned for assessment.

“When we see the women pregnant, we enrol them and provide them with drugs, because we don't have in-patient facilities and then refer them to other hospitals for delivery and they are supposed to us return in six weeks. 

“Till date, out of all the pregnant women who received ARV drugs in NIMR who visit our facilities and returned,  33 out of the 641 babies that were returned to the HIV clinic were positive. What this means is that our mother-to-child- transmission rate is less than 1.5 percent,” he stated.

Explaining further, Ezechi said as a result of the intervention, more than 2,000 babies had been saved from being born HIV positive. 

“The theory is that if we did not do anything to intervene, out of every 100 HIV positive pregnant women, about 25-30 percent of their babies would have been born HIV positive. What this means is that we  have saved more than 2,000 babies that would have been born positive.” 

He said 651 women did not return to the institute with their live babies for various reasons.

“You know that during pregnancy there would be some losses, and there were several of the women that were completely lost to follow up. Out of the number, 651  did not come back with live baby.”

Ezechi said there were another 74 women that were not counted in the total enrolled for the PMTCT programme. “These were among the pregnant women that did not attend the NIMR clinic and were delivered outside after which they brought their babies that turned out to be HIV positive. 

We have to include these 74 women in order to calculate the real rate of mother-to-child transmission in this facility because we are supposed to be a catchment centre and provide services to everyone.

Once any woman has come here, whether we managed her or her baby or not, it is a missed opportunity. The ideal mother-to-child transmission rate is 0.51 percent, that is if every woman that is pregnant comes here. 

New study shows no risk to sperm from COVID-19 vaccine

 

A new study in the US has found there is no risk to a man’s sperm from having any of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines. 

The research, carried out at the University of Miami Health System, revealed that men may suffer a slight lowering of their sperm count for a few weeks as a possible side-effect but no more than they would following a viral infection.

“People should not be concerned. The vaccines are very safe,” said Co-author Ranjith Ramasay who had received over 500 emails from concerned men. 

Having tracked 45 men aged between 18 and 50, who had received the Moderna, Pzifer vaccine, and the mRNA vaccines, Ramasay concluded that there was no significant decline in their sperm count after 70 days.

He said that even though the numbers in the research were small, the researchers were confident they can generalise to the rest of the population.

He added that they were also confident that the Johnson and Johnson and the Novavax vaccines, which are yet to be authorised would also not affect sperm counts.

 “We are pretty confident, ” he avowed. 

Men were reported to be refusing to have the vaccine due to fears over trying to conceive, with many citing social media as their source of information.

Previously, studies said men who have recovered from COVID-19 may be at risk of developing low sperm count in the short term. 

Researchers from the University of Florence in Italy, analyzed semen samples from 43 men ages 30 to 65 about one month after they had recovered from COVID-19.

 They found that 25 percent of the men had low sperm count, and nearly 20 percent had azoospermia or the total absence of sperm in semen. 

It's much higher than the prevalence of azoospermia in the general population worldwide, which is around 1 percent, according to John's Hopkins School of Medicine. 

Also, participants with serious COVID-19 infections — those who were hospitalized or admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) — were more likely to have azoospermia after their infection, compared with those who faced less serious infections, according to one study. 

However, the researchers stress their study doesn't prove that the COVID-19 virus harms sperm. They didn't measure the men's sperm counts before their infections, so can't say for sure if the counts declined post-infection. 

Africa faces fast surging COVID-19 3rd wave, says WHO

 

THE third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is picking up speed in Africa as the continent faces its steepest surge yet, according to the World Health Organisation, WHO.

Africa is facing a fast-surging third wave of COVID-19 pandemic, the agency noted, with cases spreading more rapidly and projected to soon overtake the peak of the second wave the continent witnessed at the start of 2021.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, disclosed this on Thursday during a virtual press conference. said the worst may be yet to come for Africa if urgent steps are not taken to curb the current surge.

Since the onset of the third wave on 3rd May 2021,  COVID-19 cases have risen for five consecutive weeks. 

“The third wave is picking up speed, spreading faster, hitting harder. With rapidly rising case numbers and increasing reports of serious illness, the latest surge threatens to be Africa’s worst yet.

“Africa can still blunt the impact of these fast-rising infections, but the window of opportunity is closing. Everyone everywhere can do their bit by taking precautions to prevent transmission,” she noted. 

As of 20 June (day 48 into the new wave), Africa had recorded around 474,000 new cases, a 21 percent increase compared with the first 48 days of the second wave. 

At the current rate of infections, the ongoing surge is set to surpass the previous one by early July.

According to WHO, the pandemic is resurging in 12 African countries. A combination of factors including weak observance of public health measures increased social interaction, and movement as well as the spread of variants are powering the new surge. Across Africa, the Delta variant first identified in India has been reported in 14 countries.  

The COVID-19 upsurge comes as the vaccine supply crunch persists. 18 African countries have used over 80 percent of their COVAX vaccine supplies, with eight having exhausted their stocks, 29 have administered over 50 percent of their supplies. 

Despite the progress, just over 1 percent of Africa’s population has been fully vaccinated. Globally, around 2.7 billion doses administered, of which just under 1.5 percent have been administered in the continent.

As many high-income countries vaccinate a significant proportion of their populations, proof of vaccination is leading to fewer movement restrictions. Globally,16 countries are waiving quarantine for those with a vaccination certificate. Measures to prevent COVID-19 transmission are crucial, but with many African countries having limited access to vaccines, it is important that vaccines be only one of the conditions countries use to open borders and increase freedom of movement.

“With high vaccination rates, it’s shaping up into a summer of freedom, family, and fun for millions of people in richer countries. This is understandable and we all long for the same joys,” said Moeti. 

“Vaccine shortages are already prolonging the pain of COVID-19 in Africa. Let’s not add injury to injustice. Africans must not face more restrictions because they are unable to access vaccines that are only available elsewhere. I urge all regional and national regulatory agencies to recognize all the vaccines Emergency Use listed by WHO.”

In the European Union, a COVID-19 passport system for vaccination, testing, and recovery will take effect from 1 July. However, only four of the eight vaccines listed by WHO for emergency use are recognised by the European Medicines Agency for the passport system. 

 In Africa, most countries do not give quarantine exemptions for travellers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and require a negative COVID-19 test.

COVID-19: China is vaccinating 20m people a day

 For more than a week, an average of about 20 million people has been vaccinated against COVID-19 every day in China. At this rate, the nation would have fully vaccinated the entire UK population in about six days. 

China now accounts for more than half of the 35 million or so people around the world receiving a COVID-19 shot each day.

Zoltán Kis, a chemical engineer in the Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub at Imperial College London, doesn’t know of “anything even close to those production scales” for a vaccine. “The manufacturing efforts required in China to reach this high production throughput are tremendous,” he says.

The majority of doses are of one of CoronaVac — produced by Beijing-based company Sinovac — showed an efficacy of 51 percent against symptoms of COVID-19 in clinical trials, and much higher protection against severe disease and death. The second jab was developed in Beijing by state-owned firm Sinopharm and has demonstrated an efficacy of 79 percent against symptomatic disease and hospitalization.

China’s current vaccine production rate could potentially make a significant dent in global demand, says Kis; that would be “a huge step in reducing the healthcare and economic burden of the COVID-19 pandemic”. 

China has already supplied 350 million doses of the two vaccines to more than 75 nations, and WHO approval should now trigger further distribution of both vaccines to low-income countries.

“China’s vaccination campaign got off to a slow start, but has rapidly picked up pace,” says Rongjun Chen, a biomaterials scientist also at the Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub. As recently as mid-April, China was administering only about five million doses a day.

An official at China’s National Health Commission, said the nation aims to produce some three billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 — and up to five billion per year after that.

To achieve such high production rates, many things need to go according to plan across the entire production and distribution chain, from sourcing raw materials to manufacturing active ingredients, filling vials and distributing doses to vaccination centres, says Kis. “It is crucial that everything arrives at the right location at the right time.”

Both CoronaVac and the Sinopharm vaccine are made from the inactivated virus. Scientists say that vaccines of this type require more time and effort to produce than do COVID-19 vaccines based on mRNA technology, such as the Pfizer or Moderna shots. To produce killed virus, manufacturers first need to grow it in living cells in large bioreactors, which can take months, explains Kis.

To achieve its massive gains, China probably leveraged its existing capacity for manufacturing inactivated-virus vaccines against other diseases, including influenza and hepatitis A, says Jin Dong-Yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong.

As of 6 June, China had administered 778 million doses to its population of about 1.4 billion people. At the current rate, it could fully vaccinate its whole population in around three months.

MERCK Foundation, ARCS partner to build fertility care capacity, advocacy in Africa

Merck Foundation and the Africa Reproductive Care Services, ARCS,  are partnering to build advocacy to break the stigma of infertility through awareness about infertility prevention and male infertility in Africa as part of Merck Foundation More than a Mother campaign.

Announcing the partnership, the CEO of Merck Foundation/President of Merck More Than a Mother, Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej,  said it was a delight to partner with an important and inclusive Society like Africa Reproductive Care Society with the aim not to only provide scientific and clinics training to African doctors and embryologists but to also build advocacy to break the stigma of infertility and raise awareness about infertility prevention, management, and male infertility. 

“We at Merck Foundation partnered with 20 African First Ladies, Ministries of Health, Information, Education, Communication and Genders, Academia, Media & Art communities to achieve our goals to transform the landscape of fertility care in Africa, and we have achieved very important milestones. 

“I believe with our new partnership with ARCS we will continue our efforts and address different aspects of this topic”.

Also expressing elation at the partnership, the President of the ARCS, Prof Oladapo Ashiru, stated: “Merck Foundation has been creating awareness and building fertility care capacity in Africa. It is very critical to create awareness around infertility prevention and management as around 85 percent of infertility cases in Africa are caused by untreated infectious diseases, hence are preventable in many cases. 

“I also thank Merck Foundation CEO, Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej for her energy, inspiration, and innovations. Together will do well for Africa.

“I invite all fertility care experts and embryologists, media experts, fashion designers who are our Merck Foundation Alumni to join this society. 

“Also, I invite policymakers, community leaders and members, singers and filmmakers to apply for the membership which is free and inclusive for all Africa”, Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej added.

The partnership was announced during the 8th edition of Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary during the Fertility and Reproductive care session, where they provided scientific and medical training for more than 400 doctors from Africa and Asia. And, discussed challenges, strategies, and solutions to improve access to quality, equitable and regulated fertility care in Africa and Asia.

With “Merck Foundation More Than a Mother”, we have initiated a cultural shift to de-stigmatise infertility at all levels: By improving awareness, training local experts in the fields of fertility care and media, building advocacy in cooperation with African First Ladies and women leaders and by supporting childless women in starting their own small businesses. It’s all about giving every woman the respect and the help she deserves to live a fulfilling life, with or without a child. 

Ashiru said ARCS aims to be the foremost contributor and the partner of choice in advancing the ART care solutions and advocating for improving access to regulated and equitable fertility care solutions and breaking the stigma around infertility in Africa with a special focus on Sub- Saharan Africa.

Indian doctors fault distribution of unproven herbal COVID-19 remedy

Indian doctors have faulted the free distribution of an unproven remedy to COVID-19 patients by the state of Haryana as the maker of the herbal medicine faced a backlash over claims that modern medicine had caused deaths.

The northern state,  ruled by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janta Party, said it would hand out the herbal drug Coronil to COVID-19 patients. 

The ayurvedic medicine was launched by yoga guru Baba Ramdev's company Patanjali Ayurved in 2020 as a COVID-19 cure.

The government later said the consumer goods company co-founded by Ramdev could not market the drug as a cure, and it needed to market it as an immunity booster.

But Ajay Khanna, the state secretary of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) who spoke in Uttarakhand, where Patanjali is headquartered, said there is no scientific basis to Coronil's use in treating COVID-19 patients. 

"If the Haryana government is doing this, then it is their loss. He (Ramdev) is more of a businessman than anything else. To sell his product, he has sparked a fight between allopathic medicine and ayurveda," Khanna said.

The Uttarakhand unit of IMA filed a lawsuit against the yoga guru, asking him to write an apology for his recent statement that science-based treatments had caused the deaths of thousands of COVID-19 patients.

The comment drew the ire of doctors across the country and Ramdev, who has a large following in India, withdrew his remarks weekend.

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian system that includes medicines, meditation, exercise and dietary guidelines practiced by millions of adherents.

The outcry over the remedy and the guru's comments comes weeks after Indian doctors warned against the practice of smearing cow dung on the body in the belief it will ward off COVID-19, saying there was no scientific evidence of its effectiveness and it risked spreading other diseases. read more

India's has had 27.16 million cases of the coronavirus and 311,388 deaths, according to health ministry data, and a devastating second wave of infections is sweeping many parts of the country.

Traditional medicine is popular with many people, partly because of a lack of access to healthcare, but doctors have warned of the danger of people putting their trust in alternative treatments for COVID-19.

"You lower your guard thinking you're protected in some way, but I think real harm can be caused by giving people a false sense of security," said Lancelot Pinto, a consultant pulmonologist at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai.

A spoonful of miracle medicine made by a local Ayurveda practitioner Borigi Anandaiah, from some herbs and regular household ingredients like black pepper, cumin, honey, turmeric, neem, camphor, etc., was said to be preventing COVID-19, and curing the infection in patients providing better relief than the allopathy treatment.