Dr. Umaru's Blog on Health & Development

 It has been exactly one year since I reflected on the success of public health in 2020. As predicted, 2021 has come with its own successes in public health. However, unlike 2020, the year 2021 is a roller coaster for the momentous up-and-down on the successful roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccination and the lack of equity in the distribution and access to the same vaccines. I had hoped that by the end of 2021, the global effort to equitably distribute and access vaccines is successfully rolled out. But, this has not been achieved.  At the start of the year is the happiness of new vaccines that could potentially shape the public health response to the pandemic. The happiness was short-lived by the complete disregard to science over politics throughout the United States and other parts of the globe. The United States saw the January 6 insurrection or the so-called attack on democracy which vehemently derailed the success of vaccine introduction. Then came the conspiracy theories o...

 Good morning to my esteemed readers and hope you are staying safe and following your local public health guidelines. Today, I reflect on the challenges and success of 2020 as seen from the global health perspective. You may be surprised to see my title of "global health success" in a year of pandemic, but, read on to see my perspective. It is no doubt 2020 will go down as one of the global health challenging years in recent centuries. The most important occurrence of the year is the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 is a disease caused by one of the families of coronaviruses called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-coronavirus-2 or SARS-Cov-2 virus, which when infected, causes severe respiratory disorder (first reported in 2019), hence the name COVID-19.  The virus was first "discovered" in Ruhan Province of China allegedly from human-animal interaction in the city's animal market. Now, whereas coronaviruses are not new, there are mostly present in animals inclu...

    There's been multiple interventions and strategies aimed at helping Africa's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The multitude of support and coordination between Africa's leadership, under the Africa U nion Commission, and the global stakeholders including Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Jack Ma Foundation among others have been positively commended.  As of August 7, 2020, the continent reported the fist one million confirmed cases of COVID-19 bringing to light the increasing exposure to the diseases by the continent's vulnerable population.  Whereas the one million cases represent an important measure in Africa's response to the pandemic, it is by far less significant comp ared to similar numbers in developed countries, such as the United Sta tes of America.  There are those who are of the opinion that Africa's response is too slow because the number of cases coming out of the continent is far less than expect ed (or predicted...