August 19, 2022 – Djibouti News Gazette

August 19, 2022

Covid-19: WHO experts back second booster for most at risk

GENEVA— The World Health Organization’s vaccine advisers recommended that people most at risk from Covid-19 should be offered a second booster dose to increase their immunity.

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) said following initial vaccination, typically consisting of two doses, and an already recommended first booster dose, specific groups of people should be offered an additional jab.

“We are doing this on the basis obviously of observations in relation to waning immunity and particularly in the context of Omicron,” WHO senior health advisor Joachim Hornbach told reporters via video link.

The UN health agency has already recommended that all adults receive a booster shot four to six months after an initial round of vaccination, typically consisting of two jabs.

But SAGE chairman Alejandro Cravioto stressed that Thursday’s recommendation for a second booster after another four to six months had passed was only meant for the “populations at the highest risk.”

It “does not constitute a general recommendation of vaccinating all adults after the first booster”, he told the virtual press briefing.

SAGE said second boosters should be offered to the elderly and all immunocompromised people, pregnant women, as well as those with conditions like diabetes, hypertension and cardiac, lung and kidney disease that put them at higher risk.

Health workers of all ages should also get the additional jab, Cravioto said, insisting on the need to “protect our health systems from the devastation of having its personnel sick and not at work.”

Looking forward, the SAGE experts pointed to “significant uncertainties related to the evolution of the virus, the characteristics of future variants, and the trajectory of the epidemic given increasing vaccine- and infection-induced immunity globally.”

“It is likely that additional doses may be needed within 4-12 months after the second booster, especially in persons most vulnerable to severe disease and death,” they said.

For now, the booster recommendations are for the available vaccines developed to tackle the initial Covid-19 strain.

WHO has said it will evaluate new jabs being developed by vaccine makers like Moderna and Pfizer that are adapted to target new, fast-spreading Omicron variants.

But SAGE stressed that current vaccines appeared to continue providing high protection “against severe disease in the context of the Omicron variant and its sub-lineages.”

Second boosters for at-risk populations “should not be delayed in anticipation of future variant-containing vaccines”, they said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

August 19, 2022

WHO Approves Lifesaving Ebola Drugs

The World Health Organization says clinical evidence shows two monoclonal antibody treatments are effective at saving the lives of many people stricken with the deadly Ebola virus.

The action follows a systematic review and analysis of randomized clinical trials of therapeutics for the disease.

WHO Team Lead for Clinical Care Janet Diaz says the evidence underpinning the recommendations comes from two clinical trials. The largest was done in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 and 2019.

She says the trials were conducted during Ebola outbreaks, demonstrating quality control trials can be done even under the most difficult circumstances.

“The evidence synthesis that informs this guideline shows that mAb114 and Regeneron-EB3 reduced mortality. The relative risk reduction was about 60 percent…Between 230 to 400 lives saved per 1,000 patients. Translate that into the number needed to treat, you treat two to four patients, and you save one life.”

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is spread through blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with or has died of the disease. The worst Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016. Of the nearly 29,000 reported cases, more than 11,300 people died.

Diaz calls the development of monoclonal antibody therapeutics a very important advancement. However, she notes the drug itself is not the only solution. She says it must be given in a comprehensive, clinical setting along with other treatments.

“That includes early diagnosis so that treatments can be given as soon as possible and also the implementation of appropriate infection prevention and control to stop transmission…and treatment of co-infections and access to nutrition, psycho-social support, and, of course, access to care after discharge.”

Diaz says the two recommended therapeutics have shown clear benefits for people of all ages. She says they can be used on all patients confirmed positive for Ebola virus disease. That, she says, includes older people, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children, and babies born to mothers with confirmed Ebola within the first seven days after birth.

Source: Voice of America

August 19, 2022

Death of ‘Somali Shakespeare’ Mourned Nationwide

Renowned Somali author and poet Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, better known by his pen name Hadraawi, died Thursday in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, according to family members. He was 79.

Widely regarded as the greatest living Somali poet, and called “the Shakespeare of Somalia,” Warsame had battled illness for years that left him hospitalized.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud expressed the country’s sorrow.

“We have lost an icon in Somali [literature],” Mohamud said. “A man whom we will remember for his role in peace-building and conflict resolution, building the mindset of many Somalis through his wisdom and poems for the betterment and the unity of Somalis. I console to all Somali people and his family for his departure.”

Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi also lamented the loss of a colossal figure in Somali arts and letters.

“It is a painful moment for us and for all Somali-speaking communities in the region, a day we lost a great man,” Abdi said. “We will organize his national level funeral and events for his legacy and history.”

Hirsi Dhuh Mohamed, head of the Somali Music Composers Council, said Warsame had been Somalia’s greatest living poet.

“He was the ever-living Somali poet whose poetry addressed themes of love, kindness, national solidarity and uncompromising directness,” said Mohamed.

Mohamed Aden Dacar, a Somali artist and poet who worked with Warsame, called him “one of the remaining pillars of Somali arts and culture.”

“In their declaratory rhythms as well as their content, his poems often echoed as the pioneer of Somali people in the direction of peace and reconciliation,” Dacar said.

Born in 1943 in Somalia’s Togdheer region, Hadraawi, which means “master or father of speech,” was a household name.

According to “Hal Ka Haleel,” a compendium of his legacy and work, Hadraawi wrote the lyrics to more than 200 epic poems and the lyrics to more than 70 songs.

His early work and the songs were typically broadcast throughout the Horn region.

“Hooyoy La’aanta,” (“The Mother”), was one of his all-time favorite melodies.

The poet also played a role in the fight against dictatorship in the 1970s, criticizing late Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre’s government for its oppression of the masses.

Imprisoned for five years for his efforts to create a democratic society free of state control, he later fled to neighboring Djibouti where he continued his political criticism by writing poems that were memorized and recited by Somalis.

After Siad Barre’s downfall in 1991, Hadraawi, who had no personal political ambitions, began efforts to restore peace in Somalia.

In the second half of 2003, he traveled the length of Somalia preaching peace and nonviolence, and promoting understanding and reconciliation among all ethnicities and diasporas.

Throughout his long “peace caravans,” he was welcomed as a beacon of hope and a desperately needed spiritual leader who could fill the nation’s leadership vacuum.

Source: Voice Of America