JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – Shejirina Moni sits beside her children in front of their makeshift home in a shanty community in South Sudan’s capital Juba. Six of her children have died of various illnesses. She’s got three left.

“The first one died at nine months. Another one died at the age of 10 months. Another one died when he was crawling, about three months,” she tells VOA.

Moni’s story highlights a sad fact: Millions of children in South Sudan do not get routine vaccinations. They are vulnerable to preventable illnesses.

While South Sudan is currently free of the coronavirus pandemic alarming the global community, the country is battling a severe measles outbreak, with over 4,700 confirmed cases and 26 deaths since January 2019.

The government of South Sudan has partnered with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and ONE, the anti-poverty campaign co-founded by Irish musician and celebrity-activist Bono, to carry out a nationwide measles vaccination drive that aims to reach 2.5 million children by April.

The campaign launched in February at the only pediatric medical facility in the entire country – Al-Shabbah Children’s Hospital. Situated in the heart of Juba, it provides healthcare to more than 5,000 people monthly, reaching some of the poorest people in the city.

“We need to boost the vaccination coverage to protect children against measles outbreaks,” says Dr. Makur Matur Kariom, the Ministry of Health’s undersecretary. “Unfortunately, in South Sudan routine vaccination coverage against measles remains low at only 59 percent.”

Public health specialists recommend coverage not to fall below 90 percent. It’s crucial to maintain that standard for measles, which is highly infectious. With poor coverage, outbreaks reoccur.

“[Measles] can cause rashes, eye infection, respiratory infections, diarrhea and even death,” says Dr. Olushayo Olu, the WHO’s South Sudan country representative.

One reason why childhood immunization coverage against measles is low in the country is due to the logistical challenges involved in keeping vaccines at near-freezing temperatures. It’s not easy to do in South Sudan – the least electrified country in the world, where temperatures often soar above 40 degrees Celsius.

Al-Shabbah Hospital uses a solar-powered fridge provided by UNICEF.

“We are able to keep these things at the correct temperature in the hospital here. That is the most important thing,” says Dr. Felix Nyungura, the hospital’s executive director. “The public electricity has not yet arrived in our place here. Although in some places it is there. But now we are depending on solar power and electricity from generator. “

UNICEF is helping to restore what is known in healthcare terms as the cold-chain system, which was severely disrupted during the civil war that broke out in 2013.

“With the conflict, more than 50 percent of the cold chain equipment installed in the country were vandalized and some of them looted,” Dr. Patti Samuel, a UNICEF health specialist, tells VOA. She says UNICEF has installed refrigerators, freezers and generators to run them in about 55 percent of health facilities across the country.

South Sudan faces huge developmental challenges as a young nation mired in historic conflict, economic crisis and grappling with rapid population growth.

Only one percent of the government’s 2019-2020 fiscal budget has been allocated to healthcare. In 2018, it was two percent.

“South Sudan – what are the priorities right now? When your house is on fire, you just want to put out the fire and unfortunately in South Sudan the fire has been burning for so long and some of the basics of development have just not been prioritized,” says Edwin Ikhuoria, ONE’s Africa executive director.

He says governments in Africa do not adequately fund healthcare because politicians don’t see it as a “sexy campaign,” compared to other areas like infrastructure.

“But If health care is not well invested in, you’re going to lose a lot in human capital,” he says.

ONE tries to convince governments to increase domestic financing for primary health care and pushes for investments that help to end preventable childhood deaths.

Another reason immunization coverage is low is because people aren’t informed. That’s where community mobilizers like Agnes Anjack Alphonse come in. Volunteering for UNICEF, she’s on the frontline in the effort to get the word out.

“Sometimes I knock on the doors,” she says. “If they did not come and I know that this house has kids, and they did not come, I’ll go knock on the door. ‘Hi, we are doing vaccine, why are you not coming?’ They’ll say, ‘I’m busy.’ I’ll say, ‘can I have your kids and I’ll return them back?’ They’ll say it’s OK.”

Making the rounds in her neighborhood, she meets a mother whose daughter has not been vaccinated and gently persuades her to go to a medical facility.

The efforts are paying off. So far, the vaccination campaign has reached more than a million children, including Shejirina Mon’s.

“I have discovered the importance of vaccination,” she says.

She hopes her daughters, Madelina Padi and Maria Yangi, and son Yoanna, will live long, healthy lives.

Source: Voice of America

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – Shejirina Moni sits beside her children in front of their makeshift home in a shanty community in South Sudan’s capital Juba. Six of her children have died of various illnesses. She’s got three left.

“The first one died at nine months. Another one died at the age of 10 months. Another one died when he was crawling, about three months,” she tells VOA.

Moni’s story highlights a sad fact: Millions of children in South Sudan do not get routine vaccinations. They are vulnerable to preventable illnesses.

While South Sudan is currently free of the coronavirus pandemic alarming the global community, the country is battling a severe measles outbreak, with over 4,700 confirmed cases and 26 deaths since January 2019.

The government of South Sudan has partnered with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and ONE, the anti-poverty campaign co-founded by Irish musician and celebrity-activist Bono, to carry out a nationwide measles vaccination drive that aims to reach 2.5 million children by April.

The campaign launched in February at the only pediatric medical facility in the entire country – Al-Shabbah Children’s Hospital. Situated in the heart of Juba, it provides healthcare to more than 5,000 people monthly, reaching some of the poorest people in the city.

“We need to boost the vaccination coverage to protect children against measles outbreaks,” says Dr. Makur Matur Kariom, the Ministry of Health’s undersecretary. “Unfortunately, in South Sudan routine vaccination coverage against measles remains low at only 59 percent.”

Public health specialists recommend coverage not to fall below 90 percent. It’s crucial to maintain that standard for measles, which is highly infectious. With poor coverage, outbreaks reoccur.

“[Measles] can cause rashes, eye infection, respiratory infections, diarrhea and even death,” says Dr. Olushayo Olu, the WHO’s South Sudan country representative.

One reason why childhood immunization coverage against measles is low in the country is due to the logistical challenges involved in keeping vaccines at near-freezing temperatures. It’s not easy to do in South Sudan – the least electrified country in the world, where temperatures often soar above 40 degrees Celsius.

Al-Shabbah Hospital uses a solar-powered fridge provided by UNICEF.

“We are able to keep these things at the correct temperature in the hospital here. That is the most important thing,” says Dr. Felix Nyungura, the hospital’s executive director. “The public electricity has not yet arrived in our place here. Although in some places it is there. But now we are depending on solar power and electricity from generator. “

UNICEF is helping to restore what is known in healthcare terms as the cold-chain system, which was severely disrupted during the civil war that broke out in 2013.

“With the conflict, more than 50 percent of the cold chain equipment installed in the country were vandalized and some of them looted,” Dr. Patti Samuel, a UNICEF health specialist, tells VOA. She says UNICEF has installed refrigerators, freezers and generators to run them in about 55 percent of health facilities across the country.

South Sudan faces huge developmental challenges as a young nation mired in historic conflict, economic crisis and grappling with rapid population growth.

Only one percent of the government’s 2019-2020 fiscal budget has been allocated to healthcare. In 2018, it was two percent.

“South Sudan – what are the priorities right now? When your house is on fire, you just want to put out the fire and unfortunately in South Sudan the fire has been burning for so long and some of the basics of development have just not been prioritized,” says Edwin Ikhuoria, ONE’s Africa executive director.

He says governments in Africa do not adequately fund healthcare because politicians don’t see it as a “sexy campaign,” compared to other areas like infrastructure.

“But If health care is not well invested in, you’re going to lose a lot in human capital,” he says.

ONE tries to convince governments to increase domestic financing for primary health care and pushes for investments that help to end preventable childhood deaths.

Another reason immunization coverage is low is because people aren’t informed. That’s where community mobilizers like Agnes Anjack Alphonse come in. Volunteering for UNICEF, she’s on the frontline in the effort to get the word out.

“Sometimes I knock on the doors,” she says. “If they did not come and I know that this house has kids, and they did not come, I’ll go knock on the door. ‘Hi, we are doing vaccine, why are you not coming?’ They’ll say, ‘I’m busy.’ I’ll say, ‘can I have your kids and I’ll return them back?’ They’ll say it’s OK.”

Making the rounds in her neighborhood, she meets a mother whose daughter has not been vaccinated and gently persuades her to go to a medical facility.

The efforts are paying off. So far, the vaccination campaign has reached more than a million children, including Shejirina Mon’s.

“I have discovered the importance of vaccination,” she says.

She hopes her daughters, Madelina Padi and Maria Yangi, and son Yoanna, will live long, healthy lives.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON – Three African countries account for most of the continent’s coronavirus cases, but the deputy director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the entire continent must be ready for the virus.

“The virus is causing a lot of havoc in other parts of the world, and we in Africa must be prepared so that it does not catch us in the numbers that we are seeing in Europe and Asia, because our health systems will not be able to cope,” Dr. Ahmed Ogwell told VOA via Skype from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The best strategy, he said, and one his agency is advising governments to follow, “is to prevent and minimize the harm that the virus will cause to the continent.”

Ogwell said his organization, which is a technical agency of the African Union, is working to strengthen countries’ preparedness in three main areas, including improvement of surveillance at ports of entry and hospitals; increasing countries’ ability to test for COVID-19, a capacity 43 African countries now have; and strengthening the capacity for infection prevention and control so infected patients can be isolated and monitored.

To date, the hardest-hit countries are Egypt, with 196 reported cases; South Africa, with 116; and Algeria, with 73. There were 605 cases continentwide as of March 18.

Ogwell said a silver lining to the crisis is that these three countries have fairly well-developed health systems and local testing capacity. However, a significant rise in cases can overwhelm any country.

“They have been managing the cases quite effectively,” Ogwell said. “What is the challenge is that when the numbers start becoming big, then you find that doing effective contact tracing becomes that much more of a challenge.”

He added that the continent has learned a lot from the Ebola outbreak of 2014-15. One of the biggest lessons is the importance of cross-border collaboration. If countries like Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia had received help from better-resourced countries early in the Ebola outbreak, he said, it might have slowed the spread of the disease.

He added that health ministers from across the continent have been working on updating and coordinating pandemic response policies so resources can be quickly marshaled to address an outbreak. Another improvement is the partnership among national ministries of health, continental organizations such as the Africa CDC and global entities such as the World Health Organization.

“During this COVID-19 outbreak, we have mobilized partners from the very beginning,” he said. “And we are working very closely with the various partners on the continent and beyond to ensure that we don’t have a very large number of cases on the continent. So we’ve learned a lot from Ebola. And we’re using those lessons to improve the way we respond this time around.”

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON – Three African countries account for most of the continent’s coronavirus cases, but the deputy director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the entire continent must be ready for the virus.

“The virus is causing a lot of havoc in other parts of the world, and we in Africa must be prepared so that it does not catch us in the numbers that we are seeing in Europe and Asia, because our health systems will not be able to cope,” Dr. Ahmed Ogwell told VOA via Skype from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The best strategy, he said, and one his agency is advising governments to follow, “is to prevent and minimize the harm that the virus will cause to the continent.”

Ogwell said his organization, which is a technical agency of the African Union, is working to strengthen countries’ preparedness in three main areas, including improvement of surveillance at ports of entry and hospitals; increasing countries’ ability to test for COVID-19, a capacity 43 African countries now have; and strengthening the capacity for infection prevention and control so infected patients can be isolated and monitored.

To date, the hardest-hit countries are Egypt, with 196 reported cases; South Africa, with 116; and Algeria, with 73. There were 605 cases continentwide as of March 18.

Ogwell said a silver lining to the crisis is that these three countries have fairly well-developed health systems and local testing capacity. However, a significant rise in cases can overwhelm any country.

“They have been managing the cases quite effectively,” Ogwell said. “What is the challenge is that when the numbers start becoming big, then you find that doing effective contact tracing becomes that much more of a challenge.”

He added that the continent has learned a lot from the Ebola outbreak of 2014-15. One of the biggest lessons is the importance of cross-border collaboration. If countries like Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia had received help from better-resourced countries early in the Ebola outbreak, he said, it might have slowed the spread of the disease.

He added that health ministers from across the continent have been working on updating and coordinating pandemic response policies so resources can be quickly marshaled to address an outbreak. Another improvement is the partnership among national ministries of health, continental organizations such as the Africa CDC and global entities such as the World Health Organization.

“During this COVID-19 outbreak, we have mobilized partners from the very beginning,” he said. “And we are working very closely with the various partners on the continent and beyond to ensure that we don’t have a very large number of cases on the continent. So we’ve learned a lot from Ebola. And we’re using those lessons to improve the way we respond this time around.”

Source: Voice of America

Rwandan President Paul Kagame said discussions on the pending issues of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) need to focus on technical analysis of experts and be mediated at the African platform.

President Sahlework Zewde and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda discussed on a range of issues including bilateral and regional issues on Monday, according to Ethiopian Office of the President.

During the discussion, President Kagame said priorities on the Nile River riparian countries should be given to technical issues and agreements can follow.

Mutual interests of the countries can well be reflected as long as the technical analysis is backed up by experts, Kagame expressed his hope.

According to him, other riparian countries’ rights to use the Nile waters for development have to equally be recognized as Egypt considers the Nile River as a ‘matter of survival’.

Mentioning that the Nile River issue is of all riparian countries, President Kagame stressed “disputes on the issue have to be mediated at African platform and Rwanda is ready to contribute its part.”

Both leaders stated that the two countries relationship is based on a solid foundation which in turn is playing a vital role in strengthening the people-to-people relations.

President Sahlework briefed her Rwandan counterpart about the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

Furthermore, President Sahlework stated that Ethiopia, since the commencement of GERD construction, has been playing positive role in creating a tripartite platforms to build trust and avoid any significant harm on the downstream countries.

Source: Ethiopia News agency