The HIV/AIDS response played out over a much longer trajectory than COVID-19. But it is, in some respects, a shining example of what can be achieved when countries and people work together.
People relying on HIV prevention, care and treatment services have become even more vulnerable because of COVID-19.
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If the world is single-minded and focuses purely on combating one pandemic, forgetting others, the effects of other morbidity and mortality on healthcare systems will be seen for a long time to come.
2020 is the international year of the nurse and midwife.
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The giant leap in the number of people accessing HIV treatment would not have been possible without task shifting from medical doctors to less-specialised cadres such as nurses and midwives.
Extreme heatwaves aren’t systematically monitored in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This leads to unnecessary and premature deaths which are often unrecorded.
If you’ve tested positive for COVID-19, a public health officer will call you to interview you. It can be confronting – but it’s important to answer the contact tracer’s questions as best you can.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the G20 recently.
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While South Africa should pay careful attention to all its existing trade and economic relations, particular attention should go to its intra-African economic relations.
As the world waits for vaccines against COVID-19, testing wastewater can give communities and smaller locales, such as school districts, valuable signals about infections trends.
Many South Africans use traditional medicine.
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Currently there is no specific antiviral drug to treat COVID-19 and no vaccine to prevent it. Most treatment strategies focus on symptomatic management and supportive therapy.
It is essential to add genomic data from all global populations - including Africa. This will ensure that everyone can benefit from the advances in health.
Small rural hospitals across the country are struggling to find enough space, staff and supplies.
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Hospitals are losing staff to quarantines as rural COVID-19 cases rise, and administrators fear flu season will make it worse. And then there’s the politics.
Just because you’re with people you know doesn’t mean you’re safe from the coronavirus.
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Jason Farley, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
More states are adding mask mandates as COVID-19 cases soar. If you’re traveling, shopping or seeing friends and family in person, masks are a crucial protective measure.
Africa’s mainly informal economies are particularly vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19.
Akintunde Akinleye
The continued entrapment of African countries in the global circuit of capital and its proclivity to large scale accumulation imperils the ability of many to cope with the pandemic.
Antimicrobial resistance is a real threat.
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A stroke often leads to the sudden onset of weakness involving the face, arm or leg, an inability to speak, difficulty walking or impaired vision. Strokes can cause death and irreversible disability.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand
Professor of medicine and deputy director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne