Africa News

Archive for the ‘General things’ Category

MAUN, Small charter planes fly tourists from all over the world to safari camps in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where they view wildlife by day and pay up to US$1,000 a night to stay in luxury lodges or rough it in five-star tents.

The safari camps are mainly expatriate owned and managed, but guests are waited on, cooked for and guided through the bush by people from Maun, the largest town in the district and the gateway to the Okavango. After the government, safari camp operators are the biggest employers.

Most of the camps are only reachable by air, so employees spend three months at a time in the bush, working and living together. Many are young and single, while those who are married are rarely employed as couples and usually leave their spouses behind in Maun.

In other parts of the world, after-hours boredom would not be considered a dangerous occupational hazard, but this is Botswana, where one in four adults is infected with HIV.

“Let’s say a camp has 12 staff and you’re there for three months. You finish work and it’s boring and it’s quiet,” said Bonti Botunile, a relief manager who has worked at a number of safari camps. “People are social creatures; they’re going to get together and then break up and move on, and some won’t disclose their [HIV] status because they fear rejection.”

Companies have to foot the bill for HIV/AIDS-related absenteeism; sick employees must be flown out and relief workers flown in. A few years ago, safari camp operators began waking up to the fact that HIV/AIDS was bad for business.

“A lot of people died, a lot had to be flown to hospital; they were constantly having to retrain,” said Botunile. “They realised that if we don’t do something, our businesses are going to suffer.”

A number of the companies met with local health authorities to form a committee that now meets every two months to coordinate HIV/AIDS programmes for camp employees.

“Companies do their best”

The companies pay the costs of regularly flying doctors, nurses and counsellors from the Maun District Health Team into the camps to attend to staff members’ health needs and to conduct voluntary counselling and HIV testing. Many companies also employ full-time welfare officers and have a nurse on call to provide medical advice.

Before becoming a welfare officer for A&K Safaris, Mary Hastag worked for 10 different safari camp operators between 2004 and 2006, providing HIV/AIDS education. “At the time, there wasn’t much happening, but now most companies have workplace policies, welfare officers and lay counsellors. It’s a big improvement,” she told IRIN/PlusNews.

”A lot of people died, a lot had to be flown to hospital; they were constantly having to retrain.”
Lecco Masoko, a welfare officer and AIDS councillor for a company that operates three camps in the Okavango, gives employees information on how to stay healthy and encourages them to be tested. “By October last year, virtually all of our staff knew their status,” he said.

Although he knows that about 36 percent of employees are HIV positive, he doesn’t know an individual’s status unless they decide to disclose it, but said many employees were open about being HIV positive.

“People tend to be more open about their HIV status in the camps than they are in town,” commented Allison Brown, a nurse contracted by 25 safari operators to provide medical advice and evaluations.

By special arrangement with Maun Hospital, camp employees who are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and have been declared stable by a doctor can pick up a three-month supply of the drugs when they come home on leave, but Brown said the HIV/AIDS clinic at the hospital did not always have enough stock to give them medicine for three months at a time.

Hastag said the safari operators’ good intentions often came up against the limitations of the local public health service. “There’s a shortage of medical staff and drugs, so even if the companies do their best, at times the District Health Team doesn’t go to the camps every month because of staff shortages.” February was one such month, when A&K had to fly employees in need of medical attention to Maun.

According to Brown, newly arrived expatriate managers also sometimes lacked sufficient support and information to help them deal with HIV and AIDS. “Management is under a lot of pressure,” she said. “They’ve got busy lodges, guests who’re paying a lot of money, and staff who are sometimes sick.”

Behaviour change a challenge

Ensuring that HIV-positive employees receive all the medical care and healthy food that they need is one thing; making sure that HIV-negative employees stay that way is more difficult.

Male and female condoms are available at all the camps, and some companies have built sports fields and installed satellite television to combat the boredom factor, but convincing employees to change their behaviour is not easy.

Staff receive information about how to minimise their HIV risk, but “most are single, and there’s a habit of having one partner in camp and one in Maun,” said Hastag. 22 February 2008 (PlusNews)

NAIROBI, (IRIN) – At least 34 cases of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) have been reported in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru in the western region, a senior health official has said.

“Two deaths have also been reported in the hospital,” Shahnaaz Sharif, the senior deputy director of medical services, said. Another two deaths have been reported in the community, but not confirmed, Sharif said.

The cases had been reported in the Kasabara area in the Gilgil division of the town. The cases were attributed to the contamination of a spring in the Mbaruk area in the district. Intervention measures included supplying the residents with clean water, along with a ban on the hawking of food in the area, he said.

“We are also going to protect the spring and chlorinate it,” he said. In addition, a mobile clinic run by the Kenya Red Cross Society distributed prophylaxis treatment to 986 people, as well as health and hygiene education, in Mbaruk. At the same time, water kiosks will be set up along the Nakuru-Naivasha highway.

Sharif said he was awaiting laboratory results to confirm whether the AWD was cholera. Meanwhile, an outbreak of cholera in the western district of Kisumu East has still not been brought under control.

“There has been an on-and-off recurrence of the disease,” Sharif said. The latest outbreak in the district, which began on 6 June, mainly affected the slum areas of Manyatta, Nyalenda and Obunga and was attributed to seepage from latrines, which contaminated wells.

An earlier outbreak of the disease in January affected the districts of Bondo, Homa Bay, Kisii South, Kisumu West, Migori, Nyando, Rongo, Siayathe and Suba in the western region, leading to the deaths of 46 people, with 832 cases being reported, according to a UN World Health Organization (WHO) report on 19 April.

So far, no new cases had been reported in the other districts, he said. Cholera is an acute bacterial infection whose symptoms include copious, painless, watery diarrhoea that can easily lead to severe dehydration and death if not treated promptly. 3 July 2008

JOHANNESBURG, More international aid has been dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS than any other disease, but what impact have all those donor dollars had in countries where HIV/AIDS funding often exceeds total domestic health budgets?

The three largest HIV/AIDS donors – the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the World Bank’s Multi-Country AIDS Programme (MAP) – have spent US$20 billion on combating AIDS since 2000.

But a new report by the Washington-based Centre for Global Development, “Seizing the opportunity on AIDS and health systems”, launched at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City last week, suggests that AIDS donors may actually have weakened the health systems necessary for an effective AIDS response.

“The big HIV donors are creating AIDS-specific systems that compete for health workers and administrative talent, share the same inadequate infrastructure, and further complicate already complex flows of information,” said Nandini Oomman, lead author of the report.

Noting that “The future of the global HIV/AIDS response cannot be considered independently from that of national health systems,” the study examined interactions between the three donors and health systems in three countries where they work: Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia.

”The future of the global HIV/AIDS response cannot be considered independently from that of national health systems”
Focusing on three components of those health systems – health information systems, supply chains for essential drugs, and human resources – the researchers found that donors had developed AIDS-specific processes, often creating a drain on resources essential to the country’s broader health system.

In the area of health information systems, for example, all three donors have their own reporting requirements, which burden already overstretched health facility staff with multiple record-keeping duties. “This extra effort takes away time from helping AIDS patients or providing other health services,” Oomman pointed out.

With the goal of distributing antiretroviral drugs more efficiently, donors have also supported the development of procedures that are separate from those for other essential medicines.

The report warns that “As antiretrovirals come to be offered at more and more facilities, maintaining the separate systems will become increasingly complex,” and recommends integrating the two systems.

All three countries covered in the report are experiencing severe shortages of qualified health workers, but instead of training additional workers, the three donors have funded specific training in HIV/AIDS for existing staff. In some cases, they have rewarded staff for the extra work administering their programmes with salary top-ups.

“Such top-ups … focus the attention of clinical staff on HIV/AIDS – in some cases reducing the time they give to other health services,” the report’s authors argued.

PEPFAR has also funded the hiring of large numbers of non-governmental organisation (NGO) health workers, who often earn significantly more than their counterparts working for the state. A clerk working for a PEPFAR-funded programme in Zambia, for example, makes about twice as much as a registered nurse in the public sector, according to the study.

Not surprisingly, donor funding for better paying jobs with NGOs has sometimes pulled desperately needed staff away from the state sector.

The report concludes that donors should shift their response from an initial emergency mode, in which they circumvented weak areas of national health systems to set up systems that could achieve quicker results.

15 August 2008 (PlusNews) –

KITUI, When Mary Muli and her husband failed to conceive a child, they followed the long-held tradition among the Kemba in Kenya’s Eastern Province and brought another woman into their home to bear children for them.

“We were married for 30 years when we realised we would die without children,” Muli, 60, told IRIN/PlusNews from her home in Kitui District. “I brought Teresia to bear us children and to one day remain behind when we are all gone.”

The four children Teresia Nthenya, now aged 38, bore for the couple are considered to be Muli’s. “She is my property and my husband’s duty was only to bear children with her,” Muli said.

Although the arrangement is considered successful because of the children, it has had disastrous consequences: Nthenya is HIV positive, while Muli’s husband died 18 months ago from tuberculosis, a common opportunistic infection associated with HIV. Muli herself coughs constantly, but brushes it off as nothing more than a symptom of old age.

“I used to sleep with him and he also slept with his real wife; we used no condoms,” Nthenya said. “I am HIV positive and I know I got it here, from the man.”

”I brought Teresia to bear us children and to one day remain behind when we are all gone”
According to Dr John Lugedi, the Kitui District medical officer, the tradition of surrogate wives is a significant contributor to the spread of HIV in the area.

“The risks of this kind of culture are very high because the people involved do not use condoms,” he said. “Men do not want to believe that it may be them with the [infertility] problem and they keep on [trying to have children with different women] hoping to be lucky some day. What you have is a chain of infected people in the process.”

He noted that the high levels of poverty in Kitui, where more than 60 percent of the population lives on less than US$1 per day, had allowed the practice to flourish. Women become child bearers, he explained, because they know that as long as they bear children, their basic needs will be met by the family they live with. “When you let poverty mingle with such risky cultures, the result can be very devastating in the war against HIV/AIDS,” Lugedi added.

“Most of the widows and orphans that we support in the district are from this kind of marriage arrangement,” said Liz Mwendwa, coordinator of a local NGO, Arms of Hope. “There is a need to concentrate awareness on the eradication of this practice or to look at safer ways of doing it, but I think it would be a daunting task to encourage condom use when the end goal is to have children.”

Although the HIV prevalence rate in Kitui of 3.9 percent is lower than the national average of 7.4 percent, the risk factors for HIV are high. Poverty and food shortages can drive women into commercial sex work, and the region’s arid climate forces many men to spend long periods away from home as migrant labour.
9 January 2009

KAKAMEGA -AHIC -As nurses met between 7th and 9th this month, at Masinde Muliro University in Kakamega, for the 50th National Nurses Association of Kenya (NNAK) conference & AGM ,nurses expectations was very high that the forum would yield the much anticipated feedback on the problems afflicting nurses in the country.

Speaker after speaker rose and spoke of how nurses’ issues had been neglected for a very long time and time was ripe to address them .But the major disappointment dawned on many nurses present when the guest of honour, Hon. Anyang Nyong’o, Minister of Medical services didn’t turn up. He was represented by the Director of Medical Services ,Dr.Francis Kimani.

Before Dr. Kimani read the minister speech Mr. Luke K’odambo ,the Chairman NNAK,asked the government to provide nurses with a good working environment that is safe .He pointed out the numerous risks that nurses face in their place of work by quoting a study conducted at the Kenyatta National hospital that showed many nurses had contracted TB in the line of duty .He urged the government to commence protecting nurses by ensuring that patients with highly infectious diseases are isolated. He further cautioned the government from playing politics with issues affecting nurses. Mr.K’odambo was reacting to a media report that had appeared the previous day quoting assistant minister of Medical services ,Hon. Danson Mungatana, saying that nurses had been awarded Ksh.10,000 as uniform allowance. He asked the Dr. Kimani who was present to confirm whether it was true or not.

Dr. Kimani in his speech read on behalf of Prof. Anyang Nyong’o .minister of Medical services thanked the nurses for their dedicated service especially during the post election violence witnessed as a result of the disputed general election. Most nurses continued serving in hospitals even when other health personnel fled for their safety.This was despite the security risk that most nurses faced at that time .Some nurses worked continuously for over a period of 72 hours .Unlike the security officers who received an allowance for their work during the skirmishes not a single penny was awarded to any nurse in form of an allowance. Dr. Kimani confirmed that the government had not adequately addressed the plight of nurses and asked for patience as it looked for ways of sorting out their issues.

But most of the nurses reacted angrily to the news of another promise that the government has been making for years .Currently most of the nurses are frustrated at the pathetic conditions in the government health institutions. Most of them had high hopes that with the promise that the minister of medical services had given when given the health post, the government will improve their working conditions.

Most of the nurses interviewed at the meeting expressed disappointment at the way the government has been handling issues affecting them .One of the nurses who talked on condition of anonymity, said that she will be moving to the US next year as the government has nothing good to offer nurses.

My Jophinus Musundi the Secretary of Kenya professional Nurses Association (KPNA) who was present at the meeting felt that nurses had been short changed .He said that after calling off the nurses strike that had been issued early this year ,a task force was formed to look into the nurses grievances .According to Mr. Musundi, the task force came up with a resolution that nurses will be paid Ksh.50,000 uniform allowance,Ksh.20,000 risk allowance ,Ksh.10,000 uniform allowance Ksh15,000 extraneous allowance and Ksh.30,000 non-practicing allowance. He thanked the government for issuing Ksh.10,000 as uniform allowance but said that nurses are still waiting for the balance of Ksh.40,000 for the uniform allowance to make it a total of Ksh.50,000. He was also angered by the way the government chose to announce the award of uniform allowance in the media yet the matter was before a task force and none of the nurses’ leaders was either informed or consulted. He said that nurse will be meeting in another forum in November this year at Garissa to deliberate on their issues and if by then the government will not have addressed the nurses’ grievances adequately then the nurse will decide on the way forward.

This development comes at a timewhen Kenya and other developing countries are loosing highly skilled health workers to the US and UK who offer very attractive salaries for nurses and doctors. Hospitals like Kenyatta National hospitals have turned to hunting grounds for foreign agents who recruit nurses to developed countries.

Factors influencing medical professionals to emigrate include poor remuneration, bad working conditions, an oppressive political climate, persecution of intellectuals, and discrimination. Researchers cite lack of funding, poor facilities, limited career structures, and poor intellectual stimulation as important reasons for dissatisfaction. Other key reasons for emigrating are personal ones. These include security, the threat of violence, and the wish to provide a good education for their children

The government should look for ways of absorbing health workers that graduate every year and pay them attractive salaries to safeguard the future of its citizens. An average nurse is currently overworked demoralized and for the government to achieve the vision 2030 and the millennium development goals it better have a clear vision for its nurses. AHIC 14th October 2008

Source / Author – William Omwega

The task force constituted to investigate the operations of Kenya Medical Supplies Agency, officially handed over its report to the Prof.Anyang Nyong’o, Minister of Medical Services .Among the recommendations by the task force is that the CEO of Kemsa Dr.Charles Kandie be sacked .

Dr Kandie, has been on forced leave since July to pave way for investigations into alleged mismanagement of Kemsa. The report has revealed several irregularities including, Kemsa not complying with procurement procedures, purchasing of substandard goods or goods that are not required, at inflated prices.

The report further reveals that Kemsa purchased drugs at inflated prices during the post-election period early this year, costing the government a loss of Ksh.46 Million.

Prof. Nyong’o welcomed the report and promised to implement it .He however blamed the ministry of health of failing to guide Kemsa in ensuring that it achieves its objective .He went on to say that the government will not use the current funds to offset bills pending at Kemsa.

He promised to implement the report within a fixed time frame to revive the sole drug procurer and avoid previous pitfalls.

“We must ascertain Kemsa is capable before injecting resources”, Nyong’o explained. He also assured the public that the new CEO would be appointed based on an open, transparent and competitive process

The Medical minister said it was necessary for Kemsa to remain a non-profit commercial agency so that the drugs and non-pharmaceutical supplies remained affordable for all Kenyans. Kemsa’s troubles are aggravated by parallel procurement systems by development partners.

For example, the non-pharmaceuticals produced by Kemsa were 151 per cent lower than the Ministry of Health’s in 2005/06.Nyong’o took issue with the Global Fund saying their policies were not user friendly making use of the monies a difficult task.

The task force was headed by a former director of Medical services Dr. Richard Muga revealed a division of the management sucked into the affairs the board.

The report offers fresh hope of a new beginning in the way that pharmaceuticals and non-pharmaceuticals are purchased and supplied in the government hospitals. Most of the public health facilities in the country are currently grappling with an acute shortage of essential drugs and other goods supplied by Kemsa. AHIC-22nd October 2008-

Source / Author – William Omwega

Burundi (pronounced [buˈɾundi]), officially the Republic of Burundi, is a small country in the Great Lakes region of Africa. It is bordered by Rwanda on the north, Tanzania on the south and east, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west. Although the country is landlocked, much of its western border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika. The country’s modern name is derived from its Bantu language, Kirundi.

Geographically isolated, facing population pressures and having sparse resources, Burundi has the lowest GDP per capita in the world, arguably making it the poorest country on the planet.

One scientific study of 178 nations rated Burundi’s population as having the lowest satisfaction with life of all.

Capital
(and largest city) Tripoli
32°54′N, 13°11′E

Official languages Arabic

Demonym Libyan

Government Military dictatorship Khakistocracy Jamahiriya

- Leader and Guide of the Revolution Muammar al-Gaddafi

- Secretary General of the General People’s Congress Miftah Muhammed K’eba

- Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi Independence

- Relinquished by Italy 10 February 1947

- From France / United Kingdom

- Under United Nations Trusteeship 24 December 1951
- Area – Total 1,759,540 km² (17th) 679,359 sq mi

- Water (%) Negligible

- Population – estimate 6,036,914 (105th)

- 2006 census 5,670,688

- Density 3.2/km² (218th) 8.4/sq mi GDP (PPP) 2007 estimate

- Total $78.79 billion (67th)

- Per capita $13,100 (58th)

- HDI (2005) ▲0.818 (High) (56th)

- Currency Dinar (LYD)

- Time zone EET (UTC+2)

- Summer (DST) not observed (UTC+2)

- Internet TLD .ly

- Calling code +218

- Includes 350,000 foreigners; Libyan 2006 census, accessed September 15, 2006

Source : wikipedia.org

Al-Jumhūriyyah at-Tūnisiyyah

Tunisian Republic

Motto: Hurriya, Nidham, ‘Adala
” Liberty , Order, Justice”

Anthem: Himat Al Hima

Capital
(and largest city) Tunis
36°50′N, 10°9′E

Official languages Arabic

Demonym -Tunisian

Government Republic

* President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
* Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi
* Independence – from France March 20, 1956
* Area – Total 163,610 km² (92nd)
63,170 sq mi
* Water (%) 5.0
* Population – July 2005 estimate 10,102,000 (78th) – 1994 census 8,785,711
* – Density 62/km² (133rd (2005))
161/sq mi
* GDP (PPP) 2007 estimate – Total $ 97.74 billion (60th)
* Per capita $9,630 (73rd)
* Gini (2000) 39.8 (medium)
* HDI (2007) ▲ 0.766 (medium) (91st)
* Currency Tunisian dinar (TND)
* Time zone CET (UTC+1)
* – Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
* Internet TLD .tn
* Calling code +216

Source:wikipedia.org

Africa – one of the most exotic and engaging locations on earth. The country is laced with lions, tigers, and bears … and giraffes, elephants and humans that live in an incredibly different way from us in the western world! Travellers to Africa have to be mature, bold, well-planned, tolerant and glad to bend to local ways. They also must very top notch of travel insurance, as a way to possess a chance of experiencing the vacation instead of spending it worrying. Today we glance at the health and safety topics several popular destinations within Africa, as well as the recommended level of travel insurance for them.

Ethiopia

Health

Health is constantly a difficulty in Ethiopia. The population is poor and little ‘herd immunity’ exists, and so the risk of building a disease is quite high. The standard issues of travelling in less developed countries are also present in Ethiopia, including:

* Hepatitis A and B
* Typhoid
* Cholera
* Measles, mumps and rubella
* Tetanus, pertussis and Diphtheria

However, there also exist more serious diseases endemic to this country. Ethiopia is contained in the WHO yellow fever endemic zone, but is vaccine-preventable. Poliomyelitis could be caught by flies landing on feces along with your food, and other people will also be endured getting meningitis through droplet transmission. Meningococcal season comes from November to May. Rabies and Rift Valley Fever, a livestock disease which is passed to humans by mosquitoes, can be risks.

Wellbeing
Safety-wise, the government asks someone to reconsider your require return Ethiopia overall, because of a high threat of terrorist attack and severe climate patterns. If you need to go, most travel insurance is suggested.

Kenya

Health and wellbeing
Health-wise, Kenya experiences the majority of the same problems as Ethiopia. Just one more risk, though, indicates that you want maximum medical travel insurance available. Schistosomiasis might be developed after swimming in or bathing with many of water in Kenya – it is certainly attributable to a parasite released by fresh water snails. No vaccine is available, but it is highly treatable if recognised.

Safety
Kenya overall comes with a alert stage 3 out of 5, as of your government – High Level of Caution. However, sure Nairobi suburbs the federal government asks someone to Reconsider Your Should Travel, as well as for border regions with Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia, Don’t Travel. Even in Kenya generally, we suggest that you obtain the highest degree travel insurance covering catastrophes, hijackings, muggings, etc.

South Africa

Well-being
While South Africa is pretty developed, in addition to the bulleted disease listed for Ethiopia, you should be vaccinated against (and wary about) Dengue fever, polio and schistosomiasis.

Safety
Despite South Africa’s serious reputation for crime, the government’s threat method of income is at a High Level of Caution, and has been there for a while now. Still, the threat of hijacking, mugging, as well as the need for legal assistance is very real, and canopy these incidents is simply from the most travel insurance quotes.

Mt Kilimanjaro

Health

Mt Kilimanjaro is located in Tanzania, where health problems will be the same as South Africa in addition to the addition of meningitis, yellow fever and rabies. Altitude sickness is also a very real possibility and might have serious health consequences – ascend slowly in case you are not conditioned.

Safety

There is a threat of terrorist attack in Tanzania overall, but especially in border areas (where government advice is Don’t Travel).