This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareNAIROBI — Congo's health minister declared the end of the world's second-largest Ebola outbreak on Thursday after two full incubation periods of the highly deadly virus passed without new confirmed cases.The outbreak began in August 2018 and killed at least 2,280 people, around two-thirds of those infected. It occurred primarily in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province, and to a lesser extent in neighboring Ituri, where armed conflict, mistrust in aid organizations, widespread corruption and competing outbreaks of measles...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareNAIROBI — Congo's health minister declared the end of the world's second-largest Ebola outbreak on Thursday after two full incubation periods of the highly deadly virus passed without new confirmed cases.The outbreak began in August 2018 and killed at least 2,280 people, around two-thirds of those infected. It occurred primarily in eastern Congo’s North Kivu province, and to a lesser extent in neighboring Ituri, where armed conflict, mistrust in aid organizations, widespread corruption and competing outbreaks of measles...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareKRUGERSDORP, South Africa — As South Africa’s health experts watched the coronavirus race through Europe and begin to seed itself in their country, they made a pivotal decision.Instead of waiting for sick people to start swamping their health system, potentially overwhelming it, they mobilized tens of thousands of medical workers — and brought care to the people instead.More than 28,000 health-care workers have spread out across South Africa’s nine provinces. Some go door to door, taking down people’s travel histories,...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareKRUGERSDORP, South Africa — As South Africa’s health experts watched the coronavirus race through Europe and begin to seed itself in their country, they made a pivotal decision.Instead of waiting for sick people to start swamping their health system, potentially overwhelming it, they mobilized tens of thousands of medical workers — and brought care to the people instead.More than 28,000 health-care workers have spread out across South Africa’s nine provinces. Some go door to door, taking down people’s travel histories,...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareNAIROBI — The most critical piece of lifesaving equipment of the coronavirus pandemic is in desperately short supply in Africa: According to the World Health Organization, there are fewer than 2,000 ventilators across 41 countries that reported to it.Somalia’s Health Ministry still doesn’t have a single one. The Central African Republic has three. South Sudan, four. Liberia, five. Nigeria, with a population two-thirds that of the United States, has fewer than 100.Officials say those numbers will change as ventilator...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareNAIROBI — The most critical piece of lifesaving equipment of the coronavirus pandemic is in desperately short supply in Africa: According to the World Health Organization, there are fewer than 2,000 ventilators across 41 countries that reported to it.Somalia’s Health Ministry still doesn’t have a single one. The Central African Republic has three. South Sudan, four. Liberia, five. Nigeria, with a population two-thirds that of the United States, has fewer than 100.Officials say those numbers will change as ventilator...WW…

This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareAn ongoing, week-long assault by Islamist militants on a northern Mozambique town that has left dozens dead and tens of thousands fleeing marks a significant escalation of the conflict that will precipitate a “humanitarian catastrophe,” analysts and aid organizations said.A largely homegrown militancy that borrows iconography from the Islamic State and professes allegiance to the global terrorist network has grown in power since 2017, when it began launching attacks in the oil-rich northern province of Cabo Delgado.The...…This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareAn ongoing, week-long assault by Islamist militants on a northern Mozambique town that has left dozens dead and tens of thousands fleeing marks a significant escalation of the conflict that will precipitate a “humanitarian catastrophe,” analysts and aid organizations said.A largely homegrown militancy that borrows iconography from the Islamic State and professes allegiance to the global terrorist network has grown in power since 2017, when it began launching attacks in the oil-rich northern province of Cabo Delgado.The...WW…

This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareUM RAKUBA CAMP, Sudan — The home-brew she served tasted sour and wrong, lacking the right ingredients from home. It provided her a meager livelihood in this refugee camp, but it was a reminder to her and her customers of a land they might never see again.“Tigray is my world, and I feel that I have lost my world,” said Negusti Woldeselassie, 40, who fled to Sudan from Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where a ruthless war has pitted Ethiopia’s former political leaders, accused of amassing military might while favoring their own...…This article was published more than 1 year agoCommentGift ShareUM RAKUBA CAMP, Sudan — The home-brew she served tasted sour and wrong, lacking the right ingredients from home. It provided her a meager livelihood in this refugee camp, but it was a reminder to her and her customers of a land they might never see again.“Tigray is my world, and I feel that I have lost my world,” said Negusti Woldeselassie, 40, who fled to Sudan from Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where a ruthless war has pitted Ethiopia’s former political leaders, accused of amassing military might while favoring their own...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareNAIROBI — A woman who died of the Ebola virus in eastern Congo on Feb. 3 was "almost certainly" infected by her husband, who survived an outbreak that ended in June, according to the World Health Organization's emergency response coordinator in Africa.The country’s health ministry is expected to release test results by the weekend confirming the link. If proved, the case would be further evidence that Ebola, which is transmitted via bodily fluids, can live in semen for many months, if not years, while remaining...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareNAIROBI — A woman who died of the Ebola virus in eastern Congo on Feb. 3 was "almost certainly" infected by her husband, who survived an outbreak that ended in June, according to the World Health Organization's emergency response coordinator in Africa.The country’s health ministry is expected to release test results by the weekend confirming the link. If proved, the case would be further evidence that Ebola, which is transmitted via bodily fluids, can live in semen for many months, if not years, while remaining...WW…

This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareCAPE TOWN, South Africa — South Africa was already one of the countries worst-hit by the coronavirus, but in the six weeks since a new, more transmissible variant was publicly announced here, an enormous spike of cases and deaths has far surpassed previous waves of the pandemic.The variant is thought to have emerged in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province but has now been found in  sparking fears that its unmitigated spread to other parts of the world could usher in new waves of contagion just as the long slog of...…This article was published more than 2 years agoCommentGift ShareCAPE TOWN, South Africa — South Africa was already one of the countries worst-hit by the coronavirus, but in the six weeks since a new, more transmissible variant was publicly announced here, an enormous spike of cases and deaths has far surpassed previous waves of the pandemic.The variant is thought to have emerged in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province but has now been found in  sparking fears that its unmitigated spread to other parts of the world could usher in new waves of contagion just as the long slog of...WW…