• Spike Driven By Public Fatigue With Key Health Measures Experts
• Hospital Admissions Increase Rapidly
The confirmation of the highly transmissible and deadly Delta variant of COVID-19 in Lagos and Oyo States, last Monday, and spike in pandemic-induced deaths in Africa, has heightened concerns of resurgence of infections in the country.
Experts, who spoke to The Guardian, yesterday, said the surge in new infections and deaths was driven by public fatigue with key health measures and increased spread of variants.
They also warned that the situation has led to rapid increase in hospital admissions even as countries face shortages in oxygen and intensive care beds.
•‘I am not bothered because HIV is a different virus’, says NACA DG
•Vaccine effort has not yielded success due to antigenic changes, says NARD
•Without effective vaccine, it may be difficult to eradicate disease by 2030, says Agwale
•Lack of effective vaccine for HIV still represent public health danger, says Ojo
•HIV pandemic will not just go away by discovery of vaccine, says Idoko
Unlike COVID-19, which took less than two years for scientists to develop effective vaccines, there is yet no functional Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) jab, four decades after the first cases were documented.
Indeed, the month of June marks 40 years since the first cases of HIV/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) were documented, in 1981. Since that time, researchers and scientists have made huge strides in HIV treatment and today it is no longer a deadly disease, but rather a manageable condition.
• Nigeria Records Zero Death One Month After Rollout
• Behind Target, Schedule, Says Tomori
• 8,439 Nigerians Exhibit Mild Side Effects
• WHO To Scale Up Pressure On Countries Hoarding Vaccine
• NPHCDA Reviews Eligibility Period
• Nothing Inappropriate With Two Months Gap, Says Guild Of Medical Directors
More reasons have emerged why Nigeria cannot have enough COVID-19 vaccines to reach the proposed 70 per cent of its population by the end of next year.
Until now, The Guardian investigation revealed that the country has taken delivery of only 3.92 million doses of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and expended just over one million as first doses, while nobody has received the second booster dose, which is supposed to be administered within four weeks of the first.
Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari (second left), being vaccinated with the Astrazeneca COVID-19 vaccine by the Chief Nursing Officer, State House Clinic, Esther Ibrahim-Tukur, in Abuja…yesterday. PHOTO: PHILIP OJISUA
• Austria suspends jabs with batch of AstraZeneca vaccine after one person died, another fell ill after taking shots
• ‘Nigeria expecting next batch of COVID-19 vaccines in May, which may be sizable compared to initial delivery’
• Gambari, Marwa, Mustapha, ministers, PTF members, journalists receive first doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to further demonstrate its safety, efficacy • PTF begins deployment of vaccines to states today
Concerns over safety of COVID-19 vaccines surged yesterday when Austria reportedly suspended vaccinations with a batch of AstraZeneca’s vaccine as a precaution following the death of one person and the illness of another after the shots.