DAILY RENDEZVOUS

DAILY RENDEZVOUS The adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis (TB) services has brought the urgency of vaccine development efforts into sharp focus. Speaking today at a high-level panel on TB at the World Economic Forum, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, announced plans to establish a new TB Vaccine Accelerator Council. The Council will facilitate the licensing and use of effective novel TB vaccines catalysing high-level alignment between funders, global agencies, governments and end users in identifying and overcoming barriers to TB vaccine development. “One of the most important lessons from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic is that innovative health interventions can be delivered fast if they are prioritized politically and financed adequately”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “The challenges presented by TB and COVID-19 are different, but the ingredients that accelerate science, research and innovati...

  Daily Rendezvous Update on COVID-19 Genomic Surveillance in view of the Rising Cases of COVID-19 in Hotspot Countries. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) is the national public health institute with  the mandate to lead the preparedness, detection, and response to public health emergencies. Consequently,  we continue to monitor global COVID-19 epidemiology including genomics data as part of the ongoing pandemic response. The NCDC-led COVID-19 Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) is monitoring COVID-19 trends in  China, the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), South Africa, India, and other  countries with a high volume of traffic to and from Nigeria. This includes the resurgence of COVID-19 in China following the relaxation of the country’s zero-COVID policy, as well as significantly increased  COVID-19 cases, admissions, and deaths in the UK and the USA over the past weeks driven in part by the ...

Daily Rendezvous  What has changed, and why there hasn’t been a new variant of concern It was 26 November 2021 that WHO declared that the world was facing a new variant of concern: Omicron. It would go on to change the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging evidence was quickly shared by scientists from Botswana, Hong Kong and South Africa and discussed in a special meeting of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group for Virus Evolution (TAG-VE). Experts at the meeting worried about the large number of mutations present in this variant, which differed greatly from the other variants that had been detected so far. Early data showed Omicron’s rapid spread in some provinces in South Africa and an increased risk of reinfection compared to the previously circulating variants. Just hours later, WHO declared this new variant a variant of concern: we were dealing with something new, something different, and something that the world had to quickly prepare for. WHO’s COVID-19 techni...

Daily Rendezvous  Professor Houssin, Members and Advisors of the Emergency Committee, dear colleagues and friends,  We have never been in a better position to end COVID-19 as a global health emergency.  The number of weekly reported deaths is near the lowest since the pandemic began.  And two-thirds of the world’s population is vaccinated, including 75% of health workers and older people.  But our work is not yet finished.  There are still wide disparities in vaccination rates.  While almost two-thirds of the world’s population has completed a primary course of vaccination, three-quarters of people in low-income countries are yet to receive a single dose.  Most countries no longer have measures in place to limit the spread of the virus;  And most countries have reduced surveillance drastically, while testing and sequencing rates are also much lower.  This is blinding us to the evolution of the virus and the impact of current ...

Daily Rendezvous  A new, open, transparent sublicence agreement between the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) on behalf of C-TAP, and South African pharmaceutical company Biotech Africa will accelerate the manufacture and sale of a COVID-19 serological antibody technology around the world. The World Health Organization welcomes the sublicence agreement, the first of its kind to be signed under the auspices of the WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative. C-TAP was set up in 2020 to facilitate the timely, equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 health products. The new agreement builds on a licensing agreement announced by WHO and MPP last year with Spain’s National Research Council (CSIC). The non-exclusive sublicence allows Biotech to manufacture and commercialize CSIC’s COVID-19 serological test worldwide. “The most effective way to get – and keep – ahead of COVID-19 is to keep testing,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General....

Daily Rendezvous  Development of new antibacterial treatments is inadequate to address the mounting threat of antibiotic resistance, according to the annual pipeline report by the World Health Organization.  The 2021 report describes the antibacterial clinical and preclinical pipeline as stagnant and far from meeting global needs. Since 2017 only 12 antibiotics have been approved, 10 of which belong to existing classes with established mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). “There is a major gap in the discovery of antibacterial treatments, and more so in the discovery of innovative treatments,”  said Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Assistant Director General on AMR.  “This presents a serious challenge to overcoming the escalating pandemic of antimicrobial resistance and leaves every one of us increasingly vulnerable to bacterial infections including the simplest infections.”   According to WHO annual analyses, in 2021 there were only 27 new antibiotics ...

Daily Rendezvous  COVID-19 and financial puacity facing Nigeria and Adamawa state has not deterred Governor Ahmadu Fintiri from airlifting more a thousand pilgrims of both religions from Adamawa state to the holy lands to perform this year's  Hajj and Christian Pilgrimage to Rome to perform the yearly rituals of visiting the holylands. A period most Governors are grappling with salary payments, Fintiri took the bull by the horn to sponsor thousands to the holy lands. He pioneered  the airlifting of pilgrims to the holy land  since the advent of COVID-19 in Nigeria.  He sponsored 119 Christians to Rome for the sole purpose of pilgrimage the only Governor to do so throughout the country. The contingent cut across different denominations. Including the Pentecostal  and orthodox. The contingent headed by the Catholic Bishop of yola Diocese Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza, includes the President of EYN Rev Joel Billi the vice Chairman Lutheran Church of Ch...

Daily Rendezvous - Says Nigeria Need a Technocrat to Run Country A northern Youth group, Arewa Alliance for Emefiele, has called on the Central Bank Governor of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, to run for the president of Nigeria come 2923 general elections. The group says it is taken the responsibility to buy a presidential ticket of the APC for Nigeria's number one banker in order to enable steer the affairs of the country and bring in the much needed transformation that. The convener of the Arewa Alliance, Dauda Kushu said, there is no person better qualified and best prepared for the job of running Nigeria than the central bank governor who has been able to launch several economic, social and agricultural interventions schemes and policies through his office as the Central Bank governor that has positively impacted the lives of millions and helped stabilise the economy of the country despite global economic instability  The convener of the Arewa Alliance for Emefiele, Daud...

Daily Rendezvous Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, Regional Directors, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues and friends, On World Tuberculosis Day, we pay tribute to the millions who lose their lives to TB, and the millions who continue to struggle daily against this preventable and curable disease. We salute those health workers who give so much in their efforts to stop the spread of this disease, and to save the lives of those affected by it. Tuberculosis kills more than 1.5 million people each year and affects millions more, with enormous impacts on families and communities. Ending this debilitating disease remains a priority for WHO, and in recent years, we have made encouraging progress globally. More than 66 million people received access to TB services since the year 2000. This year, World Tuberculosis Day puts the spotlight on the urgent need to invest in the fight against TB to achieve the commitments made by global leaders.  This is especially critical i...

Daily Rendezvous WHO advises against use of convalescent plasma   or covid-19 Current evidence shows no improvement in survival and other important measures Convalescent plasma (a transfusion of blood plasma from someone who has recovered from covid-19) is not recommended for patients with covid-19, says a WHO Guideline Development Group of international experts in  The BMJ  today. Despite its initial promise, current evidence shows that it does not improve survival nor reduce the need for mechanical ventilation, and it is costly and time-consuming to administer. As such, the WHO makes a strong recommendation against the use of convalescent plasma in patients with non-severe illness, and a recommendation against its use in patients with severe and critical illness, except in the context of a randomised controlled trial (RCT). The recommendations are based on evidence from 16 trials involving 16,236 patients with non-severe, severe, and critical covid-19 infect...

Daily Rendezvous GENEVA  – Inequities have been widely acknowledged as barriers to achieving global and national goals and targets in HIV, TB and malaria programs. However, the magnitude and extent of underlying health inequalities have remained poorly documented and understood. Until those inequalities are better identified, and their consequences better understood, it will be hard for programmes to meet people’s real health needs. Now, for the first time, a  new report  from the World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, systematically assesses the global  State of inequality: HIV, tuberculosis and malaria . The report represents an important step forward in understanding how inequalities are hindering the fight against the three diseases. Using the latest available global data for 32 health indicators up to 186 countries, it shows that while national averages of HIV, TB and malaria indicators have generally i...

Daily Rendezvous 10th Global Conference on health promotion. Today, we also celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and the 10th anniversary of the Political Declaration on the Social Determinants of Health adopted in Rio de Janeiro. The theme of this year’s conference is well-being, equity and sustainable development. The Constitution of WHO, written more than 70 years ago in the aftermath of the Second World War, famously affirms that “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. What does that mean? It means that health does not begin in a hospital or clinic. It begins in our homes and communities, with the food we eat and the water we drink, the air we breathe, in our schools and our workplaces. Since then, that affirmation has been reinforced by the commitment to “Health for All” at the Alma-Ata Conference of 1978, the Astana Declaration in 2018, and most rece...

Daily Rendezvous The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed three (3) more cases of COVID-19 with the B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, i.e., the Omicron variant, in Nigeria. In addition to the three cases announced earlier on 1st December 2021, this brings the total number of confirmed cases of the Omicron variant detected in Nigeria to six (6).  All the Omicron cases so far were detected in persons with recent travel history to South Africa in November.   The NCDC through the National Reference Laboratory (NRL) continues to coordinate genomic surveillance activities across the country to sequence all positive COVID-19 samples from international travellers arriving in Nigeria. This includes sequencing of positive samples from international travellers from October 2021 to date.  The Delta variant remains the dominant variant and so far, we have not seen the replacement of this variant by the new Omicron variant as observed elsewhe...

Daily Rendezvous Canada, Tuesday, banned travellers from Nigeria, Egypt, and Malawi over fears of the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant, bringing to 10 the number of African countries targeted by Ottawa, according to AFP. “Foreign nationals who have transited or stayed in these 10 countries cannot enter Canada if they have been in those countries in the last two weeks,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said at a press conference. He also said all air travelers arriving from outside Canada, apart from the United States, would now need to be tested for Covid-19 at their point of entry, “Whether they are vaccinated or unvaccinated,” and that those travelers will need to isolate until their test results are available. First reported to the World Health Organization less than a week ago after being detected in southern Africa earlier in November, the Omicron variant has already appeared in several countries, stoking global fears about a coronavirus pandemic that has ...

Daily Rendezvous WHO designated the variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE).  This decision was based on the evidence presented to the TAG-VE that Omicron has several mutations that may have an impact on how it behaves, for example, on how easily it spreads or the severity of illness it causes. Here is a summary of what is currently known.   Current knowledge about Omicron   Researchers in South Africa and around the world are conducting studies to better understand many aspects of Omicron and will continue to share the findings of these studies as they become available.   Transmissibility: It is not yet clear whether Omicron is more transmissible (e.g., more easily spread from person to person) compared to other variants, including Delta. The number of people testing positive has risen in areas of South Africa affected by this variant, but epidemiologic s...

Daily Rendezvous The Adamawa state government, has slated between 8th to 16 of April, 2021 as scheduled dates for aptitude test for applicants into the post primary school management board of the state. The exercise which is scheduled to hold as scheduled for every zone will begin on 8th of April, 2021 for Yola zone and end on 16th of April, 2021 for Mubi Zone with other zones in between. This is contained in a press statement issued by the Deputy Permanent Secretary, ministry of education, Sunday Stephen, and Made available to Daily Rendezvous, Wednesday, in Yola Adamawa state. The statement reads, "The Adamawa State Government has approved the following dates for Aptitude Test for all applicants who applied for recruitment into the Post Primary Schools Management Board. "i. Yola Zone:- 8th April, 2021 – (GMMC Yola, AMC Yola, CDSS Karewa) "ii. Numan Zone:- 10th April, 2021 – (GSS Sakato, GSS Numan) "iii. Ganye Zone:- 12th April, 2021 – (GSSS Sugu, GSS G...