PETALING JAYA: The government has been urged to look at the survival of all companies and not just Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
SMEs have a strict definition by SME Corp Malaysia, and many companies fall out of this scope, Knight Frank Malaysia Managing Director Sarkunan Subramaniam said today.
Knight Frank LLP is a leading independent global property consultancy.
In welcoming the third stimulus package worth RM10 billion rolled out to mitigate the severe social and economic impacts arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and the on-going movement control order (MCO), he said SMEs contribute 40% to the national economy.
“The initiatives should be extended to all businesses that are badly affected during this economic slump and additional measures should be extended to the businesses involved in the hospitality, food and beverage, tourism and aviation sectors,” he said in a statement.
“With the exception of those categorised as ‘essential services’, all other business activities have literally slowed or grind to a halt during this month-long MCO, which may be further extended should the number of infected cases continue to rise daily.”
Sarkunan said SMEs operating at premises owned by government-linked companies (GLCs) could enjoy rent exemption or discounts, although the quantum of discounts or rental exemption for these SMEs are unclear at this moment.
He applauded the government’s direction of encouraging private property owners to provide at least 30% rental discounts to SMEs during the MCO and three months after it ends by granting these landlords equivalent tax deductions.
However, he pointed out that this creates an issue for landlords having to verify if their tenants are SMEs or not. It is better for this relief be extended to all businesses since the balance 60% contribution to the national economy is other than SMEs.
“We regret that this initiative is purely for SME tenants only and urged the government to extend it to all tenants as they also facing challenges in sustaining their businesses amid this unprecedented event. All companies, small or big, are important for the country’s economy, no one should be left out,” Sarkunan added.
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KUALA TERENGGANU: The atmosphere during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period in Redang Island and Perhentian Island is quieter than during the monsoon season.
This is due to the current circumstances during which no tourism activities are allowed, and the residents also do not carry out much activities, but to remain at home in compliance with the order.
Pulau Perhentian Village Community Management Council (MPKK) chairman Mohd Zakuan Mad Nasir said that during the monsoon season, although there is no tourists on the island, life goes on normal for the locals as they still go to food stalls, gather at the surau for prayers and and also attend wedding ceremonies and other events.
“However, with the MCO, the residents choose to remain at home because they understand the importance of adhering to the rule so that the government’s aim to break the chain of the Covid-19 infection is achieved,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.
Based on observation, the supply of daily necessities for more than 2,000 people on the island is still sufficient for another week or two.
“Recently, the state government provided assistance for the affected families and some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also came to deliver basic necessities such as rice, flour, milk, sugar and cooking oil.
“Most of the villagers are fishermen, so they still go to the sea, but not far out, as that is their only source of income, but they comply with the MCO to be back by 6 pm,” he said, adding that so far, there is no Covid-19 positive case reported on the island.
Tourism activities in Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Redang were ceased for four months following the monsoon season and programmes for the new tourism calendar year were supposed to start last March 1, but postponed due to the MCO.
Despite the inconvenience, the residents comply with the order and this is acknowledged by the Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM) coordinator of the Pulau Redang Unit, Lieutenant Awang Azmi Kamarulzaman.
Awang Azmi, who is from the island himself, said despite living on the island and being isolated from the mainland, it did not mean that they had no contact with the outside world and could defy the MCO.
“This is because authorities like APM, RELA and the Royal Malaysian Police continue to monitor the movement of the residents to ensure that they also practice social distancing when going out to buy groceries at nearby shops.
“Although they are allowed to go out to the mainland for important purposes, so far there has been no movement in and out of the island. The compliance to MCO by residents on the island is very satisfactory,” he added.
Meanwhile, Batu Rakit State Assemblyman Bazlan Abdul Rahman said Pulau Redang is one of the main locations where aid is sent as the island is farther from the mainland.
“We have delivered food supplies to the island on March 30 and will continue to deliver essential items if MCO is extended.
“The Batu Rakit State Assemblyman’s office is in constant contact with the Social Welfare Department, APM, RELA and the police to safeguard the welfare of about 2,000 people on the island during MCO,” he added. –Bernama
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WASHINGTON: The new coronavirus isn’t biased about who it infects – so why does data emerging from some states suggest that African Americans are bearing the brunt of the pandemic in the US?
Experts say blacks are disproportionately impacted by underlying health conditions linked to poverty, face discrimination in medical care, and are more likely to work jobs that require them to leave their home.
“We know that blacks are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, lung disease,“ the nation’s top doctor, Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS News on Tuesday.
These chronic illnesses, which are in turn linked to poverty and structural racism, can lead to more serious forms of the COVID-19 disease.
Adams, who is himself black and has high blood pressure and asthma, added: “I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in America.
“And I, and many black Americans, are at higher risk for COVID.”
– Emerging trend –
There is no nationwide data available on COVID-19 cases by race, but a pattern of over-representation by black Americans has emerged in states or jurisdictions that are sharing the numbers.
Sixty-eight percent of coronavirus deaths in Chicago have been among African Americans, who make up just 30 percent of the city’s population.
“Those numbers take your breath away,“ the city’s mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday at a coronavirus briefing. “This is a call to action for all of us.”
The trend is repeated in North Carolina, Louisiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and the capital Washington.
Doctor Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told AFP the issue was also linked to social class, with black people more likely to work jobs deemed essential that expose them to potential infection.
“That population is more public facing,“ he said. “More bus drivers, more people taking public transportation to work, more people providing services in nursing homes, more folks working in grocery stores.”
– Structural bias –
The problem is compounded by implicit and explicit bias that African Americans face in the medical system.
Doctor James Hildreth, president of the historically black Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee told AFP that in his city, most of the initial testing took place at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Most of the patients who go to hospital systems like these have insurance, and it was only recently that three assessment centers run by the city of Nashville were built for the underprivileged and minority communities — one of them located at Meharry’s campus and run by its staff.
“My point is, depending on which community you live in, and whether or not you have insurance… the chances for getting assessed are much less,“ he said.
What’s more, it’s well documented that when black people seek care, they are less likely to have their symptoms believed or get adequately treated, Doctor Ebony Hilton, an anesthesiologist at the University of Virginia Medical Center told AFP.
For example, black women are less likely to have their breast cancer mammograms seen by a specialist as opposed to a general radiologist, according to a 2015 Duke University study.
Black heart patients who present with elevated levels of a group of proteins indicating cardiac injury are also less likely to be seen by specialists, per a 2018 study.
A civil rights group wrote this week to the US health secretary, Alex Azar, calling on him to “release daily racial and ethnic demographic data related to COVID-19 testing, disease burden and patient outcomes.”
This, said the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, was necessary to ensure a robust public health response, and to make certain care and testing aren’t being administered in a discriminatory manner.
The group said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was already collecting the information but deliberately withholding it.
Hilton stressed that it was in the interests of Americans as a whole to address the problem, because — unlike high rates of heart disease or cancer — a wave of coronavirus spreading through the black and Hispanic population will ultimately impact everyone else.
“When you have a system that’s not treating these people of lower social economic status and these minority groups, they are then not being tested, they’re sent back home to infect their community,“ she said.
“Those workers who are now infected are going to the grocery store, and when the upper echelon of America are going to get their food, they will get infected too.” – AFP
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WHO has listed the first two diagnostic tests for emergency use during the Covid-19 pandemic. The move should help increase access to quality-assured, accurate tests for the disease. It also means that the tests can now be supplied by the United
Nations and other procurement agencies supporting the COVID-19 response.
Both in vitro diagnostics, the tests are genesig Real-Time PCR Coronavirus (COVID-19) and cobas SARS-CoV-2 Qualitative assay for use on the cobas® 6800/8800 Systems.
“The emergency use listing of these products will enable countries to increase testing with quality assured diagnostics,” says Dr Mariângela Simão, WHO Assistant-Director General for Medicines and Health Products. “Facilitating
access to accurate tests is essential for countries to address the pandemic with the best tools possible.”
The Emergency Use Listing procedure (EUL) was established to expedite the availability of diagnostics needed in public health emergency situations. It is intended to help procurement agencies
and countries navigate the large presence of different devices on the market and, by assessing them, provides assurance of the products’ quality and performance.
The genesig Real-Time PCR Coronavirus (COVID-19) (Primerdesign, United Kingdom) is an open system more suitable for laboratories with moderate sample testing capacity, while thecobas® SARS-CoV-2 for use on the cobas® 6800/8800 Systems (Roche, United States of America) is a closed system assay for larger laboratories.
Originally broadcast live on 06 April 2020, the daily press briefing on coronavirus COVID-19, direct from WHO Headquarters, Geneva Switzerland with Dr Tedros WHO Director-General, Dr Micheal Ryan, Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Programme, and Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical lead, WHO Health Emergencies Programme with special guests Lady Gaga and Hugh Evans, CEO and Co-founder of Global Citizen.
Transcript:
Speaker key:
TJ Tarik Jasarevic
TAG Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
LG Lady Gaga
HE Hugh Evans
MR Dr Michael Ryan JA Jamie
MK Dr Maria Van Kerkhove KA Kai
KT Kate
IN Innocent
YA Yang
00:00:19
TJ Good evening to everyone from Geneva and WHO headquarters. Welcome to the regular press conference on COVID-19. Journalists who are online can ask their questions by clicking raise hand if you are
on Zoom. Today we have a special guest but I will let Dr Tedros do his opening remarks and introduce them. Before I give the floor to Dr Tedros, just to remind you, we will also be sending you some news from other
WHO offices around the world with the audio file from this press briefing a little bit later. I give the floor immediately to Dr Tedros.
00:01:07
TAG Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on families, communities and nations the world over but it’s also giving rise to incredible acts of generosity,
solidarity and co-operation. We have said consistently that we’re all in this together and we can only succeed together. We need an all- of-society approach with everyone playing their part. That includes people in the entertainment
industry.
Today I’m very delighted to be joined by one of the biggest names in entertainment in the world, Lady Gaga, and my friend Hugh Evans, the founder and CEO of Global Citizen.
WHO has been working with Global Citizen for several weeks on the Together At Home concert series with artists like Chris Martin and John Legend giving free online performances.
Now we’re working with Lady Gaga and Global Citizen to take this concept and make it even bigger through the One World Together At Home virtual global special on Saturday 18th April. It’s now my great pleasure to invite
Lady Gaga and Hugh Evans to say more about this very special event, One World.
00:03:10
LG Thank you very much, Dr Tedros. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone who’s listening and watching. I would like to thank the World Health Organization and the
United Nations as well as Global Citizen; thank you very much, Dr Tedros and Hugh Evans, for all of your leadership in this fight against COVID-19 and thank you very much to the World Health Organization for asking me to collaborate
with you on this special.
We are also very grateful to all of the healthcare professionals across the country and around the world who are on the front lines during COVID-19. This global pandemic is a catastrophe. I’m so thankful to them and I’m also
praying for those who are sick. It’s been a pleasure to partner with Global Citizen and we’ve been working all together behind the scenes to raise money for the World Health Organization.
I would also like to send my prayers as well to people that are losing their jobs and are having a hard time feeding themselves and their children. We are raising money for the World Health
Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund and seven days ago we held a call with more than 68 corporate leaders from some of the world’s biggest and most generous companies and I asked them to join my corporate kindness
list as there have been many corporations and philanthropists that have been very, very generous during this time.
00:04:38
Since then we have also been calling on philanthropists around the world as well and tech companies included. I’d like to reiterate our deep gratitude to the medical community. My heart is very, very aching and warm for those
who are ER doctors as well as nurses who are sleeping in cars to make sure they don’t infect their families or their patients. What you’re doing is putting yourselves in harm’s way to help the world
and we all salute you and you are a triumph truly.
I am proud to say that over the past seven days we’ve raised a total of $35 million for the Solidarity Fund. This money will [inaudible] essential PPE, supplies and testing kits around the world and will help improve lab capacity
to rapidly process tests. It will also [inaudible] research development. It is so important to think globally and to support the World Health Organization to curb the pandemic and prevent future outbreaks.
I know Dr Tedros is particularly concerned about Africa and [inaudible]. We also need to act globally by supporting local charities and initiatives so that the front-line health workers in most immediate need have the resources they need
to survive during this time. It has been an honour to help with this huge broadcast event, which will take place on April 18th, where we need to tell the stories of and celebrate the front-line community, healthcare workers and their acts of kindness.
We will be on different networks, many networks actually and I want to [inaudible] about what we’re going to be doing. What’s very important is that two things happen for all of us; that we celebrate and we highlight the singular, kind global community
that is arising right now. Two, we want to highlight the gravity of this historically unprecedented cultural movement and, three, we want to celebrate and encourage the power of the human spirit.
00:06:47
I would like to, on behalf of the World Health Organization and Global Citizen, thank Dr Tedros as well as everyone that has donated so far. We are going to continue fundraising but I would like to also let you know that
this broadcast special is not actually a fundraiser. We all wanted to raise the money before we went on air so when we do air live on April 18th put your wallets away, put your credit cards away, anything
away that you need to and just sit back and enjoy the show that you all very much deserve.
I’d like to pass this now to Hugh Evans, who’s been a wonderful partner of mine. Hugh, thank you so much and thank you, Dr Tedros.
HE Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and thank you, Dr Tedros and thank you, Lady Gaga. Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen; Lady Gaga, Dr Tedros,
you’ve both demonstrated extraordinary leadership at an unprecedented moment when our society is being challenged like never before and we are so thankful for your leadership. I’d like to echo Lady Gaga’s sentiment and commend the incredible acts
of bravery demonstrated by the front-line community health workers around the world and I hope that we as a shared humanity emerge from this moment forever grateful for the work of doctors, nurses, teachers, grocery store workers and all of those who are
the backbone of our communities.
Global health is at the very core of the global citizen mission and we must ensure that the world’s poorest and most marginalised people have access to resources to cope with and tackle this health crisis. Through One
World: Together At Home on April 18th we’ll be calling on philanthropists, corporations and governments to fund critical global COVID-19 response efforts including distribution of resources and PPE to critical front-line healthcare
workers.
00:09:09
In our partnership with the WHO and United Nations Global Citizen is committed to driving action to help ensure our global health systems are strong enough to stop a future pandemic before it happens. April 18th is going to be a moment of global unity
connecting the world through a historic global broadcast. We are bringing together the greatest artists in the world under the passionate and extremely talented curation of Lady Gaga.
In alphabetical order some of the artists we’ll be announcing today include Alanis Morissette, Andrea Bocelli, Billie Eilish, Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Burna Boy, Chris Martin, Sir David Beckham, Eddie Vedder,
Sir Elton John, Finneas, Idris and Sabrina Elba, J Balvin, John Legend, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Kerry Washington, Lang Lang, Lizzo, Maluma, Sir Paul McCartney, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Shah Rukh Khan, Stevie Wonder and many more to be announced over the coming weeks from all corners of the globe under the passionate and extremely talented curation of Lady Gaga.
We’re grateful to all of you for participating and supporting this critical effort. One World Together At Home will be broadcast live on Saturday April 18th 2020 at 5:00pm PDT, 8:00pm EDT and 12:00am BST, airing on ABC, NBC, Viacom and CBS networks,
IHeartMedia, and Bell media networks and platforms in Canada. Internationally BBC1 will run the programme on Sunday April 19th and additional international broadcasters include BN Media Group, Multi-Choice Group and RTE in Ireland.
00:11:43
The digital broadcast will celebrate and support brave community health workers who are doing life-saving work on the front line and we’ve all seen the limitations of world leaders around this world to step up and face this extraordinary challenge
and we want to do our best to support the essential work of the World Health Organization, driving action and raising critical funds. Thank you again, Dr Tedros, and thank you, Lady Gaga, for your leadership.
Thank you all.
TJ Thank you very much to our guests for their remarks. Dr Tedros, I guess you would like to thank them too.
TAG Once again I would like to thank Lady Gaga and Hugh Evans for their partnership. We had a call last week and I was so amazed by the energy and passion of Lady Gaga. It’s incredible commitment to humanity and that’s
when I said, I think what she has planned can happen. It’s bringing the world together to improve awareness and to mobilise resources to fight the pandemic so I thank her for her incredible passion and commitment and leadership and
also to my friend, Hugh Evans, for connecting all the dots and for his leadership.
We all look forward to joining you for the One World: Together At Home concert on 18th April. As the pandemic continues we recognise that individuals and governments want to do everything they can to protect themselves and others and so do we.
We understand that some countries have recommended or are considering the use of both medical and non-medical masks in the general population to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
00:14:21
First and foremost medical masks must be prioritised for health workers on the front lines of the response. We know medical masks can help to protect health workers but they’re in short supply globally. We’re concerned that the mass
use of medical masks by the general population could exacerbate the shortage of these specialised masks for the people who need them most. In some places these shortages are putting health workers in real danger.
In healthcare facilities WHO continues to recommend the use of medical masks, respirators and other personal protective equipment for health workers. In the community we recommend the use of medical masks by people who are sick and those who
are caring for a sick person at home.
WHO has been evaluating the use of medical and non-medical masks for COVID-19 more widely. Today WHO is issuing guidance and criteria to support countries in making that decision. For example countries could consider using masks in communities where other measures such as cleaning hands and physical distancing are harder to achieve because of lack of water or cramped living conditions.
If masks are worn they must be used safely and properly. WHO has guidance on how to put on, take off and dispose of masks. What’s clear is that there is limited research in this area. We encourage countries that are considering the use
of masks for the general population to study their effectiveness so we can all learn. Most importantly masks should only ever be used as part of a comprehensive package of interventions. There is no black or white answer and no silver bullet.
Masks alone cannot stop the pandemic. Countries must continue to find, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact. Mask or no mask, there are proven things all of us can do to protect ourselves and others.
00:17:13
Keep your distance, clean your hands, cough or sneeze into your elbow and avoid touching your face. Less than 100 days since WHO was notified about the new coronavirus research has accelerated at incredible speed. The viral genome
was mapped in early January and shared globally, which enabled tests to be developed and vaccine research to start. More than 70 countries have joined WHO’s Solidarity Trial to accelerate the search for an effective treatment and about
20 institutions and companies are racing to develop a vaccine.
WHO is committed to ensuring that as medicines and vaccines are developed they’re shared equitably with all countries and people. I want to thank the Medicines Patent Pool and Unitaid for the initiative they announced last
Friday to include medicines and diagnostics for COVID-19 in their licensing pool.
I also want to thank the President of Costa Rica, President Carlos Alvadaro, and the Health Minister, Daniel Salas, for their proposal to create a pool of rights to tests, medicines and vaccines with free access or licensing on reasonable and affordable
terms for all countries. Muchas gracias, Mr President. I support this proposal and we’re working with Costa Rica to finalise the details.
00:19:09
Poorer countries and fragile economies stand to face the biggest shock from this pandemic and leaving anyone unprotected will only prolong the health crisis and harm economies more. I call
on all countries, companies and research institutions to support open data, open science and open collaboration so that all people can enjoy the benefits of science and research.
Finally we’re nearing the end of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is one piece of good news. If there are no more cases the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo could declare the outbreak over as early
as this Sunday. We’re not there yet and we remain in full response mode. We’re continuing to investigate alerts and to test samples.
This would not have been possible without the incredible health workers who have put themselves at risk for more than 18 months to stop this outbreak, just as health workers are putting themselves in danger to save lives from COVID-19. Health
workers in DRC faced the double threat of fighting a deadly virus in one of the world’s most dangerous and unstable regions, exposing themselves to Ebola and bullets.
Tomorrow, as you know, is WHO’s birthday, a day we celebrate each year as World Health Day. This year we’re paying tribute to the incredible contribution of all health workers, especially nurses and midwives. Nurses and midwives are the backbone of
every health system. They’re there from the first moments of life to the last. Tomorrow we’re publishing our first report on the state of the world’s nursing which highlights gaps and makes recommendations for all countries.
00:22:00
One of the lessons I hope the world learns from COVID-19 is that we must invest in health workers, not only to protect lives but also to protect livelihoods. I thank you.
TJ Thank you very much, Dr Tedros. Also, as always, we have Dr Mike Ryan and Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, who will be answering questions. We will now open the floor. I will go to one question
that I received by email this morning and I promised to answer; that’s Ankit Kumar from India Today. Ankit is asking; we have recently seen a spike in cases caused through religious gatherings in India, in fact almost a third of new cases
were linked to one gathering in India. We have also seen incidents of violence against health workers due to fear and misinformation. Is WHO concerned with these developments, what is WHO’s message to religious and community leaders and their
followers?
MR First and foremost the idea of violence against health workers is driven by fear and it’s driven by misunderstanding but it’s really unacceptable. We ask everyone and every community to see our health workers
as our heroes and to support them in every way we can.
With regard to gatherings of any type, be they religious or be they for other purposes, there are always risks associated with such gatherings in the midst of a major epidemic. WHO has issued guidance on that. Many of these gatherings
are now postponed or cancelled. We’ve been working very, very closely with religious and faith-based organisations all over the world including groups from the Islamic tradition, Christian
traditions and others and continue to work through faith-based organisations to communicate using our Epiwin platform.
00:24:21
We’re also continuing to develop guidance specifically for the holy month of Ramadan and are working through our Eastern Mediterranean regional office to be able to advise governments and religious institutions on how best to manage
the risks associated with such holy events.
But it’s very important again; having COVID-19 is not anybody’s fault. Every case is a victim and every case needs to be treated with sensitivity, as the health workers who treat them so it’s very important that we’re not profiling COVID-19
along racial, along religious, along ethnic lines. This is not helpful.
TJ Thank you very much. This was a question from Ankit Kumar from India Today. Now we will go to journalists online. We will start with Jamie from Associated Press. Jamie, can you hear us?
JA Hi, yes. Can you hear me? TJ Yes. Please go ahead.
JA Great, thank you very much. I wanted to ask you about… Over the weekend Dr Anthony Fauci mentioned that – if I understood it correctly – as much as 50% of transmission could be asymptomatic. Just aligned
with that, if you could give us a little bit more about what you’re thinking about the fact that some countries have said that this outbreak is more infectious than influenza. The CDC is saying that it’s up
to three times more infectious than influenza so what do you have to say about that? Thanks.
00:26:13
MK I’ll start and then perhaps Mike or DG would like to supplement. The modes of transmission and the way in which this virus is transmitted are of significant interest to all of us. What we are doing is working
with member states, we’re working with everyone that’s affected by this, looking through the research and trying to understand when most transmission is happening, when any transmission is happening.
What we know from reports, what we know from published literature is that the predominant way in which transmission is occurring is amongst symptomatic individuals and these are people that can be very early on in symptoms, even when they start
to feel a little bit unwell. This is supported by some data that attempts to catch a virus from individuals who are symptomatic.
We also know that it’s possible that people can transmit in the few days before they become symptomatic or in their pre-symptomatic phase. There have been some studies that have come out and we learned about this when we were on mission
in China back in January or early February, that there are individuals that can shed virus one to three days before they develop symptoms.
However it’s very important to note that even if you are pre-symptomatic or even if you don’t have any recognised symptoms you still have to transmit through droplets, you still have to have these infectious particles that come out
of your nose and your mouth. So while we know that that is possible we do not believe that it’s a major driver of transmission.
00:27:42
We’ve also seen modelling estimates that suggest that there’re large numbers of unrecognised transmission and I used unrecognised on purpose because I’m not saying asymptomatic. I’m saying that we may be missing people who are out there who are infected
but we’re missing them because of current surveillance strategies. That is certainly possible in many parts of the globe.
Whether or not those individuals are asymptomatic; we will have to wait until we see the results of serologic studies, which we hope we’ll be seeing in the coming days if not weeks.
So what we can say is that most people are transmitting this virus while they are symptomatic.
JA Hi, Jamie. Just in addition because I think – I would never in any way contradict my good friend, Tony Fauci, such an eminent man. There are many different estimations of what might represent asymptomatic
transmission or other infections in the community and we do know and everyone accepts that when the seroepidemiology studies do come online we will probably find more people who’ve been infected unknowingly; there’s no question of that.
The thing we need to address in all of this is very often the idea of severity versus infection and there is a huge association between the dose of exposure and the severity of infection. We see this in many other
infectious diseases so we also probably need to look at who is getting sick and very sick and is the dose and the type of exposure they’re getting different to those who may be exposed and seroconverted in the community.
00:29:26
So it’s not just a matter of looking at how many people in the community are infected but are there specific elements of exposure that cause individuals to have a higher dose of exposure or a specific route of exposure
that causes more severe infection? There is also that concept of infectious dose when we talk about the different types of transmission. If somebody is exposed to a high dose from another individual directly or from a surface that’s
heavily contaminated you can imagine the large dose.
In other circumstances individual particles or virus particles potentially floating through the air; it can be demonstrated that that may happen in certain circumstances, certainly in healthcare settings. But is that significant in
terms of driving infection, is that significant, does that produce an infectious dose that can successfully infect another individual?
These are all very important things that still need to be studied. Again we’re only a number of weeks into this. I think we need to have the seroepi studies. I think we need more information on what is the infectious dose and particularly
the relationship between the dose of exposure or infection and the severity of disease subsequently, which has been seen with many, many other diseases in the past including cholera, Ebola and others.
TJ Thank you very much, Mike and Maria. We will go now to our next question; that’s Kai Kupferschmidt. Kai, can you hear us?
00:31:01
KA Yes, Tarik. Thanks a lot for taking my question. I wanted to ask about the global push to try and find a pre-exposure prophylaxis or a post-exposure prophylaxis. I understand there’re
several trials going on, most of them with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine. I was just wondering whether you can speak a little bit to what role this could potentially play.
Of course also there’re a lot of smaller studies going on. Is there any way to make sure that they all lead to results that can be proved in the end?
MR Maria can give you more detail but certainly one of the Solidarity trials – I think Solidarity 3 or 4 – we have one of the trials under design which will be a multi-centre study which will look at prophylaxis in healthcare workers to see whether there’s evidence that giving lower doses of drugs like chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to healthcare workers would reduce their risk of becoming infected in a healthcare environment.
Those studies are certainly underway and again there are a number of those studies underway in smaller studies around the world but again as WHO we’re trying to bring together a larger set of collaborative studies that will give
us the answers we need.
In terms of post-exposure prophylaxis I don’t believe we have at the moment studies planned but Maria can speak to that but there is certainly evidence for the use of – not proven evidence of effectiveness but there are a number
of studies underway and trials underway that use hyperimmune globulin in the treatment of disease; in other words they use that purified plasma of recovered individuals to give an antibody boost to people who are
suffering the disease.
00:32:49
Similar approaches have been used in post-exposure prophylaxis for other diseases but Maria may be aware of studies underway in that area.
MK Only to add that, as you mentioned, there are a number of smaller studies that are happening globally and across a large number of countries. We have teams through our science division and through GOARN,
through the Global Outbreak Alert Network, who are pulling together available literature on a number of topics, one of which is looking at different types of therapeutics and drugs.
The idea is until we can have a study that pulls together enough of a sample size to get these answers to these questions we’re trying to evaluate every piece of evidence that is published so that we can look at the way in
which these studies were done, we can look at the strengths, we can look at the limitations so that can help guide us closer towards an effective treatment for COVID-19.
TJ Thank you very much. The next question is from BFM Radio. Is is Kate who is with us?
KT Yes, hi. Good evening or good morning. I’m from BFM Radio Malaysia. My question is, many countries around the world have imposed lock-downs or some sort of restrictions on movement. I was wondering
what WHO’s guidance would be; what’s the sweet spot, the kind of data that governments need to consider before lifting or relaxing some of these lock- downs? Thank you very much.
00:34:29
MR Thank you. It is a difficulty for governments right now because the lock-downs in many situations are proving effective in dampening the flames of the epidemic in those countries but those
lock-downs are also causing great economic hardship and everybody especially in the developing world needs to get to a more sustainable way of managing this epidemic and controlling COVID-19 without continuing to damage economic and social life.
The transition strategy out of lock-down requires a calibrated, step-wise approach. It would be probably very inadvisable just to lift a complete lock-down, all of the measures because lock-downs are a general term that
include closure of schools, closure of churches, stay-at- home orders, closure of workplaces. It’s a mixture of different things and I think each government needs to break out, what does our lock-down actually constitute, what are the elements
of our lock-down, where is that happening in the country, do we now understand the epidemiology of the disease in each area in which we have an element of lock-down or shut- down.
Then to chart the path out, you have to build strong public health capacity to take over from the lock-down. In other words the lock-down is pushing the disease down by putting people back in their homes, by separating communities. Once you raise
the lock-down you have to have an alternative method to suppress the infection. The way to do that is active case finding, testing, isolation of cases, tracking of contacts, quarantining of contacts and strong community education and
participation and ownership around normal physical distancing, hygiene and giving communities the power to control infection by in effect managing their own physical distance, managing their own capacities to support the response.
00:36:32
In that situation, if you’ve strong public health capacity, if you’ve got a community that’s mobilised and empowered and if you’ve strengthened your health system then you’re potentially in a position to start unlocking or unwinding the lock-down.
The specific parameters you need to be looking at are on two sides.
One is, it would be very inadvisable to lock down [sic] if the number of cases coming through the hospital is already at a level where your occupancy of beds is nearly at 100%. You need to be in a position where
you now have free beds in your system so that you’re managing and coping with the caseload and that means you have some absorption capacity left.
You need to look at things like the doubling rate; how many days does it take for the number of cases to double? You need to look at positivity rates; what proportion of all samples that we test are positive? You’ll see in
somewhere like Korea two to 6% of the samples they test are positive. Last week in New York 37% of tested samples were positive so you need to carefully look at what proportion of people you test are positive.
00:37:45
You need to look at the number of contacts that are generated per case and it goes on and on and WHO will be issuing guidance to countries that is a much more specific around the parameters they should be looking at. There are no absolutes here, there
are no answers, there are no numbers that say if this number is this then you do that. That doesn’t exist but what we can do is offer countries very specific measurements that they need to look at to chart the path out of lock-down.
That step-wise approach of unlocking somewhat and then waiting to see; I think you need to say, we will stop doing this element of the shut-down and then we will wait and we will look at the data and if that works we go to the next
stage and the next stage. So a careful, calibrated, step-wise exit from lock-down with putting in place public health capacities, putting in place community capacity, building the capacity of the health system to cope should the disease bounce back up; that’s the safe path out of lock-down.
We want to achieve it as quickly as possible and we want to avoid many countries going into that circumstance and we still have many countries around the world who are not in a locked- down situation. In fact their epidemiology would suggest
they can avoid the worst of this and we need to support them to avoid them going into that situation.
The most damaging lock-downs are in many developing countries where people – as the DG has said many times – can live from hand to mouth, not from pay cheque to pay cheque but from day to day and we have to find adaptive solutions
around lock-down and around disease control in vulnerable periurban populations living in poverty, in poor rural communities. We have to find alternative, adapted ways to manage lock-downs or slow-downs or shut-downs in
those situations.
00:39:41
TJ Thank you very much. This was Kate from BFM Radio in Malaysia. Now we will go to Nigeria to Natural Star and it’s Innocent. Innocent, can you hear us?
IN Thank you. Can you hear me?
TJ Not very well but we will try. Please go ahead.
IN Okay, thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions to ask. One; how will WHO assess African countries on what they’ve done concerning the lock-down and management of COVID-19?
Then the second one; there’s news going around that vaccines are to be tested on Africans when they’re developed. How true is that and is there a window that’s in the nearer future when a vaccine will be developed for COVID-19? Thank you.
Hello?
TJ Yes, we are just trying to make sure that we understood the question but we will try. MR I think this is Nigeria. Is it?
TJ Yes.
00:41:08
MR Maria may answer the question around vaccine development. With regard to our general assessment on lock-down – and the Director-General may wish to comment on this because he’s been speaking with many leaders in Africa
and, I believe, spoke with the whole of the African Union leadership and countries late last week so therefore is in a much better position than me to speak about that.
We would characterise so far, Africa’s actually doing well in this response thus far. Countries have essential capacities for testing, many countries are taking strong action and want to really focus on finding cases and doing contact tracing and trying to stop this disease becoming much more extensive given the fact that health systems are not as strong in many countries.
They need support in that though, they need support in testing, they need support with protective gear and they need to be given the resources to be able to mount those types of responses so I would characterise that Africa has not suffered the worst
of this pandemic so far. The worst of it can be avoided with very, very swift action to support those countries in Africa who really do want to take a comprehensive approach to this disease.
With the many vulnerable people including refugees and migrants who live in those countries it is our responsibility to provide that support but, DG, you may wish to speak about your interactions with the African
Union countries.
00:42:46
MK I’ll answer the question around vaccines. What we can say is that there are a number of vaccines that are in development and vaccines will be tested through clinical trials with all ethical considerations
in place in whichever populations are under study with informed consent, with open and transparent communication. This is of the utmost importance, that not only do we have strong, robust scientific evidence
but we ensure that all of the studies that are done are done with appropriate and the highest level of ethical considerations.
One thing on the first question around Africa is that there are a number of countries in Africa right now which have very few cases and Mike has alluded to this in his earlier response.
Some only have imported cases and there is an opportunity here, this window of opportunity that the DG has spoken about exists in many countries still. There is an opportunity to prevent the worst from happening
in a number of countries across Africa and across countries that are still seeing their first case; in some island countries.
We need to support those governments, those countries, all of the people in those areas to prevent the worst from happening, to prevent these individual cases from becoming clusters, these clusters from becoming community transmission. I think that’s
where we need to put a lot of emphasis and support so that we can prevent countries from reaching a point where they need to put in these very restrictive movement restrictions.
TAG Thank you. Thank you for that question, my brother from Nigeria. On the situation, as Mike said, of course when you see the number of cases the African continent has the lowest number of cases so far but that doesn’t mean that
the situation will not deteriorate. It may.
00:45:06
So Africa should do everything to prevent this situation from getting worse and that’s why African leaders are doing their best. I had a chance to participate in a meeting, a Leaders’ Coalition which was arranged or invited by the current Chairperson
of the African Union, the President of South Africa, President Ramaphoza and many leaders from all corners of the continent have actually participated.
The main agenda is to have a continental strategy and also make sure that that continental strategy helps the national strategy but in addition to a coalition of political leaders or the heads of state and government they have also agreed to have a coalition of business leaders. Business leaders in Africa are also getting together because Africa will need resources and one of the major problems that was identified during the discussion
was especially shortage of equipment starting from medical equipment, PPE and test kits and so on.
The leaders have agreed to look for concrete solutions to address the problem and they also believe that considering the number of cases we have in the continent testing cases, tracing contacts and isolating them, meaning using the comprehensive approach,
will actually help. They believe that lock-downs alone may not help or the physical distancing alone cannot help and they have agreed to do everything to follow the comprehensive approach.
From WHO’s side we have been supporting and we increased, improved the testing capacity in Africa significantly in the past two months and many countries in Africa have now testing capability although we may have a shortage of test kits but
we’re working on that too and we’re finding different ways of addressing the gap.
00:48:06
But we will support the African Union, we will support the Africa CDC and also we will continue working through our WHO regional office in Congo Brazzaville and continue to support and fight the pandemic together.
Then on the vaccines issue there was, I think, a comment last week from a couple of
scientists who said the testing ground for the new vaccines will be Africa. To be honest, I was so appalled and it was a time when I said, when we needed solidarity these kind of racist remarks actually would not help, it goes against the solidarity.
Africa cannot and will not be a testing ground for any vaccine. We will follow all the rules to test any vaccine or therapeutics all over the world using exactly the same rules. Whether it’s
in Europe, Africa or wherever we will use the same protocol and if there is a need to be tested elsewhere to treat human beings the same way, equally.
The hangover from a colonial mentality has to stop — and WHO will not allow this to happen. It was a disgrace actually and appalling to hear during the 21st century from scientists that kind of remark and we condemn
this in the strongest terms possible but we assure you that this will not happen in Africa and will not happen elsewhere, in any country. Proper protocols will be followed and human beings will be treated as human
beings because we’re all human beings.
00:50:37
Then after saying this the vaccine development; we’re addressing two issues and we will be announcing as soon as possible, hopefully during this week, a big initiative to accelerate the research and development and production of vaccines and also
design mechanisms for equitable distribution of the vaccines.
While we’re looking for vaccines, unless we break the barriers to equitable distribution of the products, whether it’s vaccines or therapeutics, we will have a problem, so we need to address the problem ahead of time, we need to address the problem
of access or challenges to access ahead of time.
That’s why we will put together a mechanism and we will appoint senior people from the North and South that will work out the details on how they can accelerate production but at the same time how they can ensure equitable distribution. Solidarity
is very important here. When a vaccine or a medicine is ready we have to be able to deliver it all over the world.
There should not be a divide between the haves and the have-nots.
If we say solidarity, solidarity should be in its full form and I hope each and every individual, each and every human being will go for that kind of solidarity. I thank you.
TJ Thank you, Dr Tedros. We’ll take a couple more questions. We go to Yang from Xinhua news agency. Yang, can you hear us?
00:52:58
YA Can I hear you?
TJ Yes, we can hear you. Please go ahead.
YA As World Health Day is approaching what do you have to say to the front-line medical workers in China and around the world in the global anti-virus efforts? This question is
for Dr Tedros. Thank you.
TJ If we understood well, the question is what is the message to health workers in China and around the world. Maybe you can repeat the question one more time, please.
YA Okay. As World Health Day is approaching what would you say and what message do you want to deliver to the front-line medical workers in China and around the world in the global anti-virus effort?
TAG I think I have said it earlier; as you know, this is the year of the nurse and the midwife, 2020. We were ready to celebrate it in a big way and it was supposed to be the main event in our
Assembly in mid-May. Unfortunately we’re in this situation but we will be launching a report tomorrow which is the first of its kind. It’s a report on the state of nursing. We will launch it tomorrow during the World Health
Day.
00:55:01
But while launching that report, although it’s about nursing, we will celebrate all health workers, midwives, pharmacists, doctors, you name it. I think the world is now seeing the importance and the central role that health workers play. People,
when they’re asked, of course, to choose they would say health first because it’s only when you’re healthy that you can aspire to anything, whether it’s wealth or fame or anything. It doesn’t matter if you’re not healthy.
If you’re not healthy the first thing you ask for is to get back your health and our health workers are making sure that happens and they’re central and very important for any individual. So not only during COVID but during other times too health
professionals are very important because they are safeguarding that very important aspect of life — that’s health.
So we have to celebrate them every day. Of course during COVID we can see to what extent they’re sacrificing. We have lost many of them. They’re dying while saving lives so my message first is to the public at large; that each and every individual
should recognise, whether it’s during normal times or pandemics like now, the role of health professionals and help them, protect them, really appreciate and respect what they are doing.
To the health workers, although especially during this COVID pandemic you’re working in a difficult situation you should know that your work is the most blessed one, your work is something special to the extent of losing your life
while helping others to live. We respect you and appreciate you for that and we also believe in you and that you will do everything to control this pandemic.
00:58:11
But you should know that you have – and the world understands – the most important job. We can see the humility which is coming from some leaders because of this pandemic. I know they’re seeing, starting from their own lives, the whole world through
a different prism and they will also see your role.
But the most important is not the recognition from the public or from leaders but the internal commitment and passion you have and believing that you’re doing the most blessed thing and you have all our respect and appreciation and we believe in
you, that together we will finish this pandemic. All the respect and appreciation we have to you, the greatest respect and appreciation ever. Thank you.
TJ Thank you very much, Dr Tedros. I think this important message will be heard from everyone and we will conclude this press briefing with these important words from Dr Tedros. We will
have an audio file available in the minutes to come and we invite you for our next briefing on Wednesday. Thank you.
TAG [Inaudible] and see you on Wednesday – tomorrow actually for the launch. Yes, see you tomorrow.
01:00:18
Read More
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/06-04-2020-virtual-press-conference-on-covid-19–06-april-2020
Geneva. The World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Programme, along with WHO regional and country offices, has developed an updated information note, in collaboration with stakeholders. This note is intended to assist national TB programmes and health personnel to urgently maintain continuity of essential services for people affected with TB during the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by innovative people-centred approaches, as well as maximizing joint support to tackle both diseases. It is important that the progress made in TB prevention and care is not reversed by the COVID19 pandemic. Finding and treating people with TB remain the fundamental pillars of TB prevention and care and those would require maintained attention. This updated note has additional details on clinical management considerations to manage TB and COVID-19, as well as new information on testing.
Read More
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/04-04-2020-updated-who-information-note-ensuring-continuity-of-tb-services-during-the-covid-19-pandemic
The donation of an essential antiparasitic medicine can potentially accelerate the elimination of Chagas disease infection in children. A pediatric presentation of benznidazole with accurate dosage and will soon be made available freely to address
a long-standing gap in the treatment of congenital infections of Chagas disease.
The donation, by the Mundo Sano Foundation1 and INSud Pharma2 group to the World Health Organization (WHO), is expected to become effective soon.
“Making benznidazole freely available for the treatment of newborns and children until the age of 19 will be a game-changer in the fight against Chagas disease” said Dr Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela, Director, WHO Department of Control
of Neglected Tropical Diseases. “This can save future generations from developing life-threatening and fatal complications and also boost up diagnosis and treatment contributing to congenital Chagas disease elimination.”
The three-year agreement will make available 108 000 tablets of benznidazole3 – one of the two antiparasitic medicines against Chagas disease. Treatment4 with benznidazole in the early stages of infection can cure Chagas
disease, prevent or curb disease progression and prevent congenital transmission in pregnant women.
“We have now added the systematic detection and treatment of all newborns and children under 19 which was not part of our recent switch from control to elimination of congenital Chagas disease” said Dr Pedro Albajar
Vinas, Medical Officer, WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases. “In addition, screening of pregnant women at risk of infection who have not had past antiparasitic treatment provides an excellent opportunity for prevention of posterior transmission throughout pregnancy and birth.”
Each year, an estimated 15 000 children are born from infected mothers.
The agreement
The donation by Mundo Sano Foundation for the duration of the agreement comprises benznidazole:
105,000 tablets of 100mg
3,000 tablets of 12.5mg
Furthermore, the Foundation may donate funds to support activities associated with distribution of medicines and is ready to consider extending this agreement beyond the specified duration of three years.
The disease
Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a potentially life-threatening illness caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi).
Although considerable progress has been achieved, particularly in reducing vector transmission and screening of blood and organ supply, reaching, diagnosing and providing healthcare for people most affected has been a challenge.
Currently, under-diagnosis of Chagas disease cases is as high as 90% and under-diagnosis of congenital and paediatric cases is believed not to be lower.
Globally, an estimated 6-7 million people are infected with T. cruzi.
The disease is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 continental Latin American countries5. But movement of people to urban areas and to other continents has expanded its transmission through non vectorial routes, such as blood transfusion,
congenital transmission, organ transplants and oral transmission through food contamination.
Considering that neglected tropical disease as a growing public health problem in many countries, the World Health Assembly – WHO’s decision-making body – decided in May 2019 to commemorate World Chagas Disease Day on 14 April.
The inaugural celebration happens this year.
1Mundo Sano is a nonprofit international foundation working with the public and private sectors, academia, and other international organizations to provide solutions to the affected communities and generate scientific knowledge.
In 2012, it led a public-private consortium in 2012 to produce benznidazole in Argentina.
2Insud Pharma (formerly known as Chemo Group) specializes in research, development, manufacture, sale and marketing of active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicinal products for human and veterinary use.
3In 2017, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved benznidazole for the treatment of children aged 2–12, making it the first treatment approved in the United States for Chagas disease.
4Nifurtimox is also 100% effective in curing Chagas disease if given soon after onset of infection, including cases of congenital infection. It is donated by Bayer who pledged more than 7.5 million tablets for the period 2012-2021.
5Argentina, Belize, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela
(Bolivarian Republic of).
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https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/02-04-2020-making-available-free-paediatric-medicine-can-accelerate-elimination-of-congenital-chagas-disease
That it ought to nonetheless be needed, at this late stage within the senility of the human race to argue that ladies have a effective and fluent intelligence is unquestionably an eloquent proof of the faulty statement, incurable prejudice, and basic imbecility of their lords and masters. One finds only a few professors of the topic, even amongst admitted feminists, approaching the very fact as apparent; virtually all of them suppose it essential to convey up an enormous mass of proof to ascertain what must be an axiom. Even the Franco Englishman, W. L. George, probably the most sharp-witted of the school, wastes a complete guide up on the demonstration, after which, with an awesome air of uttering one thing new, provides it the humourless title of “The Intelligence of Women.” The intelligence of girls, forsooth! As effectively commit a laborious time to the sagacity of serpents, pickpockets, or Holy Church!
Women, in reality, will not be solely clever; they’ve virtually a monopoly of sure of the subtler and extra utile types of intelligence. The factor itself, certainly, is likely to be moderately described as a particular female character; there’s in it, in a couple of of its manifestations, a femaleness as palpable because the femaleness of cruelty, masochism or rouge. Men are robust. Men are courageous in bodily fight. Men have sentiment. Men are romantic, and love what they conceive to be advantage and sweetness. Men incline to religion, hope and charity. Men know learn how to sweat and endure. Men are amiable and fond. But in as far as they present the true fundamentals of intelligence—in as far as they reveal a capability for locating the kernel of everlasting verity within the husk of delusion and hallucination and a ardour for bringing it forth—to that extent, at the least, they’re female, and nonetheless nourished by the milk of their moms. “Human creatures,” says George, borrowing from Weininger, “are never entirely male or entirely female; there are no men, there are no women, but only sexual majorities.” Find me an clearly clever man, a person free from sentimentality and phantasm, a person exhausting to deceive, a person of the primary class, and I’ll present you a person with a large streak of lady in him. Bonaparte had it; Goethe had it; Schopenhauer had it; Bismarck and Lincoln had it; in Shakespeare, if the Freudians are to be believed, it amounted to downright homosexuality. The important traits and qualities of the male, the hallmarks of the unpolluted masculine, are on the identical time the hall-marks of the Schalskopf. The caveman is all muscle tissue and mush. Without a lady to rule him and suppose for him, he’s a really lamentable spectacle: a child with whiskers, a rabbit with the body of an aurochs, a feeble and preposterous caricature of God.
It can be a straightforward matter, certainly, to display that superior expertise in man is virtually at all times accompanied by this female flavour—that full masculinity and stupidity are sometimes indistinguishable. Lest I be misunderstood I hasten so as to add that I don’t imply to say that masculinity contributes nothing to the advanced of chemico-physiological reactions which produces what we name expertise; all I imply to say is that this advanced is inconceivable with out the female contribution that it’s a product of the interaction of the 2 components. In girls of genius we see the other image. They are generally distinctly mannish, and shave in addition to shine. Think of George Sand, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth of England, Rosa Bonheur, Teresa Carreo or Cosima Wagner. The fact is that neither intercourse, with out some fertilization by the complementary characters of the opposite, is able to the very best reaches of human endeavour. Man, with no saving contact of lady in him, is just too doltish, too naive and romantic, too simply deluded and lulled to sleep by his creativeness to be something above a cavalryman, a theologian or a financial institution director. And lady, with out some hint of that divine innocence which is masculine, is just too harshly the realist for these huge projections of the flamboyant which lie on the coronary heart of what we name genius. Here, as elsewhere within the universe, the very best results are obtained by a mingling of components. The wholly manly man lacks the wit needed to provide goal kind to his hovering and secret desires, and the wholly womanly lady is apt to be too cynical a creature to dream in any respect.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah state authorities right now acquired 5,000 Covid-19 reagent test kits wanted by the State Health Department to conduct detection exams for the virus.
State Secretary Datuk Safar Untong mentioned the test kits value RM900,000 have been sourced from Singapore and have been despatched to Sabah by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) utilizing a Royal Malaysian Air Force plane.
He mentioned with the arrival of the reagent test kits, the Sabah authorities hoped that the test on the remaining samples can be accelerated.
“Besides, Sabah has also received 200,000 pieces of face masks, 50,000 pairs of gloves, 10,000 litres of disinfectant and some other essential items to be used at the Health Ministry laboratory in Sabah.
“We are thankful to Nadma for working hard to deliver the medical supply to Sabah. These supplies are very critical and very much needed,” he advised reporters after receiving the medical gear at Terminal 2, Kota Kinabalu International Airport, right here right now.
Meanwhile, Sabah Health Department director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi mentioned the reagent test kits acquired right now would final per week relying on what number of Covid-19 detection exams wanted to be carried out.
At current, she mentioned the division has about 3,000 samples which can be but to be processed with the laboratory conducting 700 to 800 exams every day.
“Thus, there is a continuous need for this reagent test kits,” she mentioned. – Bernama
Read More
https://www.thesundaily.my/local/sabah-receives-5000-covid-19-reagent-test-kits-GJ2209778
Documentation resulting in the donation of an important antiparasitic medicine for the treatment of Chagas illness to the World Health Organization (WHO) is within the ultimate stage of preparation.
A 3-year settlement, between the Mundo Sano Foundation1 (Brazil) and WHO, is anticipated to make obtainable 108 000 tablets of the paediatric formulation of benznidazole2 – a first-line medicine towards Chagas illness. Treatment3 with benznidazole within the early levels of an infection can treatment Chagas illness.
“Making benznidazole freely obtainable for the treatment of newborns till the age of 18 might be a game-changer within the battle towards Chagas illness” mentioned Dr Mwelece Ntuli Malecela, Director, WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical
Diseases. “This is not going to solely save future generations from growing life-threatening and deadly issues however can even increase up diagnosis and treatment.”
Each yr, an estimated 15 000 youngsters are born from contaminated moms. A freely obtainable paediatric presentation of benznidazole with correct dosage is essentially anticipated to contribute to deal with congenital infections.
“Treating newborns and youngsters was the lacking hyperlink, as we transfer decisively to advocate for the mixing of diagnosis of an infection amongst pregnant ladies and women of child-bearing age into different surveillance programmes, together with HIV and syphilis” mentioned Dr Pedro Albajar Vinas, Medical Officer with WHO’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases. “Diagnosing and treating ladies of this age group earlier than being pregnant can increase successfully stop congenital transmission.”
The settlement
The donation by Mundo Sano Foundation at some point of the settlement includes benznidazole:
105,000 tablets of 100mg
3,000 tablets of 12.5mg
Furthermore, the Foundation might donate funds of as much as US$100 000 at some point of the settlement to help actions related to distribution of medicines and conferences. The Foundation additionally makes provision for an extension of this settlement past
the required length of three years.
The illness
Chagas illness, often known as American trypanosomiasis, is a doubtlessly life-threatening sickness brought on by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi).
Although appreciable progress has been achieved, significantly in decreasing vector transmission and screening of blood and organ provide, reaching and diagnosing individuals most affected has been a problem.
Currently, under-diagnosis of Chagas illness instances is as excessive as 90% and under-diagnosis of congenital transmission is believed to be even greater.
Globally, an estimated 6-7 million individuals are contaminated with T. cruzi.
The illness is discovered primarily in endemic areas of 21 continental Latin American international locations4. But motion of individuals to city areas and to different continents has expanded its transmission by means of non vectorial routes, akin to blood transfusion, congenital
transmission, organ transplants and oral meals contamination.
Considering the illness as a rising public well being drawback in lots of international locations, the World Health Assembly – WHO’s decision-making physique – determined in May 2019 to commemorate World Chagas Disease Day on 14 April.
The inaugural celebration occurs this yr.
1 Mundo Sano is a nonprofit worldwide basis working with the general public and personal sectors, academia, and different worldwide organizations to supply options to the affected communities and generate scientific information. In 2012, it led a public-private consortium in 2012 to provide benznidazole in Argentina.
2 In 2017, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted benznidazole for the treatment of kids aged 2–12, making it the primary treatment accepted within the United States for Chagas illness.
3 Nifurtimox can be 100% efficient in curing Chagas illness if given quickly after onset of an infection, together with instances of congenital an infection. It is donated by Bayer who pledged greater than 7.5 million tablets for the interval 2012-2021.
4 Argentina, Belize, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela
(Bolivarian Republic of).
Read More
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/02-04-2020-chagas-disease-providing-free-paediatric-medicine-can-enhance-diagnosis-and-treatment
