Madagascar donates anti-COVID-19 drug to Eq. Guinea

Madagascar has donated the herbal potion that it claims cures coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic patients to Central African country of Equatorial Guinea, local media reported on Thursday.

A consignment of 11,5000 packets weighing 1.5 tons of Covid Organics (CVO) – a form of herbal tea was shipped to Equatorial Guinea. Out of this, 1,500 packets are for curative treatment and 10,000 for preventive healing.

“Equatorial Guinea wanted to be the first country to recognize and use this remedy discovered by Malagasy researchers. And we hope that health cooperation between the two countries will be further strengthened, " said La Verite, a newspaper quoting Mitoha Ondo'o Ayekaba Equatorial Guinea's deputy minister of health.

Equatorial Guinea, with a population of 1.3 million has 315 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far, with one death, and nine recoveries, according to figures compiled by the US-based Johns Hopkins University.

Last week, Malagasy President Andry Rajoelina officially launched the CVO, a herbal concoction claiming that it can prevent and cure patients suffering from coronavirus. The drug has been developed by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research.

Rajoelina has directed to distribute the drink free of charge to the most vulnerable and sell it at very low prices to others.

According to information from the Presidency of the Republic of Madagascar, three African countries Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Guinea Bissau have shown interest in the CVO.

6 amazing African innovations against COVID-19

A cursory glance at history will reveal that the rise of tough, critical situations usually forces innovation, hence the phrase ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world, innovations to fight it have gone up a notch.
A few weeks after the outbreak in Africa, two innovation hubs, Co-creation Hub (CcHub) and Ventures Platform Hub, stepped up to combat the spread of the virus by sponsoring innovative projects and solutions.
On April 1, WHO in Africa held its first hackathon for COVID-19, bringing together a number of innovators from sub-Saharan Africa to pioneer local creative solutions against the pandemic, and address critical gaps in the region.
Groups like Alliance4ai are also aiding startups with innovative ideas during the pandemic, as well as the strategic lobbying of relevant policy stakeholders.

So far, some funds have reportedly been disbursed by Nigerian techpreneurs to innovators in the fight against the pandemic.

Here are some individuals and startups in Africa with interesting innovations against COVID-19

In Nigeria, a triaging app is being developed by Wale Adeosun and his team at Wellvis health, a health tech startup. The COVID-19 Triage Tool is a free online tool to help users self-assess their coronavirus risk category based on their symptoms and their exposure history.

Depending on their answers, users will be offered remote medical advice or redirected to a nearby healthcare facility.

With the COVID-19 tracker by another healthtech startup, Infodemics, users can report isolation or request for testing after answering a few questions about possible symptoms.sts.

The South African government is using a WhatsApp interactive chatbot that can answer common queries on COVID-19, symptoms and treatment. Since its launch in March, it has reportedly reached over 3.5 million users in five different languages.

3D printing of medical masks

Natalie Raphil is a leading AI innovator in Africa and the founder of Robots Can Think, a company that specialises in creating artificial intelligence capable of controlling robots (factory robots, household robots, cars, and others). She is also the leader of the educational stream for WomeninAI South Africa.
Some of her inventions include an Autonomous RPA (Robotic Process Automation) software, biodegradable 3D-printed drinking filters and straws, and with inventor partnerships, an AI walking stick, and various other products of machine learning.In the fight against the pandemic, Natalie is working to provide cheap and accessible medical masks for hospitals. With the aid of members of the Robots Can Think platform and Women in AI community, she is using about five 3D printers to design and produce 100 masks a day for distribution to some major hospitals in Johannesburg.

Real-time COVID-19 tracker

The spread of COVID-19 in Africa has highlighted problems such as misinformation and the lack of data or the means to gather it. In such critical times, up-to-date information and relevant data become even more important.

Darlington Ahiale Akogo, Founder and Director of Artificial Intelligence at GUDRA, and its subsidiaries, has been making some innovations in this regard.

Based in Ghana, Akogo, with a team of 20 persons, has built a comprehensive real-time tracker of COVID-19 cases across Africa. This will provide policymakers and relevant parties with real-time information to track the spread of the virus and help them plan efficient interventions like drug and medical supply distribution, as well as social distancing measures.

He is currently seeking more volunteers from African countries to collect data for real-time analysis and more epidemiologists and statisticians to work on epidemiological modelling and forecasting.

Lung X-ray scans

Tunisia had about 909 confirmed cases as of Wednesday, April 22, and while awaiting a cure, some researchers are searching for ways to contain the virus, as well as ways of testing a large portion of the population.

Some Tunisian engineers have built an accessible web-based platform that scans lung X-rays and evaluates whether patients are likely to be suffering from the novel coronavirus.

Backed by German development agency GIZ, the Italian Society of Medical Radiology, and tech giants IBM, some teachers and students of the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology (INSAT) have been developing the platform — COVID-19 Exam CT/XR images by AI — since March.

With thousands of lung X-rays for both healthy and COVID-19 patients being fed into the platform, the AI can recognise the signs of the virus on human lungs. The process is still being optimised to recognise people with few symptoms.

With just an X-ray and an Internet connection, once an image is uploaded on the platform, the AI generates a recognition score for the tested person.

While still in its testing phase, pending approval from Tunisia’s ministry of health, this could be useful in remote regions that lack major hospitals and specialist doctors.

Using sound to generate X-rays

Kenyan health startup, Tambua Health, has been working on a device called T-sense that uses acoustics and deep learning for pulmonary imaging. With this device, sounds from the lungs and the heart are converted to images to help treat various respiratory diseases.

Co-founded by Eric Kirima, Daniel G., and Lewis W. in 2018, the project has been in the works for quite some time, but with the outbreak of the pandemic, it could witness increased relevance.

Testing kits

Since the onset of the pandemic in Africa, very few people have been tested. In Nigeria for example, with a population of almost 200 million, only about 7,153 people have been tested, while Ghana has tested roughly 68,591 of its estimated 29 million population.
To ramp-up COVID-19 testing and protect frontline healthcare workers in Nigeria, Dr Ola Brown, Founder of Flying Doctors Investment Group, recently launched mobile testing booths that have the potential to cut down the use of single-use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which are in short supply.

With these booths, healthcare workers put their hands into gloves and take samples, never coming in contact with the patient. Pending approval from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), protective gears are still being used in these booths.

A potential cure

So far, no definitive cure or vaccine has been announced for COVID-19, and researchers are still trying to understand the nature of the virus. With the use of AI, Amo-Boateng wants to improve research in this regard in Africa.

Understanding the virus: A protein folding algorithm that will determine the structure of the virus in the 3D space using faster and optimised AI.

Screening through existing drugs: An AI is currently being worked on to screen about 1.9 million existing drugs from the Zinc database and DrugBank in search of potential solutions.

Generating new drugs: He is also working on an AI able to identify fake drugs that cannot be manufactured and generate new ones to meet certain targets.

Drug from physics: Though extensive research is still being done, there is currently no cure for the latest strain of the coronavirus. Since no cure has been found through chemical means, Amo-Boateng is currently working on a prototype that can disrupt the activities of the virus using frequencies from light and sound.
He welcomes collaborations with other great minds in Africa to help complete the development of these solutions, drive adoption, and provide means of an adequate trial and approval of completed solutions.

Several hubs and platforms have announced various hackathons and innovation challenges and it will be safe to expect even more amazing innovations from across the continent.

According to Alex Tsado, Technical Product Manager (External) for NVIDIA and founder Alliance4ai, financial and policy support should be given to various individuals and startups, especially those with timely innovations in Africa.

Source: techpoint.africa

As Africa Treats COVID-19 Patients....

Dr Temidayo Fawole may have been at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville this week to attend training on the management and treatment of COVID-19 patients, but home – Nigeria – was never far from her thoughts.

Especially not after the country reported, on 27 February, its first confirmed case of novel coronavirus COVID-19, which was also the first case in Sub-Saharan Africa. Before the day’s training commenced on the 28th, she was briefing her deputy and team at the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) by phone, where she is the national case management lead.

Back in Nigeria, one NCDC team was preparing to make the nearly 700km trip to Lagos to help manage the patient, an Italian who works in Nigeria who had recently returned from Milan. Another was making their way to Ogun State, where the patient had first been screened and isolated, to trace his movements and identify anyone he may have been in contact with.

Nigeria had spent the better part of the past month preparing for just this eventuality, Dr Fawole explains. The country had in place a multi-sectoral, NCDC-led Coronavirus Preparedness Group, which met regularly. A pre-incident action plan had been developed and rolled out, as had been protocols and guidelines for surveillance, infection prevention and control, and the treatment of patients. Three labs had been readied to test for COVID-19. Isolation and treatment centres in four priority states where there are international airports have been assessed, with upgrades planned where necessary.

Dedicated staff had been recruited and trained to work in those centres. “The emphasis of this training was really on clinical management, and it wasn’t just theoretical but we also worked through scenarios,” explains Fawole. “It included an overview of the entire management of patients, from the transfer of patient from the point of entry, to treatment and even discharge.

To ensure that the support provided by WHO addressed areas of potential weakness for member states, an extensive survey was conducted at the end of January 2020.  Patient treatment – also known as case management - emerged as an area of particular concern.  

“Case management is an area in which the region is still struggling,” said Dr Zabulon Yoti, Acting Director of the Health Emergencies Programme in the WHO Regional Office for Africa.  He spoke at the official opening of the WHO Critical Care Training on the Clinical Management of Patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARIs) Associated with COVID-19, which took place in Brazzaville from 26-28 February.

Twenty-two participants – including Fawole –  from 11 countries took part in the training which is designed to support countries in the African Region improve their skills and capacity to treat confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Dr Janet Diaz, unit head of clinical care in the WHO Health Emergencies Programme at the global headquarters, and one of the facilitators on the programme said, “For countries that are preparing now, I think you have to focus on the basics of any response to an infectious respiratory pathogen”. She said that this would include “early detection of the suspect patient; early isolation – so separation of patients so that you reduce spread of infection, either among the community or in a hospital setting; and then early treatment.” 

These are measures that countries like Algeria have been applying for some time now, explained Professor Ghania Brahimi of the Beni Messous University Hospital. Algeria has been using similar treatment principles to that for H1N1 seasonal flu, said Brahimi, who was also attending the case management training in Brazzaville. “The protocols are already in place. There are several training sessions, awareness training sessions that have been held throughout the hospital centres, in the east, west and centre of the country. So I think that people are aware that we can deal with the epidemic and that we are prepared.”

Many participants found the training was helpful, and that all-too-often neglected aspects of emergency response were being addressed. Ms Judith Komuhendo, a psychiatric nursing assistant at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, said, “One of the most important things that I have learnt here is that each patient has a different case management, depending on whether they have mild, severe or critical symptoms.” Dr Aschalew Worku, an internal medicine and pulmonary critical care specialist at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital (TASH) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, added that “almost everything we learnt here was important, starting from the initial point of care to the ICU, but I found the critical care part useful because it is my field and because it is usually neglected 

in epidemic management.”

source: WHO

Afro Beat Legend Dies

Pioneering Nigerian drummer Tony Allen, a co-founder of the afrobeat musical genre, died in Paris on Thursday aged 79, his manager says.

Eric Trosset told NPR radio that he had died of a heart attack. AFP said his death was not linked to coronavirus.

Allen was the drummer and musical director of musician Fela Kuti's famous band Africa '70 in the 1960-70s.

Fela, as he was widely known, died in 1997. He once said that "without Tony Allen, there would be no afrobeat".

Afrobeat combines elements of West Africa's fuji music and highlife styles with American funk and jazz.

Allen has also been described by UK musician Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived".

Trosset led tributes in a Facebook post saying "your eyes saw what most couldn't see... as you used to say: 'There is no end'".

Beninois singer Angelique Kidjo told the BBC's Newsday programme that she had been hit hard by both Allen's death and the passing of Cameroonian saxophone legend Manu Dibango in March.

"What I want to remember from them is our musical conversation, our laughter, our joy. They are gone, but they are not gone for me," she said.

On Instagram, she said that Allen had "changed the history of African music".

Ghanaian rapper M.anifest tweeted that Allen "put the beat in afrobeat" and thanked him "for a lifetime of being quietly epic".

Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who spent time with Allen in London, called him "one of the greatest drummers to ever walk this earth" and described him as his "hero".

"What a wildman, with a massive, kind and free heart and the deepest one-of-a-kind groove," Flea said on Instagram.One of Fela's sons, musician Seun Kuti, tweeted "rest in power and journey well".

How did he become a drummer?

Allen's career and life story were documented in his 2013 autobiography Tony Allen: Master Drummer of Afrobeat.

Allen, who was born in Lagos in 1940, taught himself how to play drums when he was 18.

He said he learnt his technique by listening closely to American jazz drummers Art Blakey and Max Roach. He then created the distinctive polyphonic rhythms of afrobeat and was said to be able to play four different beats with each of his limbs.

Allen first met Fela in 1964, and they went on to record dozens of albums in Africa '70, including Gentleman and Zombie.

Allen left the band in 1979, after reported rifts with the band leader over royalties. Fela needed four separate drummers to fill the void.

Allen emigrated to London in 1984, and later moved to Paris.

He collaborated with a number of artists during his long music career, and was the drummer in The Good, the Bad & the Queen, with Damon Albarn, Paul Simenon and Simon Tong.

BBC

Akwai ibom To Continue Lockdown Restrictions

The Akwa Ibom State Government has announced its decision to continue enforcing the Quarantine and Restriction of Movement order indefinitely.

Lockdown in the state started on May, 30, 2020 and was expected to end on Thursday, April, 30 making it one month.

However, the Secretary to the State Government and Chairman, COVID-19 Management Committee. Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, in a 9th COVID-19 update held on Wednesday at Government House, Uyo, said the state government was constrained to continue the enforcement of lockdown regulations at the moment due to the threat of the virus.

Ekuwem said the state government acknowledged the hardship experienced by people as a result of the lockdown noting that the extension was for the wellbeing and safety of the people.

CBN resumes dollar sales for SMEs, school fees

The Central Bank of Nigeria has resumed provision of foreign exchange to all commercial banks for onward sales to parents wishing to pay school fees and Small and Medium Enterprises.

The CBN Director,  Corporate Communications, Mr Isaac Okorafor made this known in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.

Okorafor explained that the development was due to the gradual easing of the COVID-19 lockdown in the country and across the globe.

IMF Grants $3.4bn Loan to Nigeria

The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has approved Nigeria’s request for financial assistance to the tune of $3.4 billion.

The disbursement is the highest so far given to any African country during the COVID-19 pandemic.