Feature Stories

“I put my feet on the ground and wiggled my toes. It felt strange to touch the ground for the first time in weeks. Slowly, I stood up, holding the hand of the nurse. I held my swollen belly and smiled.” That was the moment Rachel Kahuko Kavugho began to let herself believe that she might survive Ebola “and that the baby in my belly might get to live”.

It was past midnight when the ringing phone shook Manuel Raimundo from deep sleep in his Praia City home with an emergency unlike any he had ever experienced.

“Alert, alert – alert, alert!” shouted a colleague from Fogo Island, some 93 km away.

Standing in front of her house, Kavira Kasomo chats with Léa Kanyere as if they are old friends. Kanyere shows Kasomo something on her mobile phone that makes her smile. Then Kanyere lends a hand as Kasomo hangs out her laundry.

Flash flooding has created a humanitarian emergency in areas of north-eastern Nigeria already complicated by insurgency, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and a fragile health system. Now rising is the threat of water-related diseases, such as cholera and acute watery diarrhoea, which are easily spread through contaminated floodwater.

A wooden boat sways idyllically in a marsh of the Malagarasi River where it begins from an eastern mouth of the great Lake Tanganyika, Africa’s deepest lake and the world’s longest lake. Along the river, muscled men pull loaded bicycles under the scorching sun. This port in Ilagala village in Kigoma Region idles in daytime and bustles with activity at night.

Universal access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) is one of the key components of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 and 5 and contributes to the achievement of all the other SDGs. Given its critical roles therefore, WHO/AFRO is implementing a new four-year initiative, launched on 9 January 2019, to enhance existing efforts for reducing needless deaths from pregnancy in the region focusing on the provision of comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) services, within the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) framework, especially for the most vulnerable populations, including those living in humanitarian settings.

The pilgrims sometimes come by the thousands. They come by foot, by vehicle and by air to the many churches and monasteries scattered around the once ancient Christian kingdom of Ethiopia. They seek piety in their communing, but it is in the very density of their shared pilgrimage that dangerous diseases like cholera can thrive – if appropriate conditions are not prepared for them. 

“I have been a sewerage operator for more than 20 years now,” says Fundi Mzee, smiling as he leaves his office at the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority premises for his weekly hunting expedition for polio.

“I never thought such a harmful virus could be hiding in the waste waters that I deal with every day,” he explains. “Such work requires a good understanding of wastewater networks and mechanics. A typical day for me involves routine maintenance and cleaning of public sewers, plus dealing with any blockages.” 

For 38-year-old Durban mother Klemmi Norris, the price hike that followed the introduction of South Africa’s highly anticipated – but also controversial – sugar tax was the last straw. Today, she has completely eliminated sugary drinks from her shopping list.

Clinical trials of four Ebola drugs start in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The randomized trials aim to test the efficacy and safety of the treatments that are being offered on a compassionate basis.