Malnutrition is a widespread problem, affecting the global population at some life stage. This public health epidemic targets everyone, but the most vulnerable groups are poverty-stricken people, young children, adolescents, older people, those who are with illness and have a compromised immune system, as well as lactating and pregnant women. Malnutrition includes both undernutrition (wasting, stunting, underweight, and mineral-and vitamin-related malnutrition) and overnutrition (overweight, obesity, and diet-related noncommunicable diseases). In combating malnutrition, healthcare costs increase, productivity is reduced, and economic growth is staggered, thus perpetuating the cycle of ill health and poverty. The best-targeted age for addressing malnutrition is the first 1000 days of life as this window period is ideal for intervention implementation and tracking for the improvement of child growth and development. There is an unprecedented opportunity to address the various forms of malnutrition, especially the 2016-2025 Decade of Action on Nutrition set by the United Nation. This aims to achieve the relevant targets of the Sustainable Development Goals that aim to end hunger and improve nutrition, as well as promote well-being and ensure healthy lives.
Background: COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc in different countries across the world, claiming thousands of lives, increasing morbidity and disrupting lifestyles. The global scientific community is in urgent need of relevant evidence, to understand the challenges and knowledge gaps, as well as the opportunities to contain the spread of the virus. Considering the unique socio-economic, demographic, political, ecological and climatic contexts in Africa, the responses which may prove to be successful in other regions may not be appropriate on the continent. This paper aims to provide insight for scientists, policy makers and international agencies to contain the virus and to mitigate its impact at all levels. Methods: The Affiliates of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), came together to synthesize the current evidence, identify the challenges and opportunities to enhance the understanding of the disease. We assess the potential impact of this pandemic and the unique challenges of the disease on African nations. We examine the state of Africa’s preparedness and make recommendations for steps needed to win the war against this pandemic and combat potential resurgence. Results: We identified gaps and opportunities among cross-cutting issues which is recommended to be addressed or harnessed in this pandemic. Factors such as the nature of the virus and the opportunities for drug targeting, point of care diagnostics, health surveillance systems, food security, mental health, xenophobia and gender-based violence, shelter for the homeless, water and sanitation, telecommunications challenges, domestic regional coordination and financing. Conclusion: Based on our synthesis of the current evidence, while there are plans for preparedness in several African countries, there are significant limitations. Multi-sectoral efforts from the science, education, medical, technological, communication, business and industry sectors as well as local communities is required in order to win this fight.
The evolving nature of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has necessitated periodic revisions of COVID-19 patient treatment and discharge guidelines. Since the identification of the first COVID-19 cases in November 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) has played a crucial role in tackling the country-level pandemic preparedness and patient management protocols. Among others, the WHO provided a guideline on the clinical management of COVID-19 patients according to which patients can be released from isolation centers on the 10th day following clinical symptom manifestation, with a minimum of 72 additional hours following the resolution of symptoms. However, emerging direct evidence indicating the possibility of viral shedding 14 days after the onset of symptoms called for evaluation of the current WHO discharge recommendations. In this review article, we carried out comprehensive literature analysis of viral shedding with specific focus on the duration of viral shedding and infectivity in asymptomatic and symptomatic (mild, moderate, and severe forms) COVID-19 patients. Our literature search indicates that even though, there are specific instances where the current protocols may not be applicable ( such as in immune-compromised patients there is no strong evidence to contradict the current WHO discharge criteria.
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