COVID-19

ADF STAFF Months of declining cases of COVID-19 throughout Africa have given rise to a burgeoning sense of optimism among health experts and officials. But it is a cautious optimism, tempered by nearly two years of hard-won progress. Dr.…

ADF STAFF When Dr. Angelique Coetzee first noticed what turned out to be a new variant of COVID-19 in South Africa last year, it was a set of unfamiliar symptoms that piqued her curiosity. Coetzee, a private practitioner and former chair…

ADF STAFF With the most acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in the past, public health experts now are turning their attention to the lingering, sometimes debilitating, after-effects of infection known as long COVID. “There are some…

ADF STAFF Even as countries around the world return to pre-pandemic patterns, the World Health Organization (WHO) says it is tracking about 200 offshoots of the omicron variant of COVID-19 and warning of the potential for a new deadly…

ADF STAFF Weekly COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations have decreased globally, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare that the pandemic’s end is “in sight.” Although deaths from COVID-19 during a one-week period…

ADF STAFF Recent research suggests that COVID-19’s impact on the respiratory system can open the way for potentially deadly bacterial infections. These infections occur because COVID-19 harms the cells lining the airways and lungs that…

ADF STAFF Rapid COVID-19 testing and oral antiviral medication may help end the pandemic, experts say. To enhance such measures on the continent, health ministries in several sub-Saharan African countries are participating in the…

ADF STAFF COVID-19 took Sikhulile Moyo on a roller coaster ride in late 2021. The Zimbabwean laboratory director at the Botswana-Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership led the team that sequenced and discovered the highly infectious omicron…

ADF STAFF Aerosol shedding of the virus that causes COVID-19 occurs every time an infected person exhales. The amount of virus shed is significantly greater in those infected with alpha, delta and omicron compared to ancestral strains and…

ADF STAFF The risks of COVID-19 patients suffering from mental disorders, such as psychosis, seizures, brain fog and dementia remained heightened in some people two years after contracting the virus, according to a new study. The…