First Covid Delta cases emerge in NigerThe first cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 have been recorded in the impoverished Sahel state of Niger, which until now has been relatively spared in the pandemic, the authorities said Friday. Genetic sequencing found six cases of Delta “among the last cases that occurred in August,” Health Minister Illiassou Mainassara told AFP. All the patients “were treated and recovered,” he said, but added “serious forms of Covid-19 are more and more widespread.”The six cases were in the capital Niamey, the ministry’s press office said, adding that efforts to track and trace contacts of the patients were underway. These are the first cases of Delta variant recorded in Niger, detected among people who were not vaccinated,” it said.Niger is the poorest country in the world, according to the benchmark of the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI). It has had relatively few cases of coronavirus compared to other countries, with an official tally of 5,867 cases, 199 of them fatal.So far, “more than four percent” of the country’s population of 20 million have been vaccinated, Mainassara said, describing this as a “small upturn” compared with July, when only 0.3 percent had been jabbed.On Thursday, Niger received 100,800 doses of AstraZeneca from Canada under the international Covax donation scheme for poor income countries. It has also received 400,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China, 600,000 AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson jabs from the United States and 25,000 doses of AstraZeneca from India. |
An epidemic of cholera that has struck six regions in southern Niger has claimed 104 lives, the health ministry said on Friday. It reported that 2,874 cases of the water-borne disease had been recordedin the capital Niamey and five other regions — Maradi, Zinder, Dosso, Tahoua and Tillaberi. The toll as of August 19 stood at 35 fatalities out of 845 cases. But the number of dead hit 104 on September 1, with a “fatality rate of four percent”, the health ministry said in a statement Friday. Most infections are among people aged between 15 and 37, the ministry said.
The authorities are working with Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the UN and EU on a prevention campaign, including disinfection of village wells and the distribution of water purification tablets. Cholera is spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated by human faeces. The disease is treated with rehydration and antibiotics, and prevented with better hygiene and sanitation. Niger’s last epidemic of cholera was in 2018, when 78 people died out of a caseload of 3,824 patients, according to the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO). The latest outbreak coincides with severe flooding, which increases exposure to cholera bacteria.
