UN bodies warn of ‘hunger catastrophe’
Plan to use malaria drug in Mumbai slums shelved
ROME, April 30, (Agencies): The World Food Programme and UNICEF on Wednesday warned of a “hunger catastrophe” for some 370 million children worldwide missing out on food amid school closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For millions of children around the world, the meal they get at school is the only meal they get in a day. Without it, they go hungry, they risk falling sick, dropping out of school and losing their best chance of escaping poverty,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley said.
Additionally, children at school in poor countries are offered vaccinations, deworming and iron supplements, said UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore.
The two United Nations agencies appealed for USD 600 million to support children in 68 countries during the crisis, through cooperation with their governments, providing them with rations, vouchers or financial assistance.
The programme will also ensure that when these children return to school they will once again receive the same benefits they did before the virus outbreak.
Meanwhile, a plan to give the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to thousands of people in Mumbai’s crowded slums to prevent coronavirus infections has temporarily been shelved, officials said Wednesday.
Health officials in Mumbai said that a test to prove the efficacy of the much touted but largely untested drug was still in the cards, but that for now they would follow federal Indian guidelines.
India, which reached the grim milestone of over 1,000 deaths from the virus on Wednesday, is one of the few countries that has pushed for the use of hydroxychloroquine, or HCQ, as a precautionary measure among high-risk groups such as health care workers or people who have come in close contact with COVID-19 patients.
Mumbai, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, has struggled to contain the spread of the virus, and has over 3,000 cases. In Mumbai slums like Dharavi, which is Asia’s largest, social distancing is nearly impossible. In response, the state government had said it would conduct a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of HCQ on slum residents.
But experts pointed to the scant evidence for the efficacy of the drug and the risks it poses, and questioned the ethics of using HCQ on a vulnerable population. Dr. Daksha Shah, Mumbai’s deputy executive health officer, said that officials would now follow guidelines set by India’s top medical research body, and that they were waiting for approval to test the drug.
Reactions
The state government has now said that HCQ - which has been touted by President Donald Trump - can be given only after patients consent to taking it while knowing the risks involved. It added that adverse reactions need to be immediately reported to authorities, and that doctors must sign off on giving the drug to those with heart ailments, diabetes or blood disorders.
But concerns remain over India’s policy of using the drug as a precautionary measure. India’s National Task Force for COVID-19 issued a statement on March 22 that said its decision to allow the use of the drug was based on “risk-benefit considerations, under exceptional circumstances” and was “derived from available evidence of benefit as treatment and supported by preclinical data.”
After the statement was issued, health workers in Mumbai, like other parts of India, began taking HCQ. The drug was also given to healthy police officers in the city.
But experts say there is no evidence that the drug is a preventative tool against COVID-19. Even for the treatment of diagnosed patients, HCQ has shown no benefit.
An analysis of 368 patients in U.S. veterans hospitals published earlier this month reported more deaths among those given the drug versus standard care.
“If there is no evidence ... why are scientific bodies pushing this drug and giving the impression to the public that there is a magic bullet, and this is your last hope?” said Dr. Shriprakash Kalantri, an epidemiologist in the west Indian state of Maharashtra.
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LONDON: The World Health Organization says Niger has been struck by a new outbreak of polio, following the suspension of immunization activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UN health agency reported that two children were infected by the highly infectious, water-borne disease and that one was paralyzed. The outbreak was sparked by a mutated virus that originated in the vaccine and was not connected to a previous polio epidemic Niger stopped last year, WHO said, in a statement last week.
“The poliovirus will inevitably continue to circulate and may paralyze more children as no high-quality immunization campaigns can be conducted in a timely manner,” said Pascal Mkanda, WHO’s coordinator of polio eradication in Africa.
In rare cases, the live virus in oral polio vaccine can evolve into a form capable of igniting new outbreaks among non-immunized children; stopping the epidemic requires more targeted vaccination. Earlier this month, WHO and partners announced they were forced to halt all polio vaccination activities until at least June 1, acknowledging the decision would inevitably result in more children being paralyzed.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there have been 33,500 cases and 1,469 deaths as of Tuesday, but experts suspect the real numbers are far higher due to lack of testing and poor surveillance.
Eradicating polio requires more than 90% of children being immunized, typically in mass campaigns involving millions of health workers that would break social distancing guidelines needed to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
Across Africa, 14 other countries are struggling to contain their polio epidemics, which have also been caused by a rare mutation of the virus in the oral vaccine. Health officials had initially aimed to wipe out polio by 2000, but that deadline has been pushed back and missed repeatedly.