In journalism 101 we were taught never to give the oxygen of publicity to quack remedies for dreaded diseases.

That’s why you don’t read, hear or see about cures for cancer in anything approaching responsible media.

Believe me, these emerge daily from the crazies and the con-artists seeking attention or a fast buck.

So it was to be expected that miracle antidotes to COVID 19 would be flung at editors very early on in the pandemic.

They could safely ignore almost all them –  until heads of state got involved.

Madagascar’s deejay turned President Andry Rajoelina seeks international endorsement of a remedy for COVID 19 made from the leaves of the artemisia which has provided relief to some malaria sufferers.

He could have saved his blushes had he sat in on my journalism cadet course all those years ago.

And the bench next to him could usefully have been occupied by the United States television game show star turned President  Donald Trump who advocated another outdated malaria remedy, the outdated chloroquine,  for curing COVID 19.

That was before he  threw the medical reins between the horses last month and urged COVID 19 patients to inject disinfectant and shine ultra violet light into their bodies.

Time magazine reports the American Association of Poison Control Centres finding a 121% increase in poisoning from bleach and other disinfectants in April 2020 over the same month the previous year. 

Rajoelina cannot match Trump’s lethal milestone. However his angry assertion that the African Union has rejected the herbal remedy known as COVID ORGANICS only because it was not developed by a European company shows he has a sense of the ridiculous every bit as well-developed as his Washington counterpart.

And he evidently shares the Donald’s penchant. for disregarding the media that does not reflect his  views.

How else could he have overlooked the storm last month when two French doctors suggested that the COVID 19 vaccine be tested on poor Africans because they have not taken protected measures?

Doctors Camille Locht and Jean-Paul Mira have had the good sense to apologize for hurt and offense they caused.

The Africa’s continental body was furiously adamant that it citizens would not be used as guinea pigs.

So has the World Health Organisation,  Like the AU the WHO give the thumbs down to COVID ORGANICS  which has reportedly been tested on 20 people for two weeks. Hardly decisive.

Rajoelina can draw some comfort from the favorable attention his peers have given the Malgash remedy.

Tanzania’s President John Magafuli,  who evidently believes that his chemistry qualification  entitles him to be a COVID 19 maverick, sent a plane to collect a load of the remedy  in Antananarivo.

Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Niger  have also bought consignments.

Health Minister Zweli Mkhize is quoted as saying South Africa will help test and analyse COVID ORGANICS.

I fully support African solutions to African problems. But this is surely a classical case for caution. 

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And then there was one.

On the last day of April, Comoran President Azali Assoumani announced that a 50 year old compatriot has contracted COVID 19.

That leaves Lesotho as the only African country free of coronavirus.

The infected Comoran had been in contact with a French-Comoran national with a history of travel to France.

Authorities are at full stretch ascertaining who the infected man has been in contact with.

A nighttime curfew has been imposed. Assoumani says he has not implemented a tougher lockdown because the majority of his one million people live off informal earnings.

Large gathering are prohibited and Mosques were ordered closed. Nevertheless in the holy month of Ramadan people congregated around the time of prayers and police were moved in to disperse them.

The immediate reaction from the Moroni government mirrors that of other African countries that closed their borders and ordered populations to stay at home immediately COVID 19 cases were detected.

So far this  has held at bay the viral onslaught predicated for Africa by the World Health Organization.

Nevertheless the UN  health body persists that Africa, with hundreds of millions crowded into informal housing settlements and notorious weak healthcare infrastructures, is in danger of becoming the COVID 19 nightmare.

Among the reasons for Africa staying behind the curve is the fact that international  correspondents based in capitals like Johannesburg, Nairobi and Addis Ababa have tended to stay put – in their countries if not their capitals – because of the border closures.

They have reported diligently on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s success in handing off mass infections thanks to draconian lockdown regulations.

But they have not been able to answer why other must poorer countries have much lower infection rates.

Is it climactic conditions? Coronavirus spread through Europe, China and the United States in the flu season i.e. the winter months. It has been a warm summer in the southern hemisphere.

Is it African countries experience in dealing with highly infectious diseases like EBOLA, malaria, tuberculosis, measles and SARS?

Is the tuberculosis vaccine BCG administered to African children shortly after birth effective against COVID 19.

Is it the youthfulness of the African population and the growing evidence that, deadly as it might be to the elderly and the medically compromised, COVID 19 barely affects the youth?

Is it – and this is quite terrifying –  because African countries have simply not been equipped to count the number of infections?

Burundi, which came into the game very late, made this admission.through its Health Minister Thadée Ndikumana

To each of these, honest observers must say what any responsible journalists covering  the pandemic should say. We simply don’t know.

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The world body says its absolutely vital to beef up health care of children in the DRC also facing  measles, cholera, malaria and EBOLA.

The figures are alarming. 5 300 children under five years old died from the world’s worst measles outbreak in the DRC last year.

There were more than 16,5 million cases of malaria resulting in more than 7000 deaths.

Cholera sickened 31 000 Congolese children.

The EBOLA outbreak is waning – no thanks to the various rebel militia that have turned three provinces in the Eastern DRC into a war zone.

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The annual report of the Bill and Melinda Gates Fund says 90% of extreme poverty on the planet exists in Africa.

The world’s second richest man has what he calls a simple plan to tackle poverty in Africa.

He says having the world invest in the health and education of the next generation of Africans will achieve this.

The Global Fund ,supported by the foundation he shares with his wife Melinda, has halved maternal deaths, halved deaths from malaria and more than halved global prpoverty.

But it still has the job of meeting the global goal endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly of wiping out extreme poverty by 2030.

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But the latest figures from the United Nations Childens Fund UNICEF show an unacceptably high rate of 21 children under five dying every minute.

Half of these are in sub Sahara Africa.

The heartbreaking message from the UNICEF figures is that the six major causes of deaths of children under five are entirely preventable.

These are diarrhea, malaria, neonatal infection, pneumonia, preterm delivery and lack of oxygen at birth.

The children deaths numbers  don’t  meet the Millennium Development Goal of a two-thirds reduction to 31 per 1 000 live births.

The geographic inequality in child mortality is illustrated by the reality that an Ethiopian child is 30 times more likely to die before his or her fifth birthday than a child in Western Europe.

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Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gates says by turning his back on Africa, Trump asks handing it to the competition.

The second richest man in the world has spent $12 billion fighting malaria and tuberculosis in Africa

Bill Gates says too much America first risks losing African stability and  goodwill.

While Trump looks away from Africa, countries like China are expanding their influence across the continent.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway says Trump, who’s due in Davos today, will be stressing his American policy.

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United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon reports to the Security Council that the IS leadership could be relocated  from its stronghold in the Libyan city of SIRTE.

As government forces retake the city that was birthplace to Mummer Gadaffi, he fears, IS leaders could disperse into smaller groups throughout Libya and into countries neighboring Libya.

Medical tests show that climate change is creating conditions ideal mosquitos to breed in West Africa. However, this is not expected to boost malaria in that region.

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The UN’s health arm says on  World Malaria Day that its aiming to wipe out the disease in at least 10 countries by the end of this decade.

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The World Health Organization  estimates that 21 countries are in a position to become malaria free.

This includes six African countries where the burden of the disease is heaviest.

These are Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland.

In South Africa the elimination of malaria is a public health objective.

The country registered 11 700 cases of the disease in 2014 — down from 64 000 in 2000 — with most diagnoses coming from areas bordering Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Nine out of 10 of the 438 000 people who died of malaria last year  came from sub-Saharan Africa.

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The 58-year old Zambian leader collapsed while making a speech in Lusaka on Saturday.

His doctors said then he had malaria.

President Edgar Lungu’s office said after his collapse that he was feeling well, apart from the malaria, and would be going home today.

Now they report he’s suffering from a narrowing of the oesophagus which needs a high-tech medical procedure which is currently unavailable in Zambia.

So he’s been referred for specialised treatment abroad.

Lungu was treated for this condition 30 years ago.

Zambians are understandably unsettled.

Two previous presidents Michael Sata and Levy Mwanawasa died while receiving medical treatment abroad.

Both assured their compatriots they were well.

During the election campaign, Lungu, who took office in January, denied reports he was sick and offered to undergo a medical check-up.

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