Facts in Q&A format

According to UCT’s Faculty of Health Science, there were 254 patients hospitalised with Covid-19 on 6 September 2021.

No. Legally, no one can be forced or coerced into taking the vaccine. This was affirmed by President Cyril Ramaphosa when he addressed parliament on 3 September 2021: “No one should be forced to be vaccinated. Instead, we need to use the available scientific evidence to encourage — repeat encourage…

Clinical trials in Africa are notoriously low. The African Academy of Science estimates that only 2% of clinical trials conducted worldwide take place in Africa. South Africa became the first country on the continent to start a clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. The candidate vaccine (Ox1Cov…

Covid-19 spreads mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets travel into the air when you cough, sneeze, talk, shout or sing. These droplets can then land in the mouths or noses of people who are near you or they may breathe these droplets in. Masks are a simple…

Temporary hair loss is normal after a fever or illness and fever is a common symptom of Covid-19. A few months after having a high fever or recovering from an illness, many people see noticeable hair loss. While many people think of this as hair loss, it’s actually hair shedding.

The medical…

Ancient Egyptian documents say that acacia gum prevents pregnancies if mixed with plant fibres and honey to form a pessary, a device worn in the vagina. Modern studies have shown that rats fed the plant's leaves or seeds did not become pregnant.

However, Dr J. Worth Estes, a professor of…

There is no effective cure for HIV, but with proper medical care, the disease can be controlled. HIV treatment involves taking medicine, called antiretroviral therapy (ART), that reduces the amount of HIV in your body. It’s important to remember that taking HIV medicine does not prevent the…

Research by the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations evaluated the survival of the Covid-19 virus on different surfaces and reported that the virus can remain viable for up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel, up to four hours on copper, and…

Epidemic-prone diseases that are endemic in Nigeria are: cholera, measles, meningococcal meningitis, viral haemorrhagic fever (Lassa fever, dengue) and yellow fever.

 

Related: FACTSHEET: What’s behind frequent yellow fever outbreaks in Nigeria?

FACTSHEET: The ins & outs of deadly…