Background: Access to safe, effective, affordable, and quality medicines is an essential component of the right to health and is also one of the targets in the global development agenda. In this review article, we extensively discuss the challenges and issues surrounding access to medicines in the African region as well as provides recommendations for ensuring medicines security on the continent.Methods: We conducted narrative review with the use of data reported in published literature, reports, and grey literature available in African countries on topics pertaining access to medicines. The authors also snowballed further data to gather information for this review and narrative synthesis was conducted.Results: Africa faces a double burden of infectious and non‐communicable diseases and the need for effective universal access to medicines cannot be deemphasized. However, access to medicines on the continent is not without issues and challenges. Some of which are the high burden of infectious diseases and non‐infectious diseases, limited pharmaceutical industries and high costs of raw materials, overdependence on countries abroad for medicines, poor supply chain systems, lack of government investment in the pharmaceutical sector, unfavourable manufacturing conditions, limited health workforce, lack of sustainable health financing mechanisms, lack of infrastructures and technical know‐how, low investment on research and development, and circulation of fake and counterfeit medicines among others.Conclusion: This review reifies that access to medicines in Africa faces numerous challenges and it emphasizes the urgent need to address these issues as the continent geared towards strengthening its health systems for universal health coverage.

Summary: The SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, which causes the COVID‐19 disease, has impacted every nation on the globe, albeit disproportionately. African countries have seen lower infection and mortality rates than most countries in the Americas Europe and Asia. In this commentary, we explore some of the factors purported to be responsible for the low COVID‐19 infection and case fatality rates in Africa: low testing rate, poor documentation of cause of death, younger age population, good vitamin D status as a result of exposure to sunlight, cross‐immunity from other viruses including coronaviruses, and lessons learnt from other infectious diseases such as HIV and Ebola. With the advent of a new variant of COVID‐19 and inadequate roll‐out of vaccines, an innovative and efficient response is needed to ramp up testing, contact tracing and accurate reporting of infection rates and cause of death in order to mitigate the spread of the infection.

Background: Childhood stunting and anemia are on the increase in many resource-constrained settings, without a counter increase in proper feeding practices such as exclusive breastfeeding. The objective of this study was to explore the prevalence of stunting, anemia and exclusive breastfeeding across African countries. Methods: Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from 39 African countries was analyzed. Data from under 5 children were analyzed. Forest plot was used to determine inequalities in the prevalence of the outcome variables. Results: The prevalence of stunting was highest in Burundi (56%), Madagascar (50%) and Niger (44%). In addition, Burkina Faso (88%), Mali (82%), Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea (75% each) and Niger (73%) had the highest prevalence of anemia. Furthermore, Burundi (83%), Rwanda (81%) and Zambia (70%) had the highest exclusive breastfeeding. We found statistical significant difference in the prevalence of stunting, anemia and exclusive breastfeeding (p < 0.001). Higher prevalence of stunting and anemia were estimated among the male, rural residents, those having mothers with low education and from poor household wealth. Conclusion: Concerted efforts are required to improve childhood health, survival and proper feeding practice. Reduced stunting and anemia could be achieved through sustained socioeconomic improvement that is shared in equity and equality among the population. Interventions aimed at increasing food availability can also aid in the reduction of hunger, particularly in impoverished communities.

In August 2021, the Marburg virus disease (MVD) outbreak was confirmed amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the Republic of Guinea. This is the first time it is detected in Guinea and West Africa. Marburg virus is one of the world's most threatening diseases, causing severe haemorrhagic fever, with a case fatality rate of 90%. Currently, there are no vaccines and specific antiviral drugs for MVD. Technical teams and community health care workers that were set up as part of the recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak that was declared over on June 19, 2021, are now redeployed to support governments response activities of the MVD outbreak in the country. The MVD is an added burden to the fragile healthcare systems that are already overburdened with multiple reoccurring epidemics and the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous epidermic strategies are needed to contain the spread of the disease, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, so the health care systems are not overwhelmed. This commentary discusses the available evidence regarding the epidemic of MVD in Guinea amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlights the efforts, challenges to be prioritized, and provides evidence-based recommendations.

Background: Self-testing for HIV is an effective and alternative method of increasing HIV testing rates and a strategy for reaching populations that are underserved by HIV testing services. Nonetheless, many resource-constrained settings are yet to adopt HIV self-testing (HIVST) into their national HIV programmes.Objectives: This study aimed to examine the association between socio-economic factors and HIVST knowledge amongst South African women.Method: We used nationally representative data from the 2016 South African Demographic and Health Survey. A sample of 8182 women of reproductive age was analysed. The outcome variable was HIVST knowledge. This was measured dichotomously; know versus do not know about HIVST. The multivariable logistic model was used to examine the measures of association, with the level of significance set at P 0.05.Results: The prevalence rate of HIVST knowledge was found to be approximately 24.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 22.9–26.1) amongst South African women. Women with tertiary education were 3.93 times more likely to have HIVST knowledge, when compared with those with no formal education (odds ratio [OR]: 3.93; 95% CI: 1.37–11.26). Rural residents had a 33% reduction in HIVST knowledge when compared with those residing in urban areas (OR: 0.67; 95% CI: 0.51–0.89). The odds of interaction between the richer and richest women who have good knowledge of HIV infection were 1.88 and 2.24 times more likely to have HIVST knowledge, respectively, when compared with those from the poorest wealth household who have good knowledge of HIV infection.Conclusion: Based on the low level of HIVST knowledge, the findings emphasise the importance of developing effective HIVST educational campaigns. Moreover, programmes should be designed to address the unique needs of the socio-economically disadvantaged women.

Background: Overweight and obesity in adults are on the rise around the world, contributing significantly to noncommunicable disease deaths and disability. Women bear a disproportionate burden of obesity when compared with men, which has a negative impact on their health and the health of their children. The objective of this study was to examine the country-level prevalence of overweight and obesity among women of reproductive age in sub-Saharan countries. Methods: A total of 504,264 women from 2006 to 2021 were examined using cross-sectional Demographic and Health Surveys data. The outcome variables for this study include: (a) women who are overweight according to body mass index (BMI) (25.0–29.9kg/m²); (b) women who are obese according to BMI (≥30.0 kg/m²). Results: Eswatini (28%), Mauritania (27%), South Africa (26%), Gabon, Lesotho and Ghana (25% each) had the highest prevalences of overweight. In addition, obesity prevalence was highest in South Africa (36%), Mauritania (27%), Eswatini (23%), Lesotho (20%), Gabon (19%) and Ghana (15%), respectively. Overweight and obesity were more prevalent among older women, those living in urban areas, women with secondary/higher education and those in the richest household wealth quintiles. Conclusion: The risk factors for overweight and obesity, as well as the role that lifestyle changes play in preventing obesity and the associated health risks, must be made more widely known. In order to identify those who are at risk of obesity, we also recommend that African countries regularly measure their citizens’ biometric characteristics.