The COVID-19 pandemic is top of mind worldwide. However, May health observances remind everyone that there are other health topics that warrant our attention. WiRED International invites you to take a look at the following health issues and corresponding health education modules WiRED offers on them.
WiRED International’s corps of trained community health workers (CHWs) continue to deliver vital healthcare services in Kisumu, Kenya, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
During three weeks in March, 12 CHWs reached 4,533 people with basic clinical services, health education and health surveillance. The CHWs were not able to assist as many people as is usual in a month because all 12 workers also completed WiRED’s Vaccinator Training Program (VTP).
WiRED International’s Vaccinator Training Program is firing up in Kenya and Peru, and articles will appear soon chronicling its progress. In the meantime, here are some recent updates on the COVID-19 pandemic and the rush to get populations vaccinated as cases rise worldwide.
Scientists expect viruses to keep mutating; sometimes they emerge and disappear and sometimes they emerge and persist. Multiple COVID-19 variants are circulating globally, and CDC is monitoring these variants per the following classifications:
• Variant of interest
• Variant of concern
• Variant of high consequence
On Monday, March 15, 2021, WiRED launched the first class of our Vaccinator Training Program (VTP) in Obunga, Kenya. Nurse Winnie Nafula and clinician Zablon Kitoli are leading the instruction. Twenty-six students are taking the 45 hours of training, after which they will sit for a final exam, and, if successful, will receive a WiRED certificate. WiRED has already trained 15 Community Health Workers (CHWs), who since the fall of 2020 have made over 6,000 monthly contacts addressing basic health problems and dispensing general health information among their communities. These CHWs have been instrumental in teaching many thousands of people about COVID-19 prevention measures. Soon, they will introduce basic information about COVID-19 vaccines, so the communities will understand the value of the shot and be ready when vaccines arrive.
The COVAX global effort to deliver the COVID-19 vaccine to underserved countries is well underway. But what needs to happen to get doses from airports to arms?
WiRED International announces the launch of our Vaccinator Training Program (VTP), based entirely on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) training curriculum but with enhanced features to prepare what we call grassroots vaccinators. The objective of WiRED’s program is to train people at the local level to move vaccines safely from central drop-off points to communities, to prepare the communities for vaccinations, to properly screen patients, to administer COVID-19 vaccinations and to monitor patients after the shot.
WiRED International’s board of directors and volunteers are saddened to report the death of Guillermo Guerra at age 60 from COVID-19 on March 2, 2021, in Iquitos, Peru. Mr. Guerra was a longtime friend of WiRED through his work for Project Amazonas, WiRED’s partner in serving the health needs of low-resource communities along the Peruvian Amazon.
More and more people are getting vaccinated against COVID-19 each day now that multiple vaccines are starting to become available. The question is: Where are they available and to whom? While more than 227.5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally, some countries have not seen a single dose, including many communities using WiRED International programs.
Does your mask fit tightly? Do you double mask? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just issued new guidelines on getting the best protection from COVID-19 when wearing a mask.
Update on WiRED Community Health Workers in Kenya CHWs Continue to Grow in Knowledge and Experience Despite a Challenging Year By: Jessie Crowdy; Edited by Allison Kozicharow WiRED International brought our Community Health Worker (CHW) Training Program to Kisumu, Kenya, in 2020. Since then, CHWs have been actively tending to the health of the populations […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, children are asking questions. At home, in the classroom, through the news and social media, they are hearing words such as “virus,” “immunity’ and “vaccine” and wondering what they mean.