Astrazeneca: More Than 70%
Evans said it was harder to ascertain a figure for AstraZeneca’s vaccine because late-stage trials used differing study designs, and a large US study was ongoing. The FDA also has not yet presented the data for the shot in the same way it has done for other vaccines.
A single dose of AstraZeneca’s shot was 76% effective at protecting against COVID-19 with symptoms for at least 90 days, according to late-stage-trial data on February 19. The study authors also reported that one dose provided 100% protection against hospitalization, but the numbers were small.;
Based on his reading of existing studies, Evans said the single-dose efficacy for AstraZeneca’s vaccine was probably at least 70% against COVID-19 with symptoms for the first 90 days. After this time period, it’s unclear, he said.
Kidneys On Special Offer
Organ trafficking is booming around the globe. While the system isn’t easy to figure out, one thing is certain: the rich are benefiting at the expense of the poor.
Wiru is 12 years old and lives in a small village in India. There, three hours south of Delhi, there’s a good chance of being able to buy a child like him. Wiru cost 2,500 rupees, or about 37 euros . Since then, he has been working in a factory where he glues together fake Gucci bags. He has to make 200 bags a day or else he’ll be in trouble with his owner.
“When I’m big, I’m going to be rich,” said Wiru. “Then I’m going to sell one of my kidneys and I won’t have to work here anymore.”
His father, whom he hasn’t seen for three years, did the same thing, according to Wiru.
Word has spread throughout the slums of India’s big cities that there is a chance to escape poverty. On the black market, a kidney is worth about 55,000 rupees , which is a fortune for many Indians. The country has prohibited the trade in human organs and raised the punishment from two to five years in prison, but that has hardly acted as a deterrent. The business is too lucrative. The risk of being caught isn’t great, either, the more so because the donor just has to pose as the recipient’s friend and declare the money paid for the organ as a gift. In this respect, the inquiry by an official government agency into the motives of the donation is only a farce.
Kidneys in India are a particularly good bargain
The organ trafficking mafia
Live Kidney Donation In South Africa
Posted on 18 November 2016
South Africa has a dire need for kidney donors. We speak to Jooste Vermeulen, the Organ Donor Foundations director of communications, about the process of donating a kidney to someone in need.
In South Africa at any given moment, there are about 2;500 people waiting for a life-saving organ or tissue transplant, says Jooste. That number does not reflect the true picture, however. The true picture is that we only have a certain amount of life support, such as dialysis, available in the country. While people are waiting for kidneys, these support systems are overloaded, he adds.
In South Africa, in many cases as a result of lifestyle diseases, renal failure is an increasing problem and the need for kidney transplants is huge. Live organ or kidney donations could therefore offer hope to people with renal failure.
How live kidney donations work
Live donations do occur in South Africa, but only among family members, and are usually for kidneys or part of a liver. For example, a mother will give a sick daughter one of her kidneys after a suitability test is performed.
Fortunately, the side effects for kidney donors are minimal, says Jooste. Im a kidney donor myself. I gave a kidney to my child in 2007 and I havent experienced significant health problems after the donation.
Can I donate a kidney to someone not related to me?
Statistics on live donations
More men needed on the system
For more information on signing up, read more here.
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Kidney Transplantation And South African Medical Hierarchies: Nursing Innovations And Inequities 1960s1990s
University of Johannesburg, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Correspondence: Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 1H1 Canada. Email:
University of Johannesburg, Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Correspondence: Department of History, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 1H1 Canada. Email:
Becoming A Nurse In Transplant
Hoffart stresses that in the United States transplantation attracted a specific type of nurse who viewed the field as an exciting work opportunity that was innovative and stimulated their interest.35 Hoffart, The Development of Kidney Transplant Nursing, p. 127 and p. 131. She speculates that the nurses drawn to transplant were potentially more motivated, professional and innovative. While the nurses I interviewed came to transplant nursing in various ways, my findings support Hoffart’s speculation. They were undoubtedly a driven and motivated group, keen to take leadership roles and eager to work in a dynamic, demanding health care environment.
After a long career as part of the transplant team, Sr Andrea Hayward, a white nurse who is now a lecturer in the Department of Nursing Education at Wits, explained that her first career choice was medicine. However, in the 1960s, female medical students could not get bursaries, so I then decided I would do nursing instead.36 Interview with Sr Hayward. Unable to become a medical doctor, transplantation provided alternative career opportunities that appeared exciting and innovative.
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Machu Picchu Yes That Tourist Trap Is It Worth It
Well, initially we just did not want to go. Way too much money and from the looks of it, everyone traveling to Peru was in the Must-go-to-Machu-Picchu zombie mode. Dear heavens, it was the first question everyone asked us while in Peru. Have you been there already or going? And we said, most probably not.
And to top it, all our dear friends that have been to Machu Picchu told us to suck it up and stop bitching as they think it is worth seeing the ruins. The reason for our initial apprehension was that many times these absolute must-sees are incredible to see, but the sheer amount of people these days flocking to them turns the experience into a mind-numbing amount of pain, fighting people to see something, and in the process getting the wallet ripped apart. The social media craze like Instagram adds to the popularity. Every influencer wants to have a shot with the blonde girl walking towards the edge with a blanket over the shoulders softly blowing in the wind. And for the love of all that is holy, that is exactly what happens there. But more about that later.
While in South Africa for a quick visit with Elsebies mom we had some conference calls with our two Aussie crime partners on the MP issue. Are we going or not? Some of the discussions were about our time in Peru and we had seen already so many incredible places in the country, we doubt Machu Picchu could beat it. So if we do not see it, would we miss anything?
Train ride to Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Who Can Have A Kidney Transplant
Most people who need;a kidney transplant;are able to have one, regardless of their age, as long as:
- they’re well enough to withstand the effects of surgery
- the transplant has a relatively good chance of success
- the;person is willing to comply with the recommended treatments required after the transplant such as taking immunosuppressant medication and attending regular follow-up appointments
Reasons why it may not be safe or effective to perform a transplant include having an ongoing infection , severe heart disease,;cancer that has spread to several places in your body,;or AIDS.
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How Much Money The Average South African Is Worth
The average South African has net assets of US$11,040 at the end of 2014, according to data from New World Wealth.
Net assets, or your net worth, includes everything you own of significance held against your debts. NWW said that for the purpose of its research, net assets exclude the value of an individuals primary residence, but include all other retirement savings, stocks etc.
The group said that the country is well; below a global average of US$27,600 .
South African locals held US$585 billion in net assets at the end of 2014, New World Wealth said.
BankservAfrica recently noted through its Disposable Salary Index that the average disposable salary in SA is approximately R11,700, however, more than 55% of the working population earns less than R10,000.
Neil Roets, CEO of debt management company Debt Rescue recently told BusinessTech that the average applicant for debt rescue has 14 unsecured accounts, one vehicle, and one property.
The average age of an applicant is early forties with the bulk between 35 and 45.
The average total debt exposure is as follows:
- Clients with mortgages : R950 000
- Clients without mortgages : R240 000
At the end of 2014, there were approximately 46,800 high net worth individuals living in South Africa, with a combined wealth of US$184 billion.
HNWIs are defined as people who have a net worth of US$1 million or more.
This equates to roughly 31% of South Africas total individual wealth.
Newest Data Suggests Second Shot Provides Better Protection Against Variants
Real-word data from the UK posted May 23 by Public Health England showed that Pfizer’s and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccines worked better against the variants when two doses were given rather than just one. Both vaccines were 30% effective against COVID-19 with symptoms caused by the Delta variant, first identified in India, three weeks after the first dose.;
This was boosted to between 60% and 88% effectiveness two weeks after the second dose. The two vaccines were 50% effective against COVID-19 with symptoms against the variant first found in the UK, Alpha, three weeks after the first dose. This increased to between 66% and 93% two weeks after the second dose.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, said on June 8 that getting two doses of COVID-19 vaccines would stop the Delta variant from spreading across the US. In the UK, Professor Deborah Dunn-Walters, chair of the British Society for Immunology COVID-19 Taskforce,;said in a statement on June 4 that two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine were;“critical for protection” against emerging strains of the virus.
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What Needs To Be Done
Organ and tissue donation has not received the priority that it should have from the South African government. A few concrete steps would make a dramatic difference.
Firstly, the government needs to develop a central strategy to help alleviate uncertainties and fears whether real or imagined around tissue and organ donation. This will help enable South Africa to become a society that forsakes superstition in favour of sound scientific facts on how to save and improve lives.
Secondly, worries about organ trafficking and black-market transactions need to be addressed. Media coverage on organ trafficking puts organ donation and the request for donation in a negative light.
The crime of organ trafficking generates around $840 million to $1.7 billion annually. Kidneys are the most commonly trafficked organ. A scandal that had international repercussions hit the headlines 20 years ago when a syndicate operating in South Africa was uncovered that had been involved in selling kidneys from hundreds of illegal kidney transplants at hospitals in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
The events caused a lot of reputational harm which still lingers today.
Fourthly, a national policy on organ and tissue procurement is critically needed. Healthcare providers in state and private hospitals must follow a uniform approach to organ and tissue procurement.
Fifth, South Africa also needs a national or central database and procurement agency.
South African Hospital Firm Admits ‘cash For Kidney’ Transplants
South Africa’s biggest private hospital group has admitted receiving R3.8m from an illegal organ trafficking syndicate in a scam that included the removal of kidneys from five children.
Netcare, which also runs hospitals in Britain, took part in an international scam that allegedly saw poor Brazilians and Romanians paid $6,000 for their kidneys to be transplanted to wealthy Israelis.
At the Durban regional court yesterday, Netcare KwaZulu pleaded guilty on 102 counts relating to illegal operations between June 2001 and November 2003. It was fined R7,820,000 .
Police said these included five counts of “unlawfully acquiring and transplanting human kidneys by acquiring kidneys from five minors in law at the time the kidneys were transplanted”. Netcare admitted that some of the kidney donors were “minors” but there were no details of the children’s ages or nationalities.
The group made a plea bargain in which criminal charges against the parent company, Netcare, and its chief executive, Richard Friedland, were unconditionally withdrawn.
The transplants took place at one of South Africa’s top hospitals, Netcare St Augustine’s in Durban. In September the Times of South Africa cited a charge sheet that read: “Israeli citizens in need of kidney transplants would be brought to South Africa for transplants at St Augustine’s hospital. They paid kidney suppliers for these operations.”
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Kidneys: Up To $10000 A Pop
In a;research paper;published last week in;Medical Anthropology Quarterly, Michigan State anthropologist Monir Moniruzzaman blew the lid off a massive illegal organ trafficking network in Bangladesh.
Kidneys can be sold for as much as $10,000 a pop and it’s estimated that “organ trafficking accounts for roughly five to 10 percent of all the kidney transplants performed in the world,” according to The Atlantic.
Just last year, a 17-year-old Chinese boy decided to sell his kidney for 20,000 yuan so he could buy an iPad.;
Donors Accepted For The Donor Program
Accepted donors will be asked to donate sperm at least once a week, until we have 8 usable samples. ;If the donor is sexually active care must be taken to use condoms or abstain from intercourse until he is finished with the donor program. If the donor has not abstained from sexual intercourse or masturbation the quality can be below the required parameters. Excessive stress or illness with a high fever can also influence the quality of the sperm. Extra samples can be required after the initial donation period has passed until the pregnancy quota has been reached.
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The Existence Of A Legal Organ Market In India
This unscrupulous trading continued unabated until 1994 developing a successful legal market in organ trading in India. A number of complaints from the donors such as unpaid compensations, uninformed kidney transplantations in which people were unaware that a kidney transplant procedure had taken place, prompted the Government of India in 1994 to enact the Transplantation of Human Organs Act which prohibited commercial dealings in human organs . This Act involuntarily changed the profile of a live unrelated organ donor in Indialegal or illegal.
Do The Commercial Donors Actually Benefit From Selling Organs
The incidences of organ trade given in Table 1 shows that it is the poor debt-ridden farmers of Palnadu, the potters of Kolkata, the poor, illiterate workers of Punjab, Tsunami-affected fishermen, the poor labourers in the Gurgaon incident and the poor workers of the power loom industry in Tamilnadu who sold their organs to relieve themselves from debt and poverty. The research studies by Cohen, Goyal et al. and Haagen, discussed earlier, projected the similar coercive circumstances, which drove the poor to selling kidneys. Two case studies;conducted by this author in Chennai, also showed similar compelling situations among the donors for selling kidneys.
A 52-year-old woman sold kidney in 1988 to save her family of six becoming homeless. She did not receive any post-operative care and received only half the amount of promised compensation with which she built a small house to live with her family. Although she saved her family from homelessness, she could not save them from future financial crises. Therefore, at the time of this study, she was still struggling to survive due to economic severity.
When a female commercial donor in Tamil Nadu was asked whether she regretted selling her kidney, her response was in the negative as she received the money in return.; But she expressed her sadness about the fact that nobody was concerned about her after the kidney was taken away. She felt that;after all, she saved a life .
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The Limitations In The Tho Act
There is one major loophole in the law which indirectly encouraged the illegal trade in organs in India. The Section 9 of the Act permits an unrelated person to donate an organ out of affection or attachment. There has been a gross misuse of this section as there are large number of unrelated transplantations in India claiming to be out of affection. Mani , a nephrologist in India argued that it is inconceivable that hundreds of slum dwellers would have sufficient affection or attachment to millionaires they had not met two weeks earlier to donate a vital organ to them.
Section 9 allowed donation only from near relatives. The Act defined near relatives as spouse, son, daughter, father, mother, brother, sister and excludes uncles, aunts, grandparents, nephews who are often ready to donate organs in the extended Indian family. Therefore, the act restricted the scope of live related transplantation encouraging needy patients to seek an organ commercially.
The low level of punishment in the Act for the perpetrators was another limiting factor.; The nature of the offence i.e. selling an organ is non-cognizable and the level of punishment was also not stringent enough to deter people in committing the illegal act. The Act was also not successful in establishing an active deceased donation programme in India which could have reduced demand on live organ donors. The Act was amended in 2011 to plug these loopholes, which is discussed later.