Citi Health partners with Amref Health Africa

As a business which believes in the power of preventative healthcare, Citi Health is always keen to support the work of organisations which provide protection to communities without access to vital healthcare services.   

For five years we were proud to donate to UNICEF’s ‘Get a jab, Give a Jab’ campaign. Last year, when that programme came to an end, we wanted to keep contributing towards healthcare initiatives for communities at risk and, as a female-run business, to support women and children within those communities.  

To that end we are thrilled to say we will now be working with Amref Health Africa, a charity which has been changing lives across Africa since 1957:

·      Amref works with some of the most remote and marginalised communities in 35 countries on the African continent; they have reached over 110 million individuals and trained 12 million health workers to date.

·      Immunisation is a foundational intervention in the vast majority of Amref’s projects, but particularly those focused on maternal, newborn and child health.

·      They believe, as do we, that change must be community-led. To this end, Amref works often with women and girls, unlocking their potential to effect lasting change for themselves, their families, and their wider communities.

·      Amref tailors its approach to each individual community: in Kenya it has fully-equipped mobile clinic units delivering vaccination and other essential health services, while in Ethiopia it provides midwives in remote areas with backpack-kits for essential perinatal care.

From now on, Citi Health’s annual donation to Amref will help to fund programmes bringing vaccines and vital healthcare to families living in remote communities across Africa. This means every time an organisation books a vaccination clinic with us, they know they are not only protecting their own workforce, but also protecting communities at risk by helping Amref to deliver its life-changing health services to those most in need.  

We look forward to sharing more on the incredible work Amref does in due course.

For further information please contact Gayle Anderson gayle@citihealth.co.uk 

Flu cases surge as winter infections double down

As the new year gets underway flu continues to be a leading cause of hospital admissions due to respiratory illness this winter, as the start of January saw more than 1,300 people hospitalised with flu across England with the figure increasing by more than a third over the holiday period, according to figures released by the NHS. Eighty one flu patients were also reported as receiving critical care that week, representing an increase of almost 70% compared with the previous week in December.

The latest update for this month also shows 1,416 patients in hospital with flu in the week ending January 14 while demand for beds remains high, with around 19 in every 20 adult beds occupied.

Meanwhile, a leading virologist has stated that he and his colleagues in the East of England have witnessed many more cases of influenza than Covid so far this winter. Dr Chris Smith from the University of Cambridge, said his team had tested people across the region to find out what had caused them to fall ill: "The most prominent diagnoses is influenza,” he said. “Flu is the major player although Covid is still out there. We are also dealing with something of an immunity debt,” Dr Smith explained.

“Because we haven’t been exposed to as many of these infections as we normally would have in the past few years due to successive lockdowns, they able to spread more efficiently throughout the population.. It is also possible to catch two, or even three, respiratory infections at the same time, which makes people feel absolutely dreadful” he added.

Prof Julian Redhead, NHS England’s national clinic director for urgent care, said the health service was starting 2024 in a difficult position: “As we struggle to recover services and cope with heavy demand, as ever I would urge the public to get their flu and Covid vaccines if they are eligible.’

Find out more about booking flu vaccinations for your workforce this winter with our Citi Health on-site flu clinics.