Eritrea News

Over 500,000 children have been protected against eight killer but vaccine-preventable diseases -tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, measles and hepatitis B, and homophillus influenza B - throughout the country during the 2nd African Vaccination Week (AVW).

This was held integrated with other activities as a Child Health, Nutrition and Vaccination week from April 28 to May 02, 2012 in Eritrea.

The interventions of the campaign included:

The Ministry of Health, with the support of WHO, conducted a national TB program review from 15 to 23 March 2012.

The review was conducted with a technical support of a team of five external reviewers from the WHO Regional Office, IST, WHO Kenya and Zambia, National TB Program Manager and Lab Specialist from Malawi.

The objective of the review was to conduct an in-depth review of the status of prevention and control interventions of the TB control program in Eritrea from 2004 to 2011.

To promote and sensitize all staff on the objectives of the international women’s day, the WHO Country Office marked the event on the 8th of March at the WCO Cafeteria.

The WR gave a brief opening remark that emphasized on the critical role the female staff members have on the day to day delivery of the WHO Eritrea Country Office. Female represent 64% of the WCO staff.

Eritrea, adhering to the global commitments to tackle the appalling human and economic losses from road traffic accidents, launched the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.

The launching ceremony was held on the 11th of June 2011 in the capital city in the presence of government officials from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transportation and communication, WHO and UNICEF representatives as well as representatives from key stake holders and the community.

World Health Day was nationally commemorated in Eritrea on April 7, 2011 under the theme, “Combat Drug Resistance: No action today, No cure tomorrow”.

The event was marked through a conference and a panel discussion on key issues on drug resistance in the presence of high officials from the Ministry of Health, physicians, pharmacists, Orotta School of Medicine and Asmara College of Health Science staff and students, UN representatives as well as community representatives.

The Tenth Eritrean National Book Fair was held from 18 to 27 March 2011 in Expo Compound under the theme “School Libraries: foundation to Reading Culture”. The fair which is an annual public event was officially opened by Mr. Semere Russom, Minister of Education.

The main objective of the book fair was to promote more and more reading habit among the society. Throughout the week visitors have expressed their appreciation of the book fare. Even some requested to have access of WHO materials.

Eritrea has been officially certified free of Dracunculiasis transmission.

This was officiated with a Letter of Certification from the WHO Director General, Dr Margaret Chan, which was delivered by Dr Idrissa Sow, WHO Representative in Eritrea, to Ms Amina Nurhusien, the Minister of Health in December 2011.

Eritrea is among the nine countries certified by the International Commission for the Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication (ICCDE) in 2011. In the African region, three countries namely Burkina Faso, Eritrea and Togo were certified dracunculiasis free.

World AIDS Day was nationally commemorated in Eritrea on December 1, 2010 under the theme, “Universal Access and Human Rights,” in the capital city.

In Asmara, the event was marked at the Bahti Meskerem Square in the presence of Zoba Maekel officials, UN heads of agencies, community representatives, students and other invited guests.

The Ministry of Health with the support of WHO and World Bank conducted a three day consensus building workshop to finalize a five year strategic plan for Human Resources for Health (HRH) in Eritrea.

The workshop which continued from 15 to 17 September was officially opened by the Honourable Minister of Health, Ms Amina Nurhusien. In her remarks, the Minister emphasised that the HRH strategic plan which will be the outcome of this workshop should be in line with the National Policies in general and that of the Ministry of Health in particular. 

To adopt and finalize the five year action plan for strengthening the National Codex Committee in Eritrea Ministry of Agriculture with the WHO support conducted a workshop on September 8, 2010.

In this workshop about 40 participants from key government institutions as well as representatives from WHO and FAO serving on the committee gathered to review the draft plan and provide their inputs for its finalization.