Ethiopia News

A human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign that aims to immunize over 1.8 million 14-year-old girls in nine regions against HPV is underway. The campaign commenced on 10 January 2022 and will end on 22 January.

On 30 November 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) delivered to the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) 500 of the 3,000 oxygen cylinders procured for the institute to improve access to oxygen for critical care and strengthen the oxygen capacity of health facilities providing COVID-19 treatment services.

On 16 November 2021, the Federal Ministry of Health (MoH) launched a COVID-19 vaccination campaign aiming to vaccinate people aged 12 years and above. The Ministry has deployed over 28,000 vaccinators and more than 6.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the campaign, namely, Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson/Janssen, and Pfizer-BioNTech. These vaccines will be used for the campaign together with vaccines that had been deployed earlier.

Volunteers and staff at the Ethiopian Diabetes Association educate patients and their families on the management of diabetes, including demonstrations on how to correctly inject insulin and measure blood glucose, maintain a healthy diet and avoid complications. They also provide crucial emotional and psychosocial support. The Ethiopian Diabetes Association holds annual forums around World Diabetes Day in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and other partners. It also organizes sessions and produces materials for frontline workers, patients and their families on counseling, nutrition, and diabetic footcare following WHO guidelines.

On 22 October 2021, Ethiopia launched a polio vaccination campaign with type 2 novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2) targeting over 17 million under-five children aiming to end the circulation of vaccine-derived poliovirus. The campaign was officially launched by the Ministry of Health and polio partners in Hawassa, Sidama, alongside the commemoration of World Polio Day with the theme, “One Day. One Focus: Ending Polio: Delivering on the promise of a polio-free world”. 

Today, as the world commemorates World Polio Day with the theme, “One Day. One Focus: Ending Polio – delivering on our promise of a polio-free world!”, and Ethiopia launches a nationwide polio vaccination (nOPV2) campaign, we – the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and ROTARY – reaffirm our commitment to continue delivering on our promise of a polio-free world for current and future generations.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Logistics Hub in Dubai delivered 85 metric tons of life-saving medical supplies to Ethiopia, the largest single shipment of humanitarian cargo to date airlifted by the Hub.

On August 5, 2021, the World Health Organization donated three real-time PCR machines to the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) for distribution to Afar, Somali, and Gambella regions to strengthen their COVID-19 testing capacity.

Asmera Seyum is one of the frontline workers in Ethiopia who has been caring for the COVID-19 patients since March 2020, when the first case was detected in the country. She is a senior nurse, and ward coordinator at Eka Kotebe General Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which provides, isolation, admission and intensive care for COVID-19 patients.