Ethiopia News

Addis Ababa, 12th March 2019. Ethiopia’s National Health Care Quality Strategy for 2016-2020 placed Maternal, Newborn and Child Health as a priority with the ambitious goals to reduce the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) from 412 to 199 per 100,000 live births by 2020; to reduce the neonatal mortality rate (NMR) from 28 to 10 per 1,000 live births by 2020 and reduce stillbirth rate from 18 to 10 per 1000 births by 2020.

African Vaccine Regulatory Forum (AVAREF) was established by WHO in 2006 as a network of National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) and Ethics Committees (ECs) of African countries providing a platform for building regulatory capacity and promoting harmonization of practices in support of oversight of clinical trials in the region. AVAREF has since played a crucial role in the successful development of several vaccines, notably the meningococcal A conjugate vaccine, whose licensure and rollout has dramatically reduced epidemics of meningococcal A meningitis. The capacity of AVAREF has now been broadened beyond vaccines and includes medicines.

Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) had a dialogue on women’s health with a theme “Meeting Women’s Health Needs in Ethiopia; Challenges and Opportunities” in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 15th February 2019. The meeting was organized by the ECA, AU Department for Social Affairs and WHO, in collaboration with Ethiopian Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), the Ethiopian Ministries of Gender and Health, UNDP, UNICEF, UNAIDs, and UNWOMEN.

The First FAO/WHO/AU International Food Safety Conference started today in Addis Ababa in Mandela hall of the African Union Headquarters conference center. This joint conference brought together Ministers of Health, Ministers of Agriculture, leading scientific experts, partner agencies as well as representatives of consumers, food producers and distributors. The conference aimed to identify key actions and strategies to address current and future challenges to food safety globally and to strengthen commitment at the highest political level to scale up food safety in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Addis Ababa 11th Feb. 2019: Ethiopia launched measles vaccine second dose (MCV2) vaccination into the routine immunization programme in the second year of life. The official launching was celebrated at Wolenchity Health Center, Bosete Woreda of Oromia Region on 11th February 2019. The launching event was attended by Government higher officials and representativeness from different stakeholders and partners including Gavi, the Vacine Aliance, the Global Fund, WHO and UNICEF.

Addis Ababa 22 January 2019: United Nations agencies in the premises of Economic Commission for Africa (ECA)  launched today the UN Wellness Week under the theme; “Embraces your health built by you!”.  The launch was kicked off in the morning by a Zumba exercise class that saw UN staff joining in to flex their muscles before heading off to the office.

The Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health, the National TB Program in collaboration with WHO and partners conducted a workshop from December 17 to 18, 2018 to launch a new guideline for reaching missed tuberculosis cases. In her opening remark, Dr Lia Tadesse, State Minister of Health, noted TB is one of the priority diseases closely supported in the Ministry of Health and the MoH continues to work very closely with partners, private sectors, civic societies, universities and other important stakeholders in order to identify missed TB cases, abort TB transmission to familiies, and public as well. Ethiopia is one of the 30 High burden countries for Tuberculosis including Drug resistant Tuberculosis. According to 2018 global TB report, 117,705 TB cases were reported in the country. The TB treatment coverage for Drug sensitive TB is 68%. And only 25% of Estimated RR MDR TB (Rifampicin Resistance and Multi Drug Resistance TB ) cases are detected and treated.

An international training workshop on “Key enabling factors for successful local production and supply of quality-assured medicines” started on Monday 17th Dec. in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. WHO Head Quarter, in collaboration with USP/PQM and NEPAD, organized this three days training workshop that will take place from 17-19, December 2018 with a support by WHO Ethiopia to benefit pharmaceutical manufacturing companies based in the Africa region. 

Federal HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Office (FHAPCO) in collaboration with Oromia Regional Health Bureau commemorated the national 2018 World AIDS DAY (WAD) in Ethiopia on 1st Dec 2018. Dukem town, which is one of the industrial towns of Oromia Regional State, hosted the event under the 2018 WAD theme, “Know Your Status”.