Ethiopia News

Moyale town and surrounding kebeles (a kebele is the smallest unit of local government and can best be regarded as a municipality, a neighbourhood, a localized and delimited group of people or ward) have been affected with Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) since 7 November, 2015.  The Town is the capital of both Moyale-Oromia and Moyale-Somali Woredas (or districts) and they share a border with Kenya. The town has very high population traffic from different regions, without any restriction to movement.

ADDIS ABABA | 7 APRIL – Ethiopia commemorated the 2016 World Health Day under the theme, “Beat diabetes - Integration and decentralization of diabetic care with primary health services” in a series of activities since 05 April 2016  which culminated with mass walk and promotional gathering at Teklehaimanot HC  in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia successfully responded to the Meningitis C outbreak in Gambella, one of the nine national regional states of Ethiopia located in the western part of the country. The outbreak has begun in October 2015 and it has come to an end after 6 - 7 weeks (October 18-Dec, 2015). A total of 13 suspected meningitis cases were detected and of these four cases were found to be confirmed meningococcal meningitis sero-group C cases, from Itang special woredas, kule refugee camp where all affected groups were above five years.

Immunization advocates were part of the first ever Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa (MCIA) that brought many people together including leaders, health and Finance Ministers, technical experts, policymakers, donors and medias.  This article will presents you the voice of few advocates, who have been participated on MCIA, and showed their dedication, commitment and energy to continue promoting immunization in Africa.

The civil society organizations (CSOs) met in Addis for a full day meeting on 23rd of February, 2016 to discuss their role in holding governments accountable to improve vaccine access and coverage in Africa in line with the Global Vaccine Action Plan. Key conclusions from the meeting as well as the CSOs’ declaration on immunization presented at the Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa (MCIA). So far as of march 2016, over 80 organizations endorsed the CSOs’ declaration on immunization to show their commitment to these goals.  

The Ethiopia Ministry of Health planned to conduct a Measles vaccination in a next few weeks in a high risk woredas of Oromia, Amhara, Afar, Somali, Tigray, SNNPR, Harari, Gambella and Benishangul Gumuz regions and Dire Dawa City Administration. The campaign aimed to respond to the measles outbreaks occurred in some localities of the country.

The national level command post decided to integrate measles campaign with the last polio NID with tOPV before the switch to bOPV to use the advantage of operational cost of polio budget and the preparatory activities are underway.

Ethiopia commemorated World Cancer Day under the global theme “We can. I can.” by inaugurating a comprehensive cancer treatment center in Addis Ababa in Woreda Eight Health Center on 6 February 2016. The center is the first ever at woreda (district) level and second in the country Black Lion Specialized Hospital. 

At a landmark Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa held from 24-25 February 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, African ministers of health and other line ministers signed a declaration to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against vaccine-preventable diseases and to close the immunization gap by 2020.

At a lunch meeting organized by GAVI – the Vaccine Alliance on the Unfinished Business of Immunization during the Ordinary General Assembly of the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), immunization partners and OAFLA came together to renew their commitment to complete the “unfinished business with child health in Africa”. 

Dr Matshidiso Moeti visited Ethiopia on 22-26 February 2016 to lead the historic first-ever Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa organized by the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions of the World Health Organization together with the African Union Commission.

Dr Moeti also spoke at the Meningitis Vaccine Project closure conference held ahead of the First Ministerial Conference on Immunization.