Ethiopia News

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.  

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. 

Emergency and WASH teams of WHO and UNICEF hold regular meetings to discuss the best way of coordinating the two UN agencies’ support to the Government of Ethiopia’s response to the ongoing acute watery diarrhea (AWD) outbreak in the country.  The most recent get-together took place on 9 March, where existing gaps, past successes and shortfalls were identified and discussed to best devise the way forward.

In the quest to prevent cervical cancer, Ethiopia launched a pilot Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination pilot project in December 2015 targeting adolescent girls in the 9-13 year age group in Oromia and Tigray regions.

In response to the need for access to life-saving surgical care, the World Health Organization's Emergency and Essential Surgical Care rogram has developed and launched the 'Integrated Management for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care'(IMEESC) toolkit via a mobile phone application. The toolkit will make available key resources in obstetric and surgical care literally at users’ fingertips.