Ethiopia News

The external assessment team that conducted the final Polio outbreak assessment in Ethiopia on 8-12 June 2015 confirmed that Ethiopia has successfully interrupted polio transmission. This encouraging conclusion was received nearly two years after the outbreak was confirmed in the Horn of Africa and outbreak activities initiated to respond to and interrupt Polio transmission.

The rainy season brings with it the promise of better harvest, greener plains and valleys and abundance of feeds for cattle to produce highly nutritious milk and meat products. It also at the same time poses health threats in the form of possible disease outbreaks like Malaria and Acute Watery Diarrhea that could result from poodles of stagnant water, poor sanitary and hygiene conditions and impending floods. This is particularly true for the South Sudanese refugees and the surrounding host communities in Gambella.

2 JUN 2015 | ADDIS ABABA - A national stakeholder’s workshop was held today to validate the National Strategy and Plan of Action for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Development in Ethiopia.

As part of its commitment to provide technical support to Ethiopia’s efforts to ensure the health of its people, the WHO Ethiopia Country Office engages in supportive supervision of research and health intervention across the country. On 7-9 May 2015, a WHO delegation led by Dr Pierre M’pele, WHO Representative, was on mission in Lalibela of Amhara Region in northern Ethiopia for supportive supervision of the ongoing non-communicable diseases (NCD) STEPs Survey. 

The UN Global Road Safety Week, commemorated in Addis Ababa with the theme, Save Kids’ Lives (#SaveKidsLives) brings students and teachers of schools with high risk for road accidents due to proximity to heavy road traffic together with officials from the Ministries of Health and Transport, the Addis Ababa Bureaus of Education, Health and Transport and the Federal and Addis Ababa Traffic Police as well as WHO for a dialogue on saving children’s lives from road accidents.

The Government of Ethiopia announced the achievement of the MDG 7c target on access to drinking water supply on 23 March 2015. Today, over 52 million people in Ethiopia have access to clean and safe water, compared to only 6 million people in 1990. This achievement was confirmed after the WHO/UNICEF Global Joint Monitoring Programme for Water and Sanitation (JMP) mission to Ethiopia in November 2014. 

The last week of April each year is marked by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners as World Immunization Week. It aims to raise public awareness of how immunization saves lives, encouraging people everywhere to vaccinate themselves and their children against deadly diseases. This year, World Immunization Weekwas observed on 24-30 April with the message, “Close the Immunization Gap”. As part of the week-long event, the African Vaccination Week was held with the theme, “Vaccination: a gift for life”. 

The eighth World Malaria Day was celebrated for the eighth time on 25 April 2015 in Hawassa, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) in a colorful event that called for renewed commitment and increased investment towards Malaria control and elimination. The message of this year’s World Malaria Day is, “Invest in the Future.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have a longstanding and strong partnership in Africa, consisting of technical and financial collaboration. To enhance their strategic cooperation on HIV/AIDS, WHO and CDC conducted a multi-country grant implementation and strategic review meeting on 9-11 March 2015 in Addis Ababa. CDC and WHO staff from Headquarters and Regional Offices, as well as the country offices of Cameroon, Ethiopia, Namibia, South Africa and Uganda, took part in the meeting.

The World Health Organization’s Ethiopia Country Office hosted the WHO Consultative Bi-Regional Meeting on the Status of The Implementation of Visceral Leishmaniasis Control Strategies and Epidemiological Situations in Eastern Africa that was organized and facilitated by WHO Headquarters.