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Senegal today reported its first case of COVID-19, becoming the fourth country in Africa to confirm the virus. The patient is a French national and a resident of Senegal who returned to Dakar on 26 February.

In November 2019, a health care associated Lassa Fever infection in Tonkolili District led to the onset of cases of the disease and death including healthcare workers. The event occurred when two patients presented at the Masanga Hospital with fever and other complications and were treated for their conditions but subsequently died. The cause of their deaths proved to be Lassa Fever, which later spread to three other people including healthcare workers with one additional death

Dr Temidayo Fawole may have been at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville this week to attend training on the management and treatment of COVID-19 patients, but home – Nigeria – was never far from her thoughts.

Sierra Leone has commenced the process of developing a National School Health Policy and Strategy to create a safe, healthy school environment for learning with the aim to improve social inclusion and sustainable human capital development. The process is being coordinated by an interministerial core group led by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The World Health Organization in collaboration with other United Nations agencies are providing strategic technical assistance to the government for the development of these national documents with funding from the British Government through DFID.

Guinean anthropologist, David Niabalamou is so passionate about his job engaging with communities affected by Ebola that he’s learned two new languages in twelve months, earning him the affectionate nickname, David the Local, from colleagues. Having worked on the Ebola response in his native Guinea from 2014 to 2016, Niabalamou was keenly aware that language is key to earning people’s trust.