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South Africa’s Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, announced yesterday that the country has 727 laboratory-confirmed cases that occurred between January 2017 and 5 January 2018. He made this announcement at a national media conference accompanied by Prof Lucille Blumberg, Specialist Microbiologist, and Dr Juno Thomas, Head of the Centre for Enteric Diseases, both of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD); Dr Rufaro Chatora, Country Representative from the World Health Organization; Mr Mooketsa Ramasodi, Acting Director General for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF); and Ms Tiny Rennie, Acting Director-General of the Department of Health.

The Hexavalent Vaccine, a six-in-one vaccine protecting babies against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), poliomyelitis, Haemophilus influenza type B and hepatitis B was launched on 09 January 2017 at Dr M. Hyderkhan Mediclinic in Plaine Verte, Mauritius, in the presence of the Minister of Health and Quality of Life, Dr Anwar Husnoo, the Minister of Gender Equality, Child Development and Family Welfare, Mrs Roubina Jadoo-Jaunbocus, Dr Laurent Musango, WHO Representative in Mauritius and other eminent staff of the Ministry of Health and Quality of Life.

The Director-General of WHO has outlined his vision for a Madagascar free of plague epidemics during a three-day visit to the island nation that started on 7 January 2018.

The WHO Country Representative in South Africa, Dr Rufaro Chatora, called on the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) to voice its support of and promote the Country’s proposed National Health Insurance (NHI). Dr Chatora was addressing the opening plenary of the PHASA’s 13th Annual Conference that took place in Johannesburg, South Africa. “I scan media every day and I hear Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, lone voice promoting NHI. However, there is almost nothing from PHASA”.

Many health systems rely on health programmes to target interventions for specific diseases or populations. These programs can be effective while operating largely autonomously from one another in seeking to optimize the achievement of one or more specific objectives. This organizational approach, however, can also constrain the evolution of the health system in its ability to adapt to changing morbidity patterns, technological advances, among other issues. Many countries are now moving away from this vertical organizational approach towards more coordinated and integrated systems.