Luanda, Angola, July 12, 2023 - The smoking epidemic is one of the greatest public health threats the world has ever faced. Tobacco kills an estimated 8 million people yearly, with 1.2 million of those deaths being non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke.

Luanda, Angola, 11 July 2023 - For more than five years, Angola has been experiencing an increase in meningitis cases, particularly in Huambo province, with a high lethality rate. Between January and May this year alone, 103 patients were reported, of which 42 resulted in death, with an estimated lethality rate of 40.8%.

On 10 July 2023, a partner monitoring field visit was conducted in Eastern Province to assess the progress and impact of the WHO Enhancing National Capacity for Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery and the Health System Surveillance Project funded by the Irish Embassy in Zambia.

The field visit aimed to provide our donors an insight into the project’s implementation and firsthand information on successes made, the challenges and impact of their contribution on strengthening Zambia’s health system surveillance. 

Namibia became a member of the United Nations at Independence in 1990 and has since ratified several Conventions on drug control including the UN Convention against Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988; the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime of 2003; the UN Convention against Corruption of 2004 and the SADC Protocol against Illicit Drug Trafficking of 1996.

^{_{By Vivian Mugarisi}}

Kinshasa – With 117 confirmed cases of circulating variant polioviruses and 107 detections in sampled wastewater so far in the African Region in 2023, the Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) has urged countries and health partners to urgently address gaps in polio immunity to avert outbreaks.

With the money he received from his relatives abroad, Wolli Edris Ahmad (his actual name is changed for privacy reasons) bought a handful of consumable goods and spent most of it buying medicines his family and relatives would need back in the village. 

The following day he would depart from the capital, Addis Ababa, to visit his pastoralist relatives who reside 946 KMs away in Dollo Addo Woreda, Liban Zone of Ethiopia's Somali Region, which shares a long open border with the Federal Republic of Somalia.

Dar es salaam: Emergency responders in Tanzania conducted an After Action Review (AAR) following declaration of the end of Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) outbreak on 2nd June 2023 in the country. The response to MVD managed to control the outbreak within the communities it was initially reported and end it within 90 days.

The ending of the outbreak was achieved through the leadership of the Ministry of health and support from partners.

Zambia like many other countries is leveraging the many opportunities that digital technologies provide to prioritize and improve health service delivery across communities. To help further advance this agenda, the Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with WHO, Ministry of Health and the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health hosted a three-day workshop on enhancing digital health maturity in Zambia.  

Luanda, 7 July 2023 - The WHO African Region has significantly improved Universal Health Coverage since 2000, driven mainly by enhanced interventions addressing infectious conditions. However, this progresses it’s not happening in other crucial areas of health, such as ensuring health security or health in all its determinants, which may undermine aspirations to achieve adequate health service coverage.