Ghana has made tremendous progress towards the development of a National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS), following the completion of a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) process.
The JEE, which is a critical component of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, was conducted last year as a voluntary, multi-sectoral process to assess the country’s capacity to  prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to public health risks irrespective  of their origin.

6 July 2018

Dr Bijoux Sambu Fiti is part of the surveillance team working in Itipo, a small community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has been battling Ebola since May. Her job is to go deep into the forest around Itipo to seek out sick people in Batwa villages potentially suffering from undiagnosed cases of Ebola. The Batwa, which is the plural term for Twa people, are hunter-gatherers living primarily off the forest.

Monrovia, 26 June 2018: The Ministry of Health (MOH), WHO, Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) and other partners joined the rest of the global community in commemorating World Drug Day.

Gaborone, Botswana - 06 July 2018: As part of ensuring the effectiveness of delivering services in Botswana, the World Health Organisation country office has undertaken a workshop to heed the clarion call by the Regional Director, Dr Matshediso Moeti, to actively mobilize resources. This came in the wake of the need for resources being availed via the regional office not being sufficient to meeting the operations and effectively supporting the country office in critical areas of need.

Juba 2 July, 2018 – In South Sudan, it is estimated that 7.1 million people are food insecure; and it is expected that more than one million under five years to be suffering from acute malnutrition in 2018. 
 

According to the UNICEF/WHO Countdown Report 2017, among children aged 6 – 59 months, 31% are stunted, and 28% are wasted. Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates vary seasonally and substantially across states; with peaks of up to 30 % in some locations. 

Abuja, 4 July 2018 - The World Health Organization (WHO) has significantly increased support to the Government of Nigeria towards elimination of five of the over 20 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) endemic in the country due to her tropical nature.

This is in support of the country’s NTD roadmap developed in 2012, which prioritizes three diseases for control, five for elimination and two for eradication.

Dr Namadi Lawal is a surveillance officer with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). For years, the agency depended on paper-based methods for surveillance and monitoring of disease outbreaks. 

The WHO Country Office in collaboration with the Ministry of Health convened a meeting to engage parliamentarians in a discussion on how they could support and contribute to the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO/FCTC). The meeting which took place on 27 June 2018 at parliament buildings in Lusaka was intended to raise awareness on the WHO/ FCTC and the WHO/ FCTC 2030 project including Zambia’s obligation to align its domestic tobacco control legislation with the requirements of the treaty.

Kampala 3 July 2018: The World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) donated an assortment of medical equipment worth $257,000 to the Ministry of Health (MoH) to improve Maternal and Child Health (MCH) services in Iganga and Kamuli districts in Uganda.

The equipment donated includes 4 neonatal incubators, 14 pulse oxymeters, 34 examination beds, 76 medical trolleys, 80 normal delivery sets, and 82 pediatric hospital mattresses.