WHO identifies avenues for Digital Health Technologies in Africa
South Sudan implements the second round of Oral Cholera Vaccination to enhance outbreak response efforts in high risk locations
Juba, 14 December 2017: Cholera in South Sudan remains an important public health problem which has affected 21 571 people and resulted in 462 deaths since the onset of the outbreak on 18 June 2016. This has been the longest and largest outbreak in magnitude and geographical extent, its impact exacerbated by the protracted crisis, insecurity, displacements and declining access to safe drinking water and sanitation.
Amid protracted and widespread violence, WHO partners with National NGOs to improve immunization coverage and save the lives of women and children in South Sudan
Juba, 15 December 2017: The World Health Organization (WHO) is expanding on its partners’ engagement mechanisms to address critical barriers in reaching vulnerable persons including women and children with life-saving interventions in besieged and hard-to-reach areas, where access and restrictions on movement severely hinder the ability of populations to get health services.
Saving lives through streamlined emergency care
FREETOWN, December 15 2017 --- In 2017, a new programme was introduced in regional and district hospitals in Sierra Leone, to accelerate and strengthen emergency treatment for severely sick children. Supported by UK aid, WHO and partners, the Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment Programme (ETAT+) has already shown extremely promising results, including significant reductions in mortality.
WHO spearheads provision of mental health services in primary healthcare facilities
Maiduguri, 15 December 2017 - For the first time since insurgency stymied healthcare services in the North-east, the affected population now have access to mental health services at primary health care (PHC) facilities in Borno state. To date, more than 2000 clients have been referred to the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Maiduguri, the state capital for further care, while 19 were admitted for in-patient management.
The Stop Transmission of Polio (STOP) program contributes to sustain Polio eradication in South Sudan
14 December, 2017, Juba: South Sudan has been polio-free since June 2009. However, it is still considered at risk for polio outbreak due to insecurity, population movements, along with recent polio outbreaks in the neighbouring countries.
In order to sustain the polio free status, reaching every child with life-saving polio vaccines, and strengthening acute flaccid paralysis surveillance remain core interventions.
WHO Ethiopia donated six vehicles to Ministry of Health
South Sudan adopts a new strategy to reduce deaths from cholera by 90 percent by 2030
Juba 11 December 2017: In South Sudan, cholera continues to hit communities already made vulnerable by disasters such as conflict and hunger catastrophe.
In 2017, South Sudan braced the most protracted and biggest cholera outbreak. The outbreak was first detected in July 2016 and since then over 21 000 cholera cases and 462 deaths (CFR 2.14%) have been reported from 27 Counties countrywide.
South Sudan is getting closer to becoming free from Guinea-worm disease
Juba, 11 December 2017: With the aim to achieve the target of zero transmission, the South Sudan Guinea Worm Eradication Programme (SSGWEP) was established in 2006 with 20 581 cases reported from 3 320 endemic villages. In November 2017, the country celebrated its first full year with no indigenous cases of the disease.
‘A terrible itching, blister formation and emergence of a long worm are the first signs and symptom of Guinea worm disease,’ says Mr Evans Liyosi, WHO Representative a.i. for South Sudan.
