Emergency cholera vaccination campaign kicks off in Sierra Leone

Children and adults are receiving the vaccine across disaster-affected areas

FREETOWN, 15 September 2017 – Sierra Leone’s first ever Oral Cholera Vaccination (OCV) campaign kicked off today, September 15th 2017. The emergency campaign targets communities affected by Western Area’s severe floods and landslides, which left over 6,000 people displaced and caused over 500 confirmed deaths.

WHO scales-up accountability processes as workshop on Key Performance Indicators integration opens in Abuja

WR (middle) with facilitators, KPI coordinators and focal persons from Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Nigeria

Abuja, 14 September 2017-In a bid to fast-track attainment of World Health Organization (WHO) accountability processes as enshrined in the Transformation Agenda of the African Region, a 5-day (11-15 September, 2017) workshop on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) integration  is underway in Abuja with the objective of  entrenching measurable actions to evaluate impact of the intervention.

Uganda conducts preventative Polio immunization campaign

WHO Staff Dr. Tenywa immunizes a child at Namutumba Health Center III

The Ministry of Health with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) conducted a three-day preventative house-to-house polio immunization campaign reaching 5,570,000 children below the age of five in the 73 selected high-risk districts in Uganda. 

Mental health is a critical component in disaster response and recovery

Mental Health Nurses engaging a community member affected by the mudslides disaster

FREETOWN, September 13th 2017 - Sia Twiyor* survived the 14 August mudslides but lost 16 members of her family in the disaster including her husband, brothers and sisters. Some of them had come to spend the school holidays with her. Sia is now struggling to cope and has suffered countless sleepless nights since the incident occurred.

Nigeria collaborates with journalists on high quality measles vaccination campaign.

L-R Dr Fiona Braka of WHO, Dr Alemu and Dr Shuib at the Press briefing in Abuja

Abuja, 12 September 2017-As part of preparations towards a high quality exercise, a press briefing heralding the implementation of a national measles campaign in Nigeria was conducted on 11 September 2017 at the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) Headquarters in Abuja to ensure that every eligible child is reached to mitigate the disease burden.

Nigeria along with other countries in the African region has embarked on a goal of measles elimination. However, in 2016 alone, Nigeria witnessed 183 measles outbreaks affecting 158 local government areas (LGAs).

Botswana embarks on a joint review of five health programmes!

One of the Joint TB and HIV Review teams interviewing Dr Seipone, the Director of Health Services

The Government of Botswana, with technical support from WHO has embarked on a two week joint review of five health programmes, namely, Community and Home Based Care (CHBC), Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI), Tuberculosis (TB) and a situational analysis on Viral Hepatitis Prevention and Control. This is the first ever joint review of this magnitude in the African Region.

One year into emergency response, WHO evaluates operations in Northeastern Nigeria.

Dr Alemu during field visit to access humanitarian response in Borno state

One year after the internal declaration of Grade 3 emergency on the northeastern Nigeria, the World Health Organization (WHO) is conducting a comprehensive review of its humanitarian response to address health needs of nearly six million people. WHO declared the Grade 3 humanitarian crisis in Northeastern Nigeria in August 2016 in accordance with standard Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) criteria to reduce avoidable mortality and morbidity through provision of life saving essential health services in the affected region. 

WHO supports Government of Uganda to develop a National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS)

Participants in a group discussion

The Ministry of Health with support from World Health Organization (WHO) convened a five-day meeting to develop a National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) for Uganda.  The development of the NAPHS comes after a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of Uganda’s readiness to readiness to respond to public health emergencies, which was done in May 2017 by WHO and other partners.

Zimbabwe successfully hosts RC 67

WCO Group photo with DG
Zimbabwe played host to the 67th Regional Committee Meeting (RC67) of the WHO African Region from 25th Aug.—1st September. The meeting, which was held at Elephant Hills Hotel in the resort town of Victoria Falls, was de-scribed by many participants as “one of the best RCs,” and “highly successful.” Victoria Falls town is home to the “Victoria Falls” also known as "Mosi oa-Tunya" ("the smoke that thunders") which is positioned almost exactly half way along the mighty Zambezi River's 2700 km journey from it's source to the sea. Here the river plunges headlong into a 100m vertical chasm spanning the full one-and-a-half kilometre width of the river creating the biggest curtain of falling water in the world and also one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Par-ticipants to the meeting enjoyed visits to the falls and the rainforest.

Integrated Measles and EOS campaign protects 2.6 million children in Ethiopia’s Somali Region

A child after geting Measles vaccination at Aroreys woreda of Ethiopia Somali regio
Measles is a highly infectious vaccine-preventable disease. While children that are not immunized are at risk, those that are also malnourished or are already affected by other diseases are especially susceptible to it. Children in countries and districts where there is an ongoing emergency such as the current drought which has led to water scarcity and food insecurity in the Horn of Africa are therefore more at risk of contracting the virus and developing complications that often lead to disability and even death.