23 September 2016 | Geneva | New Delhi | Beijing − The World Health Organization (WHO) is piloting new approaches to overturn the “slow decline” of new leprosy cases almost 16 years after the disease was “eliminated as a global public health problem”. These new approaches, part of WHO’s Global Leprosy Strategy 2016–2020, aim to reinvigorate control efforts and avert disabilities, especially among children affected by the disease in endemic countries.

First AVAREF TCC and SC Meetings, held in Kigali, Rwanda, 20–23 September 2016

23 September 2016 – Six candidates have been proposed by WHO Member States for the post of the Organization’s next Director-General. The Director-General is WHO’s chief technical and administrative officer, overseeing the Organization’s international health work.

September 2016 - The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in Uganda hosted the inaugural Malaria Surveillance, Monitoring, & Evaluation – Operational Research (SM&E-OR) Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting.

Lusaka,  21 September 2016 - In its continued efforts to improve child health and survival, the Ministry of Health introduced the Measles Rubella vaccine (MR) in the national routine immunisation system. The vaccine is being introduced through the nationwide preventive vaccination campaign targeting a total of 6,926,757 children aged 9 months to under 15 years. The vaccination campaign runs from 19th to 24th September 2016 and covers a total of 103 districts in all the 10 provinces in the country.

Abuja, 21 September 2016 - The scope of the second polio outbreak response (OBR) to the recently detected wild polio virus type 1 (WPV1) in Borno State has been expanded and different strategies employed to reach eligible children in Nigeria. The immunization campaign which commenced on 17 September, 2016 is targeting 31,540,054 children in 18 states across northern Nigeria.

20 September 2016, NEW YORK - The Presidents of France and South Africa today called for urgent investments globally to create new jobs in the health sector in order to prevent a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers primarily in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and help countries to maximize the social and economic benefits of increased heal

The World Health Organization (WHO) trained health workers in surveillance for Invasive Bacterial Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (IB-VPD). The trainers included Professor Mary Slack, WHO Consultant, Ms Jill Murray, WHO Consultant, Mr. Reggis Katsande and Mr. Sarathiel Chaipa, AFRO Regional Office, Harare.  This is under the WHO-supported programme of surveillance for IB-VPD, a hospital-based sentinel surveillance network that seeks to gather high quality standardized data on severe invasive infections caused by selected pathogens.

Monrovia, 16 September, 2016 - The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Health with support from partners launched the 4th National Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS) intended to determine the progress made in reducing the burden of malaria since 2011. The survey will also provide data on key malaria indicators, including mosquito net ownership and use as well as prompt and effective treatment with Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACT), and prevalence of malaria among children under five.  

The Ministry of Health and Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) with support from WHO and UNICEF convened a three day training at Paradise Hotel on the Nile, Jinja to adopt the tools, norms, standards and guidance for medical certification of cause of death, International Classification of Disease (ICD) coding and reporting of deaths in order to improve the quality and coverage of mortality statistics in Uganda.