The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOH&SW) in the Gambia in collaboration with WHO and MRC joined the rest of the international Community to commemorate World Tuberculosis Day (WTBD) on the 24th March. The theme for this year was “Unite to End TB”.

As part of activities to mark this important day a Press briefing was organized for the media fraternity and attended by partners. The event was hosted by the National Leprosy and TB office in Kanifing. 

Abuja, 24 March 2016 - Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate the World Tuberculosis Day on 24 March 2016. The theme for this year’s celebration is “Unite to End TB” in consonance with the global focus to sensitize governments and stakeholders on the huge gap of undetected tuberculosis (TB) cases globally. The overriding objective aims to encourage programmes to implement active case finding activities “to find and treat” missing cases of the disease.

On 24 March 2016, Malawi joined the rest of the world in commemorating 2016 World TB Day whose theme is ‘Unite to End TB.’ The national launch took place on 24 March at Manica ground, in Balaka. Speaking to the audience the Honorable Minister of Health and guest of honor, Dr Peter Kumpalume, MP, acknowledged receipt of financial support from Global Fund. “We know that TB is a major public health problem but it is inexcusable that anyone should die of TB today because we know that it can be detected and cured for less than $100. The resources are now available.

2016 marks the beginning of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) era. Ethiopia is making progress in tackling tuberculosis (TB), the leading infectious disease killer along with HIV.

Maiduguri, 23 March 2016 - The Governors of the three (3) security compromised states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe in the north east zone have reaffirmed their commitment to building resilience towards certification of  polio eradication in 2017 and beyond, through conscious efforts of strengthening routine immunization (RI) and investing more resources towards  the delivery of primary healthcare.

World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has re-iterated his appeal to Member States to work with all stakeholders in order to ensure maximum coverage of the region with appropriate strategies to prevent and control tuberculosis (TB).

"TB is curable and medicines are available with support of WHO and partners. It is therefore unacceptable that anyone should still be dying of TB today", Dr Sambo said in his message released in Brazzaville on the occasion of World TB to be observed on 24 March.

Abuja, 22 March 2016 -  In a bid to stem the resurgence of polio virus and stop importation of vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs), Nigeria is coordinating a comprehensive strategy with stakeholders in Cameroon, Niger and Benin Republics during the on-going National Immunization Plus Days (NIPDs) to provide services in border communities. The second round of the 2016 NIPDs is being implemented in 34 states from 19 to 22 March, 2016. The campaign was postponed in the Federal Capital Territory, Nassarawa, Adamawa and Rivers States to late March and early April.

Luanda, 23 March 2016 – Two months after the first yellow fever cases were confirmed in the Viana municipality, Luanda province, the Angolan authorities and health partners involved in the outbreak response are facing new challenges with reports of local transmissions in other Provinces of the country. In spite of all the efforts made since 21 January 2016, ten out of the eighteen provinces in Angola continue reporting yellow fever cases with a a total of 459 confirmed cases and 178 deaths to date.

Yei Town, 22 March 2016 - South Sudan’s largest ever immunization  campaign was launched  by the Minister of Health, Dr Riek Gai Kok amidst large crowd of youths in the presence of the State Governor, Parliamentarians, government sectors and cross-section of stakeholders including religious and community leaders and partners in Yei River State.

Juba, 19 March 2016 - WHO country office held a three-day workshop for state focal points from 17 to 19 March 2016 at Juba Regency Hotel.

The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the capacity of WHO state focal points and Health Cluster Coordinators to develop substantive knowledge in the overall WHO technical outputs as well as Coordination related skills that will improve the performance of WHO and Health Cluster operations in South Sudan in line with the smart technical focus of the WHO/AFRO Transformation Agenda.