Inside this issue:

2 WHO supporting the first round of nationwide polio supplementary immunization activity, 3-6 October 2013

4 WHO Regional Director urged all to fight stigma and discrimination against persons affected by leprosy

5 Independent review identifies progress and challenges of Ethiopia’s tuberculosis control efforts

6 The 63rd WHO Regional Committee for Africa agreed to intensify efforts across the health sector

7 We did it! Ethiopia achieves Millennium Development Goal 4

Banjul, 19 December 2013 -- The Vice President of the Republic of the Gambia and Minister for Women’s Affairs, Dr Ajaratou Isatou Njie-Saidy, has described Dr Thomas Sukwa, out-going WHO Representative to the Gambia, as an effective, committed and flexible leader who has made a mark during his tenure of office.

Brazzaville, 17 December 2013 -- The 19th session of the Joint Action Forum (JAF) -- the governing body of the Ouagadougou-based African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) - has ended in Brazzaville, Congo, with the endorsement of a new entity that will re-place APOC.

APOC’s mandate ends in 2015 and the new entity approved to succeed it will focus on elephantiasis and river blindness elimination, within the context of a wider neglected tropical diseases (NTD) plan.

Ethiopian Orthodox Church Initiates Partnership to Improve Health Services

Addis Ababa, 17 December 2013 -- At an event that brought together the diplomatic community, develop-ment partners, UN agencies, the private sector and the Ethiopian Government on 10 December 2013 at Sher-aton Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOC) presented the Mekelle Debre Amin Abune Teklehaimanot Public Hospital and Medical College project.

A project run by the WHO Malaria Programme with a grant from the Government of Canada seeks to reduce deaths in children under 5 years of age living in remote rural areas.

The idea is to build capacity and equip community volunteers to recognize, diagnose and treat malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia - the 3 top childhood killers. Between 2013 and 2015, more than 7500 community health workers living in a thousand villages across 5 countries in sub-Saharan Africa will be trained to care for 1.2 million children.

Brazzaville, 12 December 2013 -- The 19th session of the Joint Action Forum (JAF), the top governing body of the Ouagadougou-based African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) got under way on Wednesday in Brazzaville, Congo.

Opening the meeting, the Minister of Health and Population of Congo, Mr, Francois Ibovi, expressed gratitude to the World Health Organization (WHO) and other development partners for their support to countries in the Region in their fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

Brazzaville, 10 December 2013 -- Countries in the WHO African Region are to benefit from a $15 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for scaling up and completing mapping for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in 2014.

The mapping exercise aims at identifying infected individuals and at-risk populations in need of intervention measures such as mass drug administration for targeted diseases like elephantiasis, bilharzia, river blindness, intestinal worms and blinding trachoma.

Harare - 10 Dec. 2013 A Regional con-sultation to develop a Regional Action Plan and targets for integrating oral dis-eases into NCDs prevention and control in the African Region was officially opened by Dr David Okello, WHO Repre-sentative and IST/ESA Coordinator in Harare.

Brazzaville, 10 December 2013 -- With the growing shortage of skilled health workers in the African Region, health experts have recognized the need for innovative ways of increasing access to skilled health care. At the end of a two-day Regional Consultation on Task Shifting held at the WHO Regional Office, participants reached a consensus to formalize the implementation of ‘task shifting’ as one way of addressing the health workforce crisis while giving priority to the national strategic plan to scale up skilled health professionals.

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