Leaders from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United Nations Special Envoy on Malaria, and World Health Organization, Travel to Tanzania and Uganda.

Kigali, 10 August 2009 -- Rwanda has hosted from the 10th to the 14th August 2009, a workshop on Laboratory‐Based Assessment and Surveillance of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis organized by the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Africa in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. This workshop has been attended by 11 African countries as follows: Chad, Burundi, Liberia, Congo. 

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7 August 2009 | ABUJA -- In a ceremony held on August 7, 2009, Dr Peter Eriki, the WHO representative in Nigeria, formally handed over a consignment of anti-TB drugs to the Hon. Minister of Health, Prof Babatunde Osotimehin. The drugs, a donation to Nigeria from the Global Drug Facility (GDF) worth $ 1,75 million dollars, will cover the treatment of over 30,000 TB patients, including children.

5 August 2009 -- The World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Dr Luis Gomes Sambo was in Gaborone, Botswana on an official visit to the Champions for HIV-Free Generation.

The aim of the visit was to further strengthen collaboration between the two organizations towards the acceleration of HIV prevention in the African region.

Dr Sambo held discussions with the Chairperson of the Champions for an HIV-Free Generation and former President of Botswana, His Excellency Festus Gontebanye Mogae.

Lusaka, 30 July 2009 -- The Ministry of Health and partners today launched the National programme on male circumcision and the National Male Circumcision Strategy and Implementation Plan 2010 - 2020 at a ceremony which was officiated by the Deputy Minister of Health Hon. Mwendoi Akakandelwa.

Timely and expanded access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Namibia is showing benefits for HIV-positive people, according to Dr Kevin De Cock, who visited Katutura State Hospital in Windhoek, Namibia, during his tenure as the Director of the WHO HIV/AIDS Department.

Harare, 28 July 2009 --  The Honourable Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Henry Madzorera stated that immunization is safe for all Zimbabwean children in a press conference he held with local and international media. This follows some media reports in the days following the National Immunization Days that some children were falling sick after immunization.

Abidjan, 23 July 2009 -- The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis G. Sambo had an audience with the Ivorian Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Dr Allah Kouadio Rémi, at the Minister’s residence in Toumodi, about 220 kilometers north of the capital - Abidjan. He was accompanied by the WHO Representative in Côte d’Ivoire, Dr Etienne Komla Siamevi and some members of staff of the WHO Country Office. The Prefect of Toumodi was also present at the event.

Treatment of tuberculosis involves taking tablets daily for at least six months. TB patients must take all their medications as prescribed, failing which they may not recover and dangerous drug-resistant TB strains may develop. That is why it is considered ideal for TB patients to come to a treatment facility to take their tablets in the presence of a health worker -- at least in the early, intensive phase of the treatment.

The World Health Organization (WHO) organized in Kigali, Rwanda, from the 15th to the 16th of April 2008, a meeting of the WHO Representatives of the Eight Pilot Countries on the United Nations Reform. Those countries are: Albania, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uruguay and Vietnam. The Headquarters delegation was led by Mr. Denis AITKEN, Director-General’s Representative with the participation of the Representative of the Regional Director for Africa.