Hawassa, Ethiopia | July 2026 – The Ethiopian Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and with support from Irish Aid, has launched a Case management followed by  National Training of Trainers (ToT) on the revised WHO 2025 Training Package for the Inpatient Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM), marking an important step towards the revision of the national training package towards improving the quality of  care for children with severe wasting and related medical complications.

Ghana has strengthened its readiness to respond to future public health emergencies through its participation in Exercise Polaris II, a global pandemic simulation exercise involving 26 countries across all six World Health Organization (WHO) regions.

Experts from across Africa have taken a significant step towards shaping how emerging genetic technologies could be safely and responsibly used to tackle some of the continent’s most pressing public health challenges.

Pemba Island, Zanzibar –  The Ministry of Health, Zanzibar, in collaboration with the Public Health Laboratory Ivo de Carneri (PHL-IdC), a WHO Collaborating Centre, and with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), officially launched the fourth annual Pemba Summer School on Control and Data Analysis of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

Bissau— The Minister of Public Health of Guinea-Bissau officially declared the confirmation of one mpox case in the country during a press conference held in the presence of the World Health Organization (WHO) Representative.

Laboratory confirmation was carried out by the Laboratory of the National Institute of Public Health (INASA) and submitted for external quality control to the Department of Virology of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, which confirmed the same result. The genotyping process is ongoing.

Emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, climate-related health threats, demographic shifts, noncommunicable diseases, shrinking fiscal space and rapidly evolving technologies are reshaping health systems around the world. In this increasingly complex environment, intuition, tradition and experience alone are no longer enough.

The Government of The Gambia, through the Ministry of Health and the Directorate of Health Research, has made significant strides towards strengthening national health research systems with the successful validation of a National Health Research Governance Framework.

This milestone is the result of a structured, inclusive process supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), bringing together key stakeholders across government institutions, research bodies, academia, development partners and opinion leaders in the field.

Brazzaville—Dorothée Bendza, a health control officer, has been deployed at Brazzaville Beach since the declaration of the Ebola disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). From 8:00 to 16:00, she and her colleague screen passengers. Both are equipped with an infrared thermometer and hand sanitizer. They are on the frontline as travellers arrive from Kinshasa, along one of the busiest routes between the two capitals. “When passengers arrive, we ask them to wash their hands or provide them with hand sanitizer. Then we take their temperature,” she explains. 

Following the ongoing outbreak of Bundibugyo Virus Disease (BVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with reported cross-border transmission into neighbouring Uganda, countries across the African Region have intensified preparedness and response measures to reduce the risk of further spread. Recognizing the significant public health implications of the outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 17 May 2026.

Kampala—The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), together with the Ministry of Health of Uganda and partners, have officially launched a centralized coordination platform to strengthen Africa's capacity to prepare for, coordinate and respond to public health emergencies.