Brazzaville – Researchers in Botswana and South Africa have detected new sub-lineages of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 and are carrying out further investigations to fully understand crucial traits such as infectivity and virulence.

World Health Day is observed annually on 7 April, to commemorate the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO).

This year’s event is marked under the theme “Our Planet, Our Health,” and is aimed to raise awareness of the inextricable link between the planet and our health, as the burden of non-communicable and infectious diseases rises alongside the growing incidence of climate-related challenges.

Harare, Zimbabwe – The first global assessment of the burden of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) revealed that nearly 5 million deaths in 2019[1] were associated with drug-resistant infections.

Accra/Brazzaville – Noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are increasingly becoming the main cause of mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, where the diseases were responsible for 37% of deaths in 2019, rising from 24% in 2000 largely due to weaknesses in the implementation of critical control measures including prevention, diagnosis and care. This comes on the eve of a high-level heads of state and health leaders meeting in Ghana to find ways of accelerating progress against noncommunicable diseases.

Abuja, 8 April 2022 - As Nigeria joins the world to commemorate the 2022 World Health Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) and stakeholders call for multisectoral approach towards climate change and other environmental threats to public health in the country. This call came at the Ministerial Press conference organized by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) in collaboration with WHO held on 07 April 2022. 
  

Lilongwe, 8 April 2022- Malawi has received 1.9 million doses of Oral Cholera Vaccine (OCV) from the Global Emergency Stockpile to support the first round of the oral cholera vaccination campaign. With support from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and partners, Malawi is planning to conduct an oral cholera vaccination campaign over the next few weeks.

Op-ed - The effects of climate change are clear and already being felt around the world. Occurrences such as heat and cold waves, floods, droughts, hurricanes, storms, and other extreme weather events have a direct impact on health. They cause injuries, heart attacks, trauma, and infectious diseases.

WHO estimates that more than 13 million deaths around the world each year are caused by avoidable environmental causes. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels kills 13 people every minute from lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

Lilongwe, 7 April 2022- The World Health Organization Malawi Country Office (WCO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health held World Health Day commemoration under the theme ‘Our Planet, Our Health’ at the Ministry of Health headquarters in Lilongwe.

7 April 2022 - Today, The Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) joins the rest of the world to mark World Health Day 2022. This year’s theme “Our planet: Our health” advocates for global attention on urgent actions needed to keep humans and the planet healthy and foster a movement to create societies focused on well-being.