New push to drive up Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination

New push to drive up Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination
One year since the COVAX Facility delivered the first COVID-19 vaccines to Africa, around 400 million doses have been administered – the region’s largest ever vaccine rollout in a single year. However, vaccination rates in the continent are the lowest in the world. To help bolster uptake, World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and partners are supporting mass vaccination campaigns in 10 priority countries to reach 100 million people by the end of April 2022.

WHO provides medical supplies to the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar

The Minister for Health receiving medicines and supplies donated through WHO

23 February 2022, Zanzibar: The World Health Organization in Tanzania handed over to the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar medical equipment and supplies to support national efforts in battling the COVID-19 pandemic and Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Island.

A JOINT GOVERNMENT OF ETHIOPIA AND UNITED NATIONS ETHIOPIA HIGH LEVEL MISSION VISITS DROUGHT AFFECTED COMMUNITIES IN SOMALI AND OROMIA REGIONS

A JOINT GOVERNMENT OF ETHIOPIA AND UNITED NATIONS ETHIOPIA HIGH LEVEL MISSION VISITS DROUGHT AFFECTED COMMUNITIES IN SOMALI AND OROMIA REGIONS

A joint high-level mission led by the Ministries of Health and Agriculture and supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), joined by UNICEF, visited drought-affected woredas (districts) in Somali and Oromia regions on 21 and 22 February 2022 to reaffirm the commitment of the Government and the United Nations in Ethiopia to a robust drought disease outbreaks response.

North East Nigeria - providing essential health intervention in hard-to-reach communities one step at a time

Fatima at the MNCH session in Kwaya-kusar LGA. Photo_credit_ HTR team

Maiduguri, 19 February, 2022 - Relieved and smiling, Hassana Isa recounts the ordeal her daughter (Fatima), had to go through in the past months. Two years old Fatima living in the Kwaya-kusar Local Government Area, with her parents in Borno State was ill and frail, when she was identified malnourished by a team of mobile health care services providers carrying out health intervention in the locality.

WHO supports operational research capacity to boost prevention of antimicrobial resistance in Sierra Leone

A cross section of the research participants and officials from WHO and the Ministry of Health and Sanitation
Twelve national research participants completed the third module of the Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT) to help in combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Sierra Leone. The participants consisting of medical doctors, nurses and other public health professionals representing all sectors across the One Health platform were selected from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS), Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF). SORT IT is a global partnership coordinated by TDR, a Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases or TDR, Co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO.

Malawi declares polio outbreak

Polio vaccination

Brazzaville/Lilongwe – The health authorities in Malawi have declared an outbreak of wild poliovirus type 1 after a case was detected in a young child in the capital Lilongwe. This is the first case of wild poliovirus in Africa in more than five years.

WHO Ethiopia and UNFPA Ethiopia launch training on clinical management of rape for first-line service providers

AWUOR, Ochieng at the training
WHO, in collaboration with UNFPA, Ministry of Health, and Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), has launched training on the clinical management of rape for health care professionals. The training series includes two 5-day training that took place the weeks of 31 January and 7 February 2022 in Addis Ababa aiming to improve the technical capacity of healthcare professionals to provide comprehensive clinical management to survivors of sexual violence and intimate partner violence. A total of 50 healthcare professionals from Addis Ababa, Afar, Amhara, and Oromia regional health bureaus, hospitals, universities, NGOs, and UN agencies were trained at the end of the series. These are health coordinators, medical doctors, clinical officers, midwives, and nurses working in emergencies.