WHO supported "Presidential Health Compact" is launched

Presidential Health Compact
The President of South Africa, Mr. Cyril M Ramaphosa, on Thursday 25 July 2019 launched the country’s ‘Presidential Health Compact’. The Compact lays down a five-year roadmap for health systems strengthening reforms under the ‘9 pillars’ towards accelerating Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in South Africa. It originated from months of extensive consultative deliberations between key stakeholders following the Presidential Health Summit in Oct 2018. The Stakeholders comprised government, health and allied health professionals, labour, business community, academics and researchers, statutory bodies, traditional health practitioners and public health entities. WHO provided essential technical advice and support in development of the Presidential Health Compact.

Namibia continues to strengthen its emergency preparedness and response

Participants at the VRAM workshop

WHO is in the process of supporting the Namibian government strengthen its capacity for assessing and analyzing health risks and to integrate the results in its emergency preparedness and response plans. A workshop held in May 2019 to map the country’s vulnerability to all hazards and how these risks will be managed from a multi-sectoral perspective is part of a process which started in 2016 with a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of the International Health regulations in response to an invitation by the Namibian government. 

WHO takes health care closer to internally displaced and conflict-affected population in South Sudan’s Tambura State

Dr Tony visiting the happy mother

“I was called to help a pregnant woman in the IDP camp”, says Dr Tony Tombe, a doctor with the WHO mobile medical team.  “When I reached the camp, a woman was heavily pregnant and visibly in pain and labour.  There was no other skilled person around to attend to her delivery. I rushed her to the nearby Zamoi primary health care unit where we proceeded to safely deliver the baby girl.

Zamoi primary health care unit had been nonfunctional for a long time, upon our arrival with medicines we were able to re-open the facility where she received life-saving care.

Strategies to reverse tobacco usage in Africa in the spotlight

Group photo
Tobacco is one of the leading causes of morbidity worldwide, and with almost a fifth of the people in Africa – about 94 million people - using tobacco products, the World Health Organization, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other partners met recently to discuss strategies aimed at stopping and reversing the trend of tobacco usage in the region.

Ethiopia joins global efforts to end cholera by 2030

Senior Government and UN officials showing their commitment to end cholera by 2030

23 July 2019: Addis Ababa – The responsibility to eliminate cholera in Ethiopia – a country where almost a third of the population has sub-standard water supplies – lies with stakeholders at all levels, from ministries to partners and non-governmental organizations.

This was the message to delegates at a recent high level briefing with sectoral ministries, regional health bureaus, partners and donors on a multi-sectoral approach to eliminating cholera from Ethiopia by 2030.

WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention call on countries in the region to work together on the Ebola response

WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention call on countries in the region to work together on the Ebola response
The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) urge countries in the region to show solidarity with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which is experiencing its worst Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak. The two organizations call on countries in the region to redouble efforts to end the outbreak and build stronger health systems.

Cabo Verde sets the bar for ending mother-to-child transmission of viral hepatitis 

Orisa Brito with her baby Lila and the WHO Cabo Verde DPC, Carolina Leite

“Vaccinating is protecting who you love the most. Everyone should do it,” implores Orisa Brito, a mother of three children living in Praia, the capital of Cabo Verde. Her youngest child, Lila, is a healthy 5-month-old who received a dose of hepatitis B vaccine within hours of her birth and is due for another dose in a month.