Banjul, 25 April 2016 - After intensive preparations, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF and other partners has officially launched the much awaited seven-day nationwide measles –rubella vaccination, which ends on Monday, 1st May 2016.

The campaign, which is integrated with vitamin A supplementation and de-worming, is the first of its kind conducted in the Gambia as echoed by WHO and MoHSW officials at a recent press briefing held be-fore the official launch.

Abuja, 25 April 2016 - Given the dire need for quality and sustainable health care in the IDP camps and hosting communities for children under five years, the Federal and State Ministries of Health, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (SPHCDA) and partners including the World Health Organization (WHO) agreed to build capacity of community resource persons living in the IDPs camps and host communities, with the support from USAID/Nigeria grant. 

Monrovia 23rd April - The Ministry of Health Liberia embraced the move to switch from the use of trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine bOPV in its routine immunization schedule. This initiative to withdraw type 2 component of tOPV is part of the global polio eradication endgame strategy for 2013-2018.

All of Liberia’s 15 counties successfully implemented the national SWITCH day on April, 22nd, 2016. This historical milestone comes three days before the regional launch of the African Vaccination Week in Ganta, Nimba County on 25th April.

Brazzaville, 22 April 2016 – As the world gets closer to global polio eradication, all 47 countries in the African Region are joining the rest of the world to switch from trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) in routine immunization schedules.

Abuja, 22 April 2016 - Nigeria has successfully conducted the ‘switch’ from using trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) in the routine immunization programme. The switch is pursuant to the end game strategy following the global certification of eradication of Type 2 polio virus in 2015.

Samara, 20 April 2016 – The WHO Ethiopia Country Office (WCO Ethiopia) at the request of the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health conducted training on Early Warning Alert and Response System (EWARS) for the Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) focal persons at health center and district level.

Accra, Ghana - A two-day meeting for the Neglected Tropical Disease Regional Programme Review Group (NTD-RPRG) on Preventive Chemotherapy Accra, Ghana (18-19 April 2016) was held in Accra, Ghana.

The purpose of the meeting was to advise the Regional NTD programme on country NTD plans, interventions and results for scaling up/down large scale preventive chemotherapy and evaluating impact of programmes towards the 2020 goals. 

A 3-day workshop to review and finalize the All Hazard Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan was held in the Veta Conference Hall in Dodoma from 18thApril 2016 to 20thApril 2016. This workshop which was organized by the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MOHCDGEC) brought together participants from the Emergency Preparedness and Response Section (EPRS) of the MOHCDGEC, WHO, CDC, Ministry of Home Affairs, Academic Institution and the Private Sector.

Abuja, 20 April 2016 - Indications are rife that the immunity gaps identified in 70 local government areas (LGAs) located in 11 southern states of Nigeria will soon be reduced. The optimism follows the implementation of Short Interval Additional Doses (SIAD) strategy in the affected states which culminated in the vaccination of over six (6) million children with the last batch of trivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (tOPV) on the eve of the global switch to bivalent OPV.

Accra, 20 April 2016 – The Ministry of Health and WHO with support from Sanofi Espoir Foundation conducted a national review of the Fight Against Epilepsy Initiative, WHO Pilot Programme on Reducing Epilepsy Treatment Gap was conducted on 19 April 2016. The review was intended to take an in-depth look at the performance of the programme over the past 4 years (2012 to 2015) within the context of the large numbers of epilepsy cases (270 000) and a treatment gap estimated at 85% and agree on areas of scale up.