Harare, 28 Aug. 2014: This was said by the Honorable Minister of Health and Child Care Dr David Parirenyatwa, in a press conference he held with the WHO Representative for Zimbabwe, Dr  David Okello. 

Accra, 28 August 2014 - The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa has called on countries to avoid taking actions that compromise the efforts to effectively respond to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the sub-region.

Kampala, 28th August 2014:- Uganda’s Minister of Health (MoH), Dr Ruhakana Rugunda has urged health workers to learn from China that has effectively integrated traditional with modern medicine to improve the health of its people.  He recommended this at a 3-days conference on Traditional Medicine (TM) currently going on at Hotel Africana under the theme: “Promoting evidence based use of traditional medicine in the health care system; an opportunity for improving equity in health care”. 

A team of Ugandan doctors and health workers are deployed by WHO to provide medical support for an Ebola treatment centre in Monrovia, Liberia. This team comes with vast experience in managing Ebola outbreaks, having faced many cases of this disease since 2000. They work shifts alongside their Liberian colleagues to provide around the clock care and to help maintain strict infection control measures.

LUSAKA, 27th August 2014 - The Ebola outbreak in West Africa and in the Democratic Republic of Congo constitutes an “extraordinary event” and a public health risk to other states. The WHO Country Office donated a consignment of assorted supplies to the Ministry of Health to strengthen the national preparedness in case of an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country.

Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, August 26, 2014 – The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa has received a $60-million grant by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support on-going efforts to stop the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

Kaduna, 25th August, 2014 - Nigeria's stride towards Polio eradication quickened recently as a result of targeted activities in reaching children hitherto underserved with polio vaccine at key inter-state borders in Northern Nigeria. In concert with five other polio high-risk states, polio teams from six (6) border LGAs visited 168 border settlements immunized 26,749  children with Oral Polio Vaccine in Kaduna State alone, during the August, 2014 campaign.

Intense surveillance in Kambia, Sierra Leone, has revealed around 75% of deaths have been occurring in children under 5. Even though Ebola transmission was halted in Kambia last month, mothers still are afraid of Ebola and don’t take their young children to health centres. WHO epidemiologists are countering misperceptions to get mothers and their children back to the health centres and lower childhood mortality rates.

20 August 2014 -- “Take away the fear, don’t hide yourself. People can still survive from Ebola,” are the lyrics of the Ebola Rap, a song written by Charles Yegba, a Liberian artist seeking to raise awareness about the virus in his community. Charles, leader of the AFROCO music group, is recording his song and creating a video to disseminate his message across Liberia, one of the west African countries severely affected by the Ebola virus disease outbreak.