About this Special issue

This is a special edition of WHO Ethiopia Country office focusing on the celebration of the World Health Day on the 7th of April 2013 in Addis Ababa. The event was observed under the theme “Prevent Non-communicable diseases– reduce risk factors through lifestyle changes”.

Ethiopia - Newsletter - Bulletin No .03 –11, April 2013

Maputo 10 April 2013 - The Mozambican Ministry of Health, introduced on 10 April 2013 the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 10 (PCV-10) into the national immunization program. The launch of the PCV-10 took place in Boane District and was chaired by the Minister of Health, Dr. Alexandre Manguele, who also gave the first vaccine.

The introduction of the PCV-10 was organized collaboration with the WHO, UNICEF, GAVI, USAID, Save the Children, VillageReach, Fundação para Desenvolvimento da Comunidade (FDC), and other partners.

Kampala, 16th April 2013 -- Uganda formally commemorated World Health Day 2013 with a national function held in Budaka district, Eastern Uganda. The commemoration under the theme “High Blood Pressure: A silent killer” was presided over by the Minister of Health Dr Christine Ondoa.

Lesotho commemorated World Health Day on 07th April 2013 and the commemoration was hosted at Lithabaneng, Maseru under this year’s global theme; “HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE”. The function was organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with WHO and was beautified by the presence of the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Pinkie Rosemary Manamolela; Mr. Mohlakola Hlabana, WHO PHE officer speaking on behalf of the WHO Representative to Lesotho; Dr. Mpolai Moteetee, Director General of Health Service in the Ministry of Health; Dr. Lugemba Budiaki, Director of Primary Health Care; Mr.

The Ministry of Health, with support from the UN country team, conducted the MAF validation workshop for stakeholders on the costed MAF action plan on the 28th March 2013. The costing of the MAF action plan was facilitated by the WHO Inter Country Support Team through Dr. Nganda from Harare and Dr. Getachew Atnafu from the WHO Ethiopia. The objective of the workshop was to share and discuss identified interventions, bottlenecks and solutions on MAF action plan and reach consensus. Director General of Health Services, Dr. Mpolai Moteetee, opened the meeting.

The Human Security Unit (HSU) of the United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security (UNTFHS) visited Lesotho from 3-9 March 2013. The purpose of the mission was to provide an opportunity for the HSU to assess the progress of the project implementation and the application of the human security, appreciate the challenges and added value of implementing the human security approach as well as providing guidance where necessary.

WHO is working with the government of Mauritania to improve water quality, sanitation and hygiene for its most vulnerable people.

In Mauritania, life expectancy is less than 60 years. Twenty years of drought have caused a profound demographic transformation in this country, which is 90% desert. The nomadic population has rapidly declined, with people settling in rural areas and in shantytowns in cities where access to clean water and sanitation is scarce.

The National Department of Health is planning to carry out two immunisation rounds during 2013.  First round will cover Polio and Measles starting between 29 April and 17 May.  Second round will cover only Polio and will run between 17 and 28 June 2013.  The WCO is supporting the NDOH to successfully carry out the planned immunisation. 

The conference theme is Building on Successes: Integrating Systems. According to the conference chair, Koleka Mlisana, Associate Prof and Head: Dept of Medical Microbiology, University of KwaZulu-Natal and NHLS, “it is … time for all of us to ‘Build on all … successes’ as we tackle TB and HIV co-infections and move to the next phase  of  conquering TB and HIV & AIDS.” The conference provides an opportunity for participants to showcase the great work and contribution they are making in achieving “our common goal of an HIV free world”.

In order to contribute to the improvement of surveillance of antimicrobial resistance at the country level, WHO/AFRO has developed a Guide for establishing laboratory-based surveillance for antimicrobial resistance.  

The Guide provides background information and defines the key steps for countries to conduct AMR surveillance for meningitis, bacteraemia and common enteric epidemic-prone diseases in a national bacteriology reference laboratory.