Grace Adyero, like many other caretakers in the room hardly says a word or smiles. She only stares blankly at the child lying on the bed with grief written all over her face. Her demeanor and facial expression seem to inaudibly ask “why me?”

“We have been here for two days and now he has rested a bit. It must be the medicine and food they have given him. He was worse at home and we had given up on him ‐ just waiting for him to die one day,” she tells me through an interpreter.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), with support from WHO, conducted the periodic integrated sentinel surveillance review meeting at the Directorate of Disease Prevention and Control on 17 March 2012. Participants at the meeting included health personnel responsible for sentinel sites surveillance for Paediatric Bacterial Meningitis (PBM), Rotavirus and Influenza, officers from the Western Area District Health Team (DHMT) and the National Surveillance Programme (NSP), staff from the Central Public Health Referral Laboratory (CPHRL) and WHO Surveillance Officers.

Central Public Health Reference Laboratory (CPHRL) of Sierra Leone has been provisionally accredited to undertake measles and Yellow Fever (YF) laboratory diagnoses in the country by World Health Organization. The experts from WHO Headquarters and Inter-country Support Team of West Africa awarded the provisional accreditation following intensive bench training on laboratory diagnosis techniques and thorough assessment of the suitability of the laboratory set up.

The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW) in collaboration with partners organizes every year an annual evaluation meeting with the objective of evaluating the performance, achievements and challenges of immunization services in the country. The meeting is attended by the National IVD and other related Units, Regional Health Management Teams, Civil Societies involved in immunization services and partners.

“The HIV/TB combination is probably one of the biggest challenges for health in Lesotho. 2012 is the time for a massive scale up of access to treatment for TB and HIV” -Dr. Mphu Ramatlapeng, Minister of Health and Social Welfare

World TB day was commemorated this year on 24th March around the world. This years theme was “Zero TB deaths– Stop TB in my lifetime”.

Bulawayo, 24 Mar. 2012 -- Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in commemorating World TB Day under the theme Stop TB in my lifetime. The event, which took place at the White City Stadium in Bulawayo brought together the different players in TB, local and international TB partners, former TB patients, health workers, civil societies and community members, sector government ministries and members of the uniformed forces.

Lilongwe 24 March 2012 -- Malawi joined the rest of the world in commemorating World TB Day whose theme is ‘stop TB in my life time.’ The theme draws attention to the need for urgent accelerated actions to ensure that today’s children live to see a world where no one dies of TB. The national launch took place on 24 March at Chiwamba EPA ground, TA Chimutu in Lilongwe rural. Just before the function started, the Health Education Band mobilized the local community by playing TB control and prevention songs, traditional dances and comedy live on a decorated truck.

23rd March 2012 -- On the occasion of World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) in Nigeria donated TB laboratory diagnostic equipment and consumables worth $330,000 to improve TB care in Nigeria. The materials were procured with support of USAID.

The items donated included 65 binocular microscopes, 840,000 sputum containers and 540 boxes of laboratory consumable kits.

The Ministry of Health, with the support of WHO, conducted a national TB program review from 15 to 23 March 2012.

The review was conducted with a technical support of a team of five external reviewers from the WHO Regional Office, IST, WHO Kenya and Zambia, National TB Program Manager and Lab Specialist from Malawi.

The objective of the review was to conduct an in-depth review of the status of prevention and control interventions of the TB control program in Eritrea from 2004 to 2011.

Nairobi Kenya, 23 March 2012 -- As a build up to this year’s World TB Day commemorations, the country held a media briefing to sensitize the public and the media fraternity on national issues related to the TB epidemic. This year’s national celebration commemorated “calling for a TB-Free Kenya through sustainable financing” were held in both Nairobi on 21st March and in Thika district on Saturday 24th.