Government of Sierra Leone and Health partners on 19 December 2011 signed the Country Compact which was witnessed by His Excellency the President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma. In His statement, the President thanked the health sector for their commitment to work in a more coordinated manner to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

In December, 2010, WHO announced the official endorsement of the new Xpert molecular technology.

Xpert MTB/RIF has been described by many as a revolutionary breakthrough in the fight against TB. Xpert MTB/RIF detects M. tuberculosis as well as Rifampicin-conferring resistant mutations and provides results within 100 minutes. It is an automated cartridge-based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) for TB based on the GeneXpert multi-disease platform.

Lesotho, often called the "Kingdom in the sky", has one of the highest rates of new tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world. The lack of health-care facilities in remote areas makes it hard for people with TB to get tested and treated, so the disease spreads quickly through communities.

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The Ministry of Health of Rwanda in collaboration with WHO organized a two day workshop from 13th to 14th December 2011 to define priority operation/implementation research questions. The role of operation/implementation research is significantly to improve access to efficacious health interventions by developing practical solutions to common, critical problems in the implementation of these interventions. Therefore the workshop objectives were:

Sierra Leone commemorated World AIDS Day 2011 on 1 December on a theme “Getting to zero new infection by 2015” with the campaign slogan, „Believe it! Do it!. The Day is commemorated every year to heighten awareness, promote the existing available services, advocate for positive attitudes towards people living with the disease as well as to reflect and renew commitments on the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) completed a three day training workshop for the National Rapid Response Team members in Freetown from December 6-8, 2011. The training is part of MOHS’s efforts to strengthen the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) programme in the country.

Tanzania and Rwanda WCOs are participating in an Inter-country Global Learning Programme in Arusha, Tanzania with 9 participants from WCO Rwanda and 19 from WCO Tanzania.

Training runs from 21st – 25th November 2011 and it is being facilitated by Dr. Rufaro Chatora, WR Tanzania; Dr. Habib Somanje from AFRO, Dr Andre Rusanganwa from WCO Rwanda and Dr. Martins Ovberedjo from WCO Tanzania.

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The Government of Rwanda, through the Ministry of Health has hosted an inter-country IMCI Computerised Adaptation Training Tool (ICATT) orientation and capacity building workshop bringing together 30 senior child health specialist from 5 countries (Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe) from 5th to 9th December 2011.

The workshop aims to orient and train participants in the application and use of the ICATT software for quick adaptation of IMCI guidelines and scaling up training of health workers using computers.

The five day Inter-country Global Learning Programme for Tanzania and Rwanda WCOs in Arusha, Tanzania was concluded today, with each countries coming up with its GLPNHPSP Road map.

The training was facilitated by Dr. Rufaro Chatora, WR Tanzania; Dr. Habib Somanje from AFRO, Dr Andre Rusanganwa from WCO Rwanda and Dr. Martins Ovberedjo from WCO Tanzania.

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The World AIDS Day (WAD) national commemoration was marked on the 1st December,2011 at Ha Mabote in Maseru District. The theme for this year is “Getting to zero: zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS related deaths".