Kampala, 4th November 2011 -- The mood was upbeat; the place immaculately spruced and decorated; journalists paced up and down clicking their cameras at every opportunity; there was live broadcast on national television and radio; and security was tight.

On the 20th of October 2011, Dr Delanyo DOVLO presented his letters of credence appointing him as WHO Country Representative in Rwanda, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. Dr Dovlo met with Honourable Minister Mrs Louise MUSHIKIWABO who welcomed Dr Dovlo to Rwanda. The WHO Representative assured the Minister that WHO will continue to provide technical support in health matters in accordance with the priorities determined by the Government of Rwanda, and as set out in the WHO’s Country Cooperation Strategy for Rwanda.

The WHO Country Office hosted a stakeholder’s consultative meeting on 26th October 2011 to review the draft five-year Joint Strategy for accelerating the scale up of Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision for HIV Prevention in priority countries in East and Southern Africa. This strategy has been developed by WHO and other partners to ensure that by 2016, countries with generalized HIV epidemics and low prevalence of medical male circumcision would have stablished sustainable national male circumcision programmes.

Brazzaville, 31 October  2011 -- An expert consultation on malaria vector control has ended in Brazzaville, Congo, with key recommendations on principles and decision making criteria upon which vector control methods and products are to be used to accelerate malaria control and eventual elimination in the African Region.

Brazzaville, 25 October 2011 -- Malaria vector control in the WHO African Region is the subject of an expert technical consultation to be held from 26 to 28 October at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville.
The two-day expert consultation, convened by the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, will, among other things, review current WHO recommendations for malaria control, and clarify epidemiological circumstances under which current vector control methods are to be applied, especially in pursuance of malaria elimination goals.

Rio de Janeiro, October 24 –  The World Conference on Social Determinants of Health ended on Friday in  Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the adoption of the meeting’s outcome document,   the Rio Political Declaration  on Social Determinants of Health.

Acting President of Brazil, Mr Michel Temer addressing delegates during the opening session.

With completion of the country compact, the Ministry of Health and Sani-tation (MoHS) initiated a process to develop the first Joint Programme of Work and Funding (JPWF), a three-year shared health sector plan. The plan provides a comprehensive framework for aligning interventions to sector priorities and links the long-term policies and development strate-gies as defined in the National Health Sector Strategic Plan with the An-nual Operational Plan (AoP).

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in collaboration with WHO is conducting a combined external surveillance review and post introduction evaluation (PIE) of Pneumococcal vaccine that was introduced into the country's immunization programme in January 2011. WHO recommends external surveillance reviews every 3 years to ensure countries conduct high quality surveillance activities that can detect diseases targeted for eradication, elimination and control in a timely manner.

Nairobi 10th October - For the first time in the history of Kenya, World Mental Health Day was observed on 10th October as the rest of the world. Kenya has been observing this day on the last Friday of the month as 10th was falling on a national day that has since been removed.