In a ceremony that took place at the Federal Ministry of Health in Abuja on 15th July 2011, the acting WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. David Okello, handed over a Toyota Hilux pick-up 4-WD vehicle to the Honourable Minister of Health, Professor C.O. Chukwu, ably represented by Dr. Mansur Kabir, Head of Public Health Department at the Federal Ministry of Health, to boost Guinea worm disease (GWD) surveillance activities in Nigeria. Dr.

Lilongwe, 13 July 2011 -- The World Health Organization (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination and Chairman of The Nippon Foundation in Japan, Mr Yohei Sasakawa arrived in Malawi on Thursday (13 July 2011) on a three day visit.

Mr Sasakawa is visiting Malawi at a time when the country is witnessing an increase in leprosy cases.

The reappointed Honourable Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu has applauded the World Health Organisation for its technical contribution towards uplifting the health standards of Nigerians especially at community levels.

The Minister who paid a courtesy visit recently to the WHO Nigeria at the United Nations House, Abuja said that Nigeria’s achievement in both national and international fora would not have been possible without the technical support of WHO Nigeria.

Eritrea, adhering to the global commitments to tackle the appalling human and economic losses from road traffic accidents, launched the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.

The launching ceremony was held on the 11th of June 2011 in the capital city in the presence of government officials from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transportation and communication, WHO and UNICEF representatives as well as representatives from key stake holders and the community.

Mbabane, Swaziland, 4-6 July 2011 -- The WHO Swaziland Country Office, supported by WHO AFRO Social and Economic Determinants of Heath Unit Representative Dr Chandralall Sookram facilitated in the first of its kind national workshop to address social determinants of health in Swaziland.

Sierra Leone commemorated World Blood Donor Day (WBDD)2011 on the theme “More blood. More life”. The theme highlights the need to collect more blood and to ensure the availability and accessibility of blood to a larger number of patients to save their lives. Commemoration of the Day still continues in the country with a chain of community outreach activities to recruit more voluntary blood donors and to collect more safe blood for the National Safe Blood Services. These activities are being undertaken by both the voluntary donors themselves and Ministry of Health official and partners.

Sierra Leone launched its third Round of National Immunization Days (NIDs) 2011 campaign on 24 June. The campaign will be conducted effective its launch date to 27 June to administer Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to over one million children below the age of 5 years. The campaign is being synchronised with other countries in the West African Sub-region to protect targeted children from infection with polio virus which is still circulating in the region.

The 55th ICC meeting held in December 2010, decided to conduct the SNIDs in the high risk regions in Tanzania to prevent the importation of Wild Polio Virus (WPV). This was also a recommendation from East Southern African EPI Managers meeting in Harare held in March 2011.

Tanzania was considered to be in a high risk of getting importation of WPV due to heavy traffic movements to and from neighbouring infected countries using the Dar Es Salaam harbour. Four regions Kagera, Kigoma, Rukwa and Mbeya were identified to be at highest risk.

Brazzaville, 20 June 2011 -- The WHO Regional Office for Africa releases the Report "HIV in the WHO African Region: 2011 update - progress towards achieving the universal access to priority health sector interventions". The report calls on countries, international partners and donors to intensify actions to reduce the number of new HIV infections.

In this issue:

WHO Leprosy Goodwill Ambassador visits Malawi page cover page
Leprosy active search shows cases increasing in Malawi page 2—3
Preventing violence against children: a capacity building initiative in Malawi page 4—5
News in pictures page 6
Malawi Introduces pneumococcal conjugate vaccine page 7—8
The WCO Malawi implements the global learning program page 9
Staff movement in 2011 page 10
WHO Technical Assistance to Malawi from AFRO and HQ from July to December 2011 page 11.