Windhoek, 20 April 2011 -- WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, says that countries in the region are making “significant progress” in the fight against HIV/AIDS but warns that several challenges and bottlenecks are impeding Universal Access.

“Countries have stabilized or significantly slowed down the rate of new HIV infections and we are seeing a return on investments in HIV prevention efforts”, Dr Sambo told participants at a Working Lunch on Universal Access to HIV Interventions held on 20 April in Windhoek, Namibia.

Life in Côte d'Ivoire is slowly returning to normal after four months of post-electoral violence. The western part of the country was most affected by the months of inter-communal violence that spread to much of the country in March and early April 2011.

Banjul, 15 April 2011: Unlike previous years, this year’s WHD was observed with renewed partnership with the mass media for health promotion.

The WCO was able to negotiate with the various media houses to serialize at no cost information and advocacy materials developed in support of the Day

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Marking World TB Day 2011, South Africa’s Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, gave South Africa's fight against TB a major boost when he unveiled a new TB diagnosis innovation, the GeneXpert machine. The machine tests for TB much faster and more accurately than microscopic tests that are used to diagnose the disease, which could take between three to five months to produce results. This new technology is able to complete TB testing in 2hrs. The equipment has been purchased to improve turn-around times in the testing of the human specimen of TB.

New global and country estimates published in Lancet Series

Brazzaville, 14 April 2011 -- Some 2.6 million stillbirths occurred worldwide in 2009, according to the first comprehensive set of estimates published today in a special series of The Lancet medical journal. About a third of these still births occur in Africa where the number of still births is estimated to be around 900,000.

Windhoek, 13 April 2011 --  “The worst flooding in decades has cut off thousands of people from health services”, said WHO Representative, Dr Magda Robalo, following a mission with Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Richard Kamwi to assess the health sector response thus far and areas requiring additonal support. The high-level team over this last weekend visited several health facilities in the four most affected flood regions: Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena and Oshikoto.

Abuja, 7 April 2011 -- The Hon Minister for Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu has urged Nigerians to heed the warnings from the public health community about actions that contribute to antibiotic resistance. ‘The time to act is now to ensure a healthier and better tomorrow’, said the Minister, explaining that ‘the germs that cause disease develop a defense against our drugs because of the way we have been using them.’ This will render many of our drugs ineffective, for example those used against malaria and tuberculosis.

Harare, 7 April 2011 -- To mark World Health Day 2011, WCO Zimbabwe held 2 wellness days and a concert for staff, their dependents, and partners at the Highlands complex. The wellness days, which are being held for the second time, were bigger, with more service providers and open to the UN family and the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare. Some of the people who graced the 2 day commemoration include, The UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Alain Noudehou, The FAO Representative, Mr.

Harare, 7 April 2011 -- The Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) and the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) have signed the Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF) for the 2012–2015 cycle. The ZUNDAF is the UN’s strategic programme framework to support national development priorities for the period 2012—2015 as well as the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

Directorate of Disease Prevention and Control in Ministry of Health and Sanitation with assistance from the WHO and CDC conducted a two day workshop to develop a national surveil-lance, preparedness and response strategic plan for Sierra Leone. This is the first consensus building workshops and was attended by Directors, hospital and programme Managers, laboratory technicians, medical officers and health sector partners.