Food and Agriculture Organization/World Health Organization: Joint Statement

Geneva/Rome, 6 October 2005 -- The first pan-African food safety meeting attended by 147 food regulation officials and experts from some 50 countries, today unanimously recommended a Strategic Plan for Food Safety in Africa for adoption by UN food and health agencies and the African Union.

Harare, 4 October 2005 -- The World Health Organization (WHO) has pledged to continue to provide technical assistance for improved surveillance and food safety monitoring in Africa with a view to reducing ill health and deaths due to the consumption of contaminated food in the region.

Mbabane, 2 September 2005 -- AFRO Regional Director concluded his historic visit to Swaziland today. Dr Luis Gomes Sambo made a two days special visit to Swaziland at the invitation of His Majesty King Mswati III’s government following his successful election as WHO Regional Director for Africa late last year. He arrived by road on Wednesday 31st August en route from Maputo soon after the conclusion of the Regional Committee and RPM meetings. He was met at the boarder by the Hon.

Brazzaville, 31 August 2005 -- The World Health Organization has called on African governments, civil society, NGOs and development partners operating in the region to strengthen the role of African traditional medicine and its practitioners in HIV prevention interventions.

13th Inter-country training course on the Expanded Programme on Immunization for mid-level management opens in Lusaka

Maputo, 1 August 2005 -- The fifty-fifth session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa is scheduled to take place from 22 to 26 August in Maputo , Mozambique .

This year's meeting of the Regional Committee, WHO's Governing Body at the regional level, will take place within the context of change in the WHO African Region, with Dr Luis Sambo taking part for the first time as WHO Regional Director for Africa .

Mallam Alifa Liman, a retired health worker, is becoming the anchor of a movement to get the Izalas of Bama Local Government Area (LGA), Borno State, to support polio eradication. His involvement started this February when the core trainer, Hajia Fanta Kachallah, explained the challenges of getting the Izalas to accept the oral polio vaccine (OPV). The Izalas or Jama’atu Bidi’a Wa’ikamatus Sunna (JIBWIS) are an influential Islamic group with a heavy presence in the state.

2004 was a period of uncertainty, but at the height of the controversy over the oral polio vaccine (OPV), the wife of the Governor of Yobe State, Hajia (Dr) Maryam Abba Bukar Ibrahim, braved the odds on March 2, by publicly supporting her husband and the deputy governor, declaring that the vaccine is safe. By January 2005, she appeared on national breakfast television to further affirm her support for polio eradication

Luanda, 26 July 2005 -- World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa Dr. Luís Gomes Sambo will visit his native country of Angola from July 27-29, 2005, accompanied by Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services for International Affairs Dr. William Steiger. The purpose of this visit is to bolster international support for the reconstruction of the Angolan health system, continue the fight against the most dangerous communicable diseases and conduct efficient epidemiological surveillance nationally.