World Health Organization supports global effort to relieve chronic pain

10 October 2004  --Nigerians have been urged to stay indoors from 6.00 am till 1.00 pm on Saturday, 9th October 2004, to enable vaccination teams immunize children below five years of age with Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), as they move from house to house during the forthcoming four-day National Immunization Days (NIDs) which starts on that day.

Africans unite across borders in massive effort to combat epidemic and get polio eradication effort back on track

8 OCTOBER 2004 | GENEVA -- More than one million polio vaccinators in 23 African countries today embark on a massive immunization campaign, aiming to immunize 80 million children across sub-Saharan Africa against polio over just four days. This effort is a direct response to an ongoing polio epidemic in the region, which risks paralysing thousands of children for life.

Harare, 6 October 2004 - Two major studies on the interface between the use of hormonal contraception and HIV infection are currently being finalized and will be released in early 2005, a South African researcher in Reproductive Health and HIV, Prof. Helen Rees, told the ongoing third meeting of the African Reproductive Health Task Force in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Harare, 5 October 2004-- Maternal mortality is a "silent emergency" claiming the lives of millions of African women and reversing otherwise impressive post-independence socioeconomic gains recorded in countries in the African Region, the World Health Organization Regional Office (AFRO) for Africa said on Tuesday.

Harare, 5 October 2004 - The third meeting of the African Reproductive Health Task Force was officially opened Tuesday in Harare, Zimbabwe, with a call on African countries and the international community at large to allocate more resources to reproductive health programmes with a view to stemming the tide of maternal and child deaths.

WHAT: Third Regional Reproductive Health Task Force meeting.

WHERE: Sheraton Hotel (Room Jacaranda 1), Harare

WHEN: 4-8 October 2004. The opening session will take place on Monday 4 October with comments by Officials from the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and the Director of Programme Management at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, among others.

Kano, Nigeria: 2 October 2004-- The Executive Governor of Kano State, Nigeria, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau has reiterated that the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) is safe for consumption by children. He has consequently directed all Kano indigenes and indeed all Nigerians to ensure that their children below five years of age are immunized during the forthcoming National Immunization Days (NIDs) scheduled for 9th - 12th October 2004, as well as in subsequent rounds.

Brazzaville, 20 September 2004-- The out-going WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Samba, has expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the just-concluded 54th session of the Regional Committee meeting in Brazzaville, which nominated Dr Luis Sambo of Angola to succeed him early next year.

"The nomination exercise was a model of orderliness and transparency with the winning candidate collecting a clear 32 votes during the first round of balloting," Dr Samba told reporters in the Congolese capital on Saturday.

Brazzaville, 4 September -- Nigeria has re-affirmed its commitment to the global goal of polio eradication and announced three rounds of national immunization campaigns between this month and the end of 2004.

"The Federal Government of Nigeria hereby states its continued commitment to polio eradication through national ownership and strengthened partnerships", Nigeria's Health Minister, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, on Friday told the 54th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa meeting in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.