Strengthening presence in countries for strategic support to effective national health systems and service - EPI component

Rationale and justification

Major challenges:

• Sustain the reduction in morbidity and mortality of vaccine preventable diseases
• Stagnating immunization coverage for vaccine preventable diseases
• Poor access to, and quality of immunization and surveillance activities in priority districts and sub-districts.

Vision of country office:

Brazzaville, 31 August -- The Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr LEE Jong-wook, has proposed a 9% increase in assessed contributions by WHO's Member States.

Brazzaville, 30 August 2004 -- African countries can improve access to care and treatment for HIVAIDS by strengthening their health systems, undertaking greater advocacy, decentralizing and integrating treatment programmes into health sector policies, and mobilizing resources and communities.

This is contained in a report by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Samba, on scaling up access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment under the "3 by 5" Initiative which aims at reaching three million people needing antiretroviral therapy worldwide by the year 2005.

Brazzaville, 30 August 2004 -- African countries must reposition family planning services if they are to significantly reduce maternal mortality in the region, the World Health Organization (WHO) says in a report.

Brazzaville, 30 August -- Congolese President Denis Sassou- N'Guesso on Monday in Brazzaville opened the 54th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa with a tribute to the outgoing WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Samba, for his contribution to health development in the region in the past ten years.

"We would like to convey our deep gratitude to Dr Samba who is leaving behind an image of a man devoted to duty and action," Dr Sassou N'Guesso told the meeting.

Brazzaville, 30 August 2004 -- Leprosy prevalence in the African region has witnessed a sharp decline of about 90% over the last decade, from 560,000 cases in 1992 to below 60,000 in 2003, the Word Health Organization (WHO) reports.

Brazzaville, 27 August 2004 -- WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Samba, has called on western-trained doctors, pharmacists and other modern health practitioners to respect and promote traditional medicine.

"Contemporary medical science should enhance and enrich (African) traditional medicine so that people can feel comfortable with it", Dr Samba said in a message to commemorate the second African Traditional Medicine Day which falls on 31 August. "If we, Africans, do not develop and promote traditional medicine, no one else will", he said.

Brazzaville, 11 August 2004 -- An editorial in the August 7 issue of The Lancet painted a bleak picture of the work of WHO in the African Region, giving the impression that WHO is not recording any successes there. In fact, despite the challenges of poverty and ongoing instability, the opposite is true.

For example, in spite of recent political difficulties, the number of polio-endemic countries in the African Region has fallen from 20 in 1999 to just two today. Huge efforts are underway to eliminate the disease completely.

Brazzaville, 23 April 2004 -- Dr Ebrahim Malick Samba, WHO Regional Director for Africa has urged Member States to intensify anti-malaria activities, in order to achieve the objectives of the Abuja Declaration adopted in April 25, 2000 by the African Heads of State.

"Malaria control efforts have shown substantial progress and achieved significant results at country level, but we should not lose sight of our goal: halving the malaria burden by 2010".

Brazzaville, 17 April 2004 -- The progress on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Sub Saharan Africa indicates that the goals for poverty reduction would not be realized until 2147 and for improvement of child health until 2165 unless concerted efforts are made. Sadly, Sub Saharan Africa, which represents 12% of the global population, contributes 48% to the global maternal deaths of approximately 529,000 per annum.