Brazzaville, 7 June 2005 -- Former WHO Director-General, Dr Halfdan Mahler, today in Brazzaville joined two former WHO Regional Directors for Africa, Dr Ebrahim Samba and Prof Gottlieb Monekosso, and two former Directors of Programme Management, Prof. Ayite M. d’Almeida and Dr A. Kone-Diabi, among others, to discuss the strategic orientations to guide WHO action in the African Region.

Brazzaville, 6 June 2005 -- An Expert Group on aflatoxins and health recommended at its just-concluded consultation in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, that concrete measures must be taken to control aflatoxins. Aflatoxins are toxic compounds produced by fungi which contaminate stored crops affected by heat, humidity and the activities of insects and rodents. Aflatoxins continue to constitute a major health hazard in Africa.

Brazzaville, 30 May 2005 -- African governments have been urged to ratify and implement the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the World Health Organization's first treaty which provides for restrictions on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.

Harare, 24 May 2005 -- A workshop on the multi-centre study on the consequences of malaria in low transmission areas in the African Region got under way Tuesday in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The multi-centre study is a WHO-supported enquiry, started in 2004, to determine the impact of malaria in pregnancy in five African countries with low malaria transmission - Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

As polio reaches as far as Indonesia, over 77 million children to be immunized at heart of outbreak to prevent further spread

DAKAR/NAIROBI/HARARE, 13 May 2005 – Africa is responding aggressively to close down a polio epidemic that has spread the virus as far as Indonesia in recent weeks. Countries across the west and central belt and the Horn of Africa are participating in the third in a series of pan-continental immunization drives this year to immunize all children against the virus.

Brazzaville, 4 May 2005 -- The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has called on African governments to allocate adequate resources to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria - three diseases which rank among the top killers in Africa.
Dr Sambo's appeal was contained in his address to a special session on 'TB control in the African region' organized as part of a 3-4 May meeting of the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Brazzaville, 4 May 2005 -- The second induction workshop for officers recruited to support countries in the WHO's African, Eastern Mediterranean, South East Asian and American Regions to implement the global initiative of reaching three million people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) with antiretroviral treatment (ART) by 2005, (the "3 by 5" Initiative), got underway Tuesday in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

The WHO Regional Office for Africa has been leading the international field team supporting national and local experts in Angola to control the largest ever recorded outbreak of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Marburg fever is a rare but fatal disease caused by a virus from the same family as the Ebola virus. While the outbreak appears to be declining, potential cases continue to be investigated and vigilance remains high.

These photo essays give a glimpse into the challenges and successes in controlling this outbreak.

On the sixth attempt, Mike Ajayi, teacher at Ajoke Nursery and Primary School, Ilorin, got through to one of the telephone numbers scrolled on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) station listed as open lines for parents of missed children to call during national polio immunization days. WHO Kwara State Coordinator, Dr. Omotosho Musa organized for a rapid response team to vaccinate Ajayi’s new born baby, as well as 19 of his neighbour’s children who were missed by the team.

Brazzaville, 25 April 2005 -- The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, has made an impassioned plea to African governments, communities, development partners and other stakeholders to “unite against malaria” and “beat” the disease which kills more than 800, 000 Africans every year.