The Organization calls for immediate donor support to respond to the unfolding human catastrophe

7 February 2003 | ACCRA -- The World Health Organization today issued a joint Action Plan to alleviate human suffering in crisis shaken West Africa. During a three-day meeting in Accra with officials from Ministries of Health of the region, WHO staff examined the challenges of the health sector and finalized a co-ordinated response strategy.

Abuja, 5 December 2002 -- The 10th meeting of the Task Force on Immunization (TFI) in Africa and the 9th meeting of the Africa Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Committee (ARICC) ended Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria, with the adoption of a number of recommendations aimed at scaling up action for routine immunization, accelerated diseases surveillance and control, as well as the interruption of the wild poliovirus in the African Region by 2003.

Abuja, 3 December 2002 -- Countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Region made reasonable progress in the areas of accelerated disease control, disease surveillance and routine immunization during 2002, the Regional Adviser for Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, Dr Deo Nshimirimana has reported.

Abuja, 3 December 2002 -- The African Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) made "excellent progress" in the global polio eradication drive between 1999 and 2002, according to a report released Tuesday by the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) in Abuja, Nigeria. 

Abuja, 2 December -- President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria has stressed the need for African countries to focus their collective attention on the task of implementing full immunization of children throughout the Region as a step towards achieving the global goal of polio eradication.

20 November 2002 - His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, President of the Republic of Ghana has urged Ghanaian citizens to exhibit a high sense of responsibility in ensuring environmental cleanliness which is a perquisite to good health.

He said Ghana does not need a World Bank loan or grant to stop the indiscriminate use and disposal of waste, particularly plastic which chock gutters and cause stagnant waters that provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

China and a number of African countries have adopted a plan of action for co-operation and development of traditional medicine, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Ebrahim M. Samba, has announced. 
Dr Samba told reporters in Brazzaville, Congo, that the cooperation plan was adopted at the first China-Africa Forum on Traditional Medicine convened from 20-22 October in Beijing. Twenty-one African Health Ministers (or their representatives) and a high-level WHO delegation led by Dr Samba participated in the Forum, the final report of which was released Thursday.

Nairobi, 25 October -- Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the African Region stand to lose $45 billion over a ten-year period (2001-2010) if action is not taken to improve maternal health care in the Region, according to statistics released Friday in Nairobi by WHO.

Nairobi, 25 October --The first meeting of the Regional Reproductive Health Task Force -- an expert group set up by the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) to advise it on Reproductive Health issues -- has ended In Nairobi, Kenya, with the adoption of recommendations aimed at improving access to information, services and commodities designed to promote Reproductive Health in the African Region.

Nairobi, 22 October -- Kenya's Public Health Minister, Prof. Sam Ongeri, has commended the World Health Organization for responding to the Reproductive Health challenges facing the African Region by establishing an expert body to advise on how to address the problems.