New York -- United Nations Deputy Secretary General Louise Frechette has called on the international community to help in "addressing the needs of Africa where poverty and health challenges are the most acute."

Launching an international health exhibition organized by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the UN Department of Public Information at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, Mrs Frechette said: "We (the international community) must provide support to Africa …let this exhibition be an inspiration to us all."

A meeting of health ministers from southern African counties and senior officials of WHO ended Wednesday in Harare, Zimbabwe, with delegates from participating countries renewing their "political commitment for immediate actions with a view to mitigating the health consequences" of the humanitarian crisis facing the region.

A report issued at the end of the meeting said that the ministers "indicated the importance of a strategic response which recognizes the multi-dimensional nature of the current crisis, and which responds effectively to people's priority needs."

Mobile phones are becoming one of the world’s most important health tools, used in many countries to track exercise, ensure medicines are genuine, and even to read blood glucose levels. In Gabon, they’re being used to raise revenue for the national health system.

The World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa has welcomed the announcement that trials of a malaria candidate vaccine shows promising results by providing protection against clinical malaria in children.
The results were announced at the Malaria Forum hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, USA.

Commission presents its final report, calling for high-level action to address major health challenge

The Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity (ECHO) presented its final report to the WHO Director-General today, culminating a two-year process to address the alarming levels of childhood obesity and overweight globally.

Above:

01 Gateway to the AFRO SHOC

02 The Main Operations Room

03 The Control Room

04 One of the Breakout Rooms

05 The Equipment Room

06 The Main Operations in session

07 The Main Operations Room in session

08 The Main Operations Room in session

On 17 December, WHO team visited the displacement camp near Mpoko airport hosting around 45 000 people who have fled recent violence, to rapidly assess the health situation and priority needs.

At the Mpoko camp, as across the rest of the country, key health concerns include:

Speaker after speaker at a World Health Organization-World Bank meeting that concluded today in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia drew attention to an emerging crisis of health manpower in Africa. The situation threatens to defeat the efforts of African governments, private health care providers, NGOs, and donors for health improvement.

Harare, 21 March 2003 -- Tuberculosis (TB) infects 1.6 million people and kills 600,000 others in Africa every year, making the disease one of the most common preventable causes of death from a single infectious agent in the Region, according to a report issued Friday by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa.