News Releases

Brazzaville/Maputo – Health authorities in Mozambique today declared an outbreak of wild poliovirus type 1 after confirming that a child in the country’s north-eastern Tete province had contracted the disease. This marks the second imported case of wild poliovirus in southern Africa this year, following an outbreak in Malawi in mid-February.

Brazzaville – Southern Africa is facing an upsurge in COVID-19 cases for the third consecutive week as the winter season in the region approaches. The uptick has broken a two-month-long decline in overall infections recorded across the continent. 

Arusha, Tanzania – Five East African countries have held their first simulation exercise since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to improve preparedness and bolster response to health emergencies.

The East Africa region faces recurrent outbreaks and disasters. In the past three years alone the region faced outbreaks of diseases including cholera, Ebola, Marburg, measles and Rift Valley Fever. 

Brazzaville – World Health Organization (WHO) has released US$ 8.3 million from its Contingency Funding for Emergencies to assist the 10.6 million people in need of emergency health services in the Sahel region.

Humanitarian agencies and governments estimate that 33.2 million people are grappling with the devastating impacts of armed conflict, insecurity, food insecurity and displacement in the Sahel. 

Johannesburg, April 29, 2022 – The African Region accounted for 66% of the 303,000 maternal deaths recorded globally in 2017. 

To address this situation, WHO in collaboration with UNFPA, UNICEF and partners supports Member States to ensure that all women and girls have access to quality and timely health services, particularly during pregnancy, childbirth, and after delivery, leaving no one behind.

Brazzaville – Africa is witnessing a surge in outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases over the past year.
Almost 17 500 cases of measles were recorded in the African region between January and March 2022, marking a 400% increase compared with the same period in 2021. Twenty African countries reported measles outbreaks in the first quarter of this year, eight more than that in the first three months of 2021.

Brazzaville/Kinshasa — The Democratic Republic of the Congo today kicked off Ebola vaccination in Mbandaka, the capital city of Equateur Province in the north-west, to halt the spread of the virus following an outbreak which has claimed two lives since 21 April.

Brazzaville/Kinshasa, 23 April 2022 – The health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo today declared an outbreak of Ebola after a case was confirmed in Mbandaka, a city in the north-western Equateur Province. This is the third outbreak in the province since 2018.

Brazzaville – Africa is experiencing its longest-running decline in COVID-19 infections since the onset of the pandemic. Recorded weekly cases have fallen for the past 16 weeks, while deaths have dropped for the last eight.

Brazzaville – Researchers in Botswana and South Africa have detected new sub-lineages of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 and are carrying out further investigations to fully understand crucial traits such as infectivity and virulence.