Photo Stories

Blantyre—Malawi experiences seasonal outbreaks of cholera associated with the rainy season between November and May every year. Most people in Malawi remember the 2022‒2023 outbreak as one of the most severe in the country’s history, with almost 60 000 cases and over 1770 deaths reported.  

The 2025‒2026 outbreak has been mild in comparison to the previous outbreak. As of 9 March 2026, 174 cases (111 local and 63 cross-border) from 14 districts had been confirmed. There have been four deaths so far.

Xai Xai, Mozambique—As floodwaters recede across Gaza Province in southern Mozambique, recovery efforts are gaining momentum. Despite significant limitations in infrastructure, equipment and specialized services, health facilities that were damaged are progressively resuming operations to serve displaced communities returning to their areas of origin.

Nairobi—Kenya is accelerating efforts to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis, as a public health problem by 2027. Yearly mass drug administration carried out between 2016 and 2022 have effectively halted transmission of the disease—a painful and disfiguring mosquito-borne infection that can cause permanent disability.

Nairobi—Kenya is addressing critical gaps in access to sexual and reproductive health and rights services in six priority counties, including those with health clients that are hard to reach.

Kigali—Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among women in Rwanda. With around 1230 new diagnoses and around 830 deaths each year the disease is an ongoing concern for health authorities.

Nairobi—In Kenya, regular mass drug administration is protecting a new generation from the effects of lymphatic filariasis, commonly known as elephantiasis ‒ a neglected tropical disease that affects the lymphatic system and can lead to the abnormal enlargement of body parts, causing pain, severe disability and social stigma.

Bulape, Democratic Republic of the Congo — As the Democratic Republic of the Congo counts down to declare the end of its sixteenth Ebola outbreak that erupted in Kasai Province, response teams are sustaining efforts to protect communities through vaccination, helping to strengthen preventive measures and reducing the risk of resurgence of the virus.

Bulape – A newly-established Ebola treatment centre in Bulape health zone has significantly bolstered clinical care and the overall response by the health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to end an outbreak of the virus declared in Kasai Province on 4 September 2025.

Operational since 9 October, the 32-bed treatment facility was designed to ensure high standards of infection prevention and control for the safety of both patients and health care workers.

São Tomé ‒ São Tomé and Príncipe has made remarkable strides against malaria. Over the past five years, only two malaria-related deaths have been recorded in the country.

In the first quarter of 2025, the country registered 1293 malaria cases and no deaths. The Autonomous Region of Príncipe, the smaller of the two main islands that constitute São Tomé and Príncipe, registered just three cases of malaria as of March 2025, compared with nine in the same period the year before.

Nairobi—Since the launch of the Tobacco-Free Farms initiative in 2022, over 9000 farmers in Kenya have shifted from tobacco farming to alternative livelihoods.  

The initiative’s primary aim is to provide tobacco farmers with sustainable, profitable livelihoods by encouraging them to grow alternative food crops. This not only addresses the health risks of tobacco farming but also the social, economic and environmental damage it causes.