Juba - Near the banks of the White Nile in South Sudan, residents of a settlement are among the latest recipients of COVID-19 vaccines, as efforts continue to take them to more locations in the country.
Lilongwe - Sensitizing border communities on the occurrence of a polio case is critical to enhance vaccine uptake and stop the spread of the virus. This is the multi country approach taken in Malawi and its neighboring countries since the confirmation of a wild polio case near Lilongwe and the subsequent declaration of the polio outbreak as a public health emergency in February 17th, 2022.
Brazzaville – Access to tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis as a crucial first step to detect and treat the disease remains a huge challenge in Congo, where around half of the estimated 21 000 TB cases are detected every year.
Lilongwe, 17 March 2022 - Cyclone Gombe has battered southern Malawi, bringing heavy rains to the districts of Machinga and Mangochi and prompting a cholera emergency. Currently, 19 cholera cases and 1 death have been reported.
Nigeria has stepped up COVID-19 genomic surveillance to effectively track the evolution of the virus and adjust responses to pandemic waves driven by variants of concern. The country began carrying out genomic sequencing in March 2020. Currently it can carry out around 500 sequences per month. Before the pandemic, the country only had two laboratories with sequencing capacity. Genomic sequencing is currently done through a network of four laboratories coordinated by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control’s National Reference Laboratory.
