Ethiopia News

In a global effort to raise awareness on breast cancer, October has been designated as the Pink Month.  The Pink Month is a month where efforts to educate those concerned about the disease, including early identification and signs and symptoms associated with breast cancer.

On Monday, 14 December 2015, the United Nations (UN) and the Government of Ethiopia signed the fourth United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) that will be in effect for five years, 2016-2020. 

ADDIS ABABA, 16 December 2015 | Ethiopia joins over 130 countries to introduce Inactivated Polio Virus (IPV) vaccine against poliomyelitis.

ADDIS ABABA, 28 December 2015 | The WHO Country Office, in collaboration with the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), conducted a one-day induction workshop on emergency response for its repurposed staff and consultants.

Ethiopia launched its ambitious five-year Health Sector Transformation Plan (HSTP) at the opening of the 17th Annual Review Meeting of the Health Sector that was in session 28 October 2015 in Adama Town. 
Explaining the ambitious goals of the HSTP, Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu, Minister of Health Ethiopia, said, “It took us over 25 years to reduce child mortality by 70% and maternal death by 75%; now we are aiming to halve child and maternal death in the next five years.”

In the quest to prevent cervical cancer, Ethiopia launched a pilot Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination pilot project in December 2015 targeting adolescent girls in the 9-13 year age group in Oromia and Tigray regions.

Ethiopia has launched a large-scale nationwide mass drug administration (MDA) against soil-transmitted helminths (STH) and Schistosomiasis (also known as bilharzia), targeting 17 million school-aged children. The MDA aims to cover children aged 5-14 years, encompassing children enrolled in schools as well as those within the same age range but not enrolled in schools.

Advancement in technology and medicine appear to have reached the highest notch, at the same time the world is at high risk of falling to an era when bacteria reign and people die because of infections.

ADDIS ABABA, 15 December 2015 | More than 17 million children aged 5–14 years will be treated for two neglected tropical diseases – soil-transmitted helminthiases (intestinal worms) and schistosomiasis (bilharzia) between 23 November 2015 and 29 February 2016. The programme by the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health started late last month in Hawassa in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region.

The country-wide initiative of the Ministry of Health is supported by the Ministry of Education and aims at reducing the parasitic burden of both diseases. 

The United Nations in Ethiopia celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations in a series of events on 24 October 2015 in the presence of Government and United Nations high level officials, 
the diplomatic community, civil servants, representatives of the public, students, and the United Nations staff and family. 

The celebrations in Ethiopia were themed along the global theme: Stronger UN. Better World. The events highlighted the UN’s contribution to human rights, peace and security, development, health, gender equality, and protecting the planet.