Ethiopia News

Ethiopia commemorated World Cancer Day under the global theme “We can. I can.” by inaugurating a comprehensive cancer treatment center in Addis Ababa in Woreda Eight Health Center on 6 February 2016. The center is the first ever at woreda (district) level and second in the country Black Lion Specialized Hospital. 

Emergency and WASH teams of WHO and UNICEF hold regular meetings to discuss the best way of coordinating the two UN agencies’ support to the Government of Ethiopia’s response to the ongoing acute watery diarrhea (AWD) outbreak in the country.  The most recent get-together took place on 9 March, where existing gaps, past successes and shortfalls were identified and discussed to best devise the way forward.

A six-week international training of trainers (ToT) on Planning and Managing Malaria Control Programmes for Health Workers of Anglophone African Countries got concluded successfully in Addis Ababa on 9 October 2015. The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) organized the training course that brought together 34 participants from 14 Anglophone countries in the WHO Africa Region.

A Meningitis A Phase III and Measles integrated campaign, launched on 26 October 2015 in Afar, Amhara, Dire Dawa, Hareri, Oromia (East Harerghe and West Harerghe) and Tigray regions, has been completed successfully. Preliminary administrative data in regions where campaign is completed revealed a total of 11,645,517 individuals vaccinated for Men A and 725,469 children vaccinated for Measles showing coverage of 96% and 88% respectively. The campaign was planned for 10 days, but was extended to 2 days in some zones for mop-up activities for reaching children unreached during 10 days.

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.