South Sudan News

November 2016 - As part of its  priority areas to scale up the country’s mental health and psychosocial care as well as coordinate existing efforts for better mental healthcare and psychosocial support   for South Sudanese, WHO engaged in an extensive consultation with national and international partners to identify needs and priorities to protect and improve people's mental health and psychosocial well-being.

November 2016 - With the aim to improve access to safe essential medicines, WHO carried out an in-depth assessment and mapping of the country’s procurement and supply management system as well as the mechanisms for medicines procurement and distribution in public and private sectors.

Juba, 02 December 2016 – Partners and Experts involved in routine immunization services gathered in Juba for a 4- day working session to review the 2016 Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) work plan and finalize plans for 2017 GAVI grant taking into considerations setbacks of July crisis and determining real and practical situations to get the country back on track in order to achieve the goal of ensuring every child is immunized.

Juba, 21 December 2016 – An armed man attacked a passenger vehicle on a main road outside Juba, on Tuesday, 21 December 2016, killing Mr James Leke Kuji, a World Health Organization (WHO) health worker on the spot.

18 January 2017, Juba, South Sudan – WHO South Sudan in partnership with the MoH, UNICEF and other partners including state directors general for health and Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) officers of all states, gathered from 17 to 21 January 2017 at Juba Grand Hotel to plan on how to reach 2.3 million persons with measles vaccines in the face of a difficult operating environment.

20 January 2017, Juba, South Sudan – Public health laboratories are a critical component of communicable disease detection, prevention, and control. However, access to reliable laboratory testing remains limited in in sub-Saharan African countries including South Sudan.

For efficient and improved quality of laboratory service delivery, WHO South Sudan supported the Ministry of Health to harmonize and strengthen the capacity of the laboratory personnel on basic and advanced laboratory diagnostic techniques from 16 to 20 January 2017.

03 February 2017, Juba, South Sudan – The deteriorating security situation in South Sudan, along with disruption of health services, increased population displacement, overcrowding and poor environmental conditions, led to more frequent disease outbreaks.

09 February 2017, Juba, South Sudan – In South Sudan, polio eradication continues to be a national priority with renewed commitment at all levels to sustain the interruption of the wild polio virus within the country.

09 February 2017, Juba, South Sudan – WHO in partnership with Ministry of Health are strengthening capacity to provide comprehensive HIV prevention, care and treatment services to populations of humanitarian concern in the Greater Upper Nile region, that is heavily affected by the current crisis. Health workers including medical doctors/ clinical officers, nurses, counselors, pharmacist and data clerk are equipped with the necessary skills and supplies on HIV treatment and prevention. 

10 February 2017, Juba, South Sudan – It is with sadness that WHO received the shocking news of one more of its employees Mr Louise Mokiri Avito, in Torit, former Eastern Equatoria State. This brings to three the number of WHO employees killed in less than one year as a result of the ongoing conflict in South Sudan.