South Sudan News

Juba, 30 January 2022 - South Sudan joined the rest of the world to commemorate the first World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Day, a day marked to boost the global fight against NTDs which have affected more than 1.5 billion people globally. Approximately one-third of these live in Africa with South Sudan being among the top countries experiencing huge burdens inflicted by this poverty induced diseases.

6 December 2021, Juba -The World Health Organization (WHO) South Sudan Country Office held a consultative meeting with the senior management of the Ministry of Health on 6 November 2021. The aim of the meeting was to align WHO workplans for 2022-2023 biennium with country priorities. 

WHO plans in two-year cycles (biennium) with the current biennial plan 2020-2021 ending on 31 December 2021. 

30 November 2021, Juba - To determine the pending priority activities, funding gaps and potential funding sources for the implementation of the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) 2020-2024, South Sudan’s Ministry of Health with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have embarked on mapping of existing and potential resources in an effort to strengthen health security.

The implementation of the NAPHS will help the country to attain the core capacity requirements under the International Health Regulation (IHR, 2005).

Given South Sudan’s increased vulnerability to disease outbreaks and other public health threats, strengthening national disease surveillance and response and systems is crucial for early detection and rapid containment of disease outbreaks to help prevent needless illnesses and deaths.

Juba, 25 November 2021 – The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), has commenced a multi-stakeholder Health Sector Performance Review, to identify issues that need to be addressed to improve performance in the health sector of South Sudan. The review is based on the progress of implementation of the Health Sector Strategic Plan (HSSP) 2017 – 2022, of the current National Health Policy (2016 to 2026).

To strengthen the capacities to detect, investigate and respond to suspected Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), WHO supported the Ministry of Health to deploy a multidisciplinary team of epidemiologists, clinicians and infection prevention and control (IPC) officers, and risk communication experts to Morobo and Yei River counties of Central Equatoria State to strengthen coordination, surveillance, IPC, and risk communication activities for prevention, detection, investigation and response to a threat of cross-border spread of the EVD outbreak.

Juba, 14 October 2021 – a team of technical officers in the National Public Health Laboratory have been trained over the last week, aiming at building their capacity to contribute to controlling yellow fever outbreaks.

Juba, 8 October 2021 – The South Sudan Ministry of Health supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a five-day health risk profiling workshop in Juba to assess and analyze public health risks for effective planning and prioritization of health emergencies and disasters risk management activities.

To improve response to emergencies, the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and partners convened a Joint Operational Review (JOR) to evaluate South Sudan’s response to health emergencies and other humanitarian crises. The JoR aimed at identifying and documenting the best practices, gaps, challenges and lessons learned during the response to the humanitarian emergencies so that efforts and resources of WHO and partners are prioritized to deliver results and are aligned with up-to-date, evidence-based plans.

Juba, 18 September 2021 – Timely information and appropriate response are vital for preventing and effective control of public health events, outbreaks, and pandemics. As a core requirement of the international health regulations (IHR (2005), countries continue to invest in building and maintaining robust surveillance systems to enable timely detection and public health response for enhanced national and international public health security.