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WHO launches the 8th annual African Vaccinations week in South Sudan. The week-long campaign raises awareness of the need and right of everyone to be protected from vaccine-preventable diseases.

The World Health Organization in the African Region, in collaboration with UNICEF, African Union and other partners, today launched the eighth African Vaccination Week (AVW). The week-long campaign from 23 to 29 April 2018 under the theme: ’Vaccines work, Do your part!,’ will raise awareness of the need and right of everyone, particularly children and women, to be protected from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines. It will also draw attention to the progress that has been made to ensure access to basic life-saving vaccinations across the continent.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, has called on African countries to strengthen their health systems in order to attain universal health coverage (UHC). 

Dr Moeti and her team paid a courtesy call on the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health at the Parliament House.  She applauded the Legislature for passing the LI for Mental Health Bill (MHB) and also the increase in districts offering mental health services.  Dr Moeti mentioned that inadequate funding to support mental health programmes was a challenge in most African Countries, including Ghana.  She however advocated for more resources for Mental Health Programmes in Ghana, since according to her was a health priority which was seriously underfunded.

Dr Moeti also paid a courtesy call on Her Excellency the First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo.  She commended the First Lady’s efforts in maternal and child health in Ghana, particularly among others her support for the construction of a Mother-Baby Unit for the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to ease the congestion at the maternity unit and improve outcomes for mothers and newborns.