Feature Stories

Decentralizing testing for rapid mpox detection in the Democratic Republic of the Co...

Kinshasa – To ensure adequate and prompt detection of mpox cases, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is decentralizing laboratory services and accelerating efforts to curb the disease through close coordination with support from partners, including World Health Organization (WHO), who are providing critical diagnostic equipment and supplies to bolster the outbreak response.

Ernesto Cabral, former laboratory technician, Cabo Verde

Seventy-eight year-old Ernesto Cabral understands altruism. It runs in his veins. Ernesto is the nephew of one of Africa’s foremost anti-colonial leaders and Cabo Verde’s national hero, Amílcar Cabral. While his uncle dedicated his life to fight colonial powers in Africa, Ernesto chose to fight a disease that kills an African child every minute: malaria.

Ramping up flood emergency response in Nigeria

Abuja – World Health Organization (WHO) is stepping up support to the Nigerian authorities to provide emergency health assistance following devastation caused by severe flooding that has so far affected more than 610 000 people, damaged key basic infrastructure and raised the risks of food insecurity and spread of infectious diseases.

The floods have displaced more than 225 000 people, with 201 deaths reported in 15 of the country’s 36 states and about 115 000 hectares of farmland inundated.

South Sudan: Ensuring primary health services for displaced people

Juba ‒ Cecilia Achuwor, a 38-year-old mother of six children, is one of the hundreds of thousands of refugees and returnees who have crossed the border into South Sudan since the beginning of the conflict in neighbouring Sudan 16 months ago. “My husband remains in Khartoum,” she says. “We separated from him without any communication. He doesn’t know where we are and we also don’t know where he is. I am here alone with the children, and they are all sick,” she says.

Liberia: Scaling up access to life-saving medical oxygen

Late one night, 44-year-old Irene Mabande’s four-year-old daughter Emerald suffered a severe asthma attack at home in Tubmanburg, the capital of Bomi County in the northwest of Liberia. “She was striving for air. She couldn’t breathe on her own,” Mabande recalls. “In the hospital, they don’t have a nebulizer for asthmatic patients, so the only thing that could bring her back was oxygen.”

South Africa: Intensifying efforts to end TB

Pretoria – One night in September 2023, 21-year-old university student Sinalo Tungwashe, who had been experiencing flu-like symptoms for some weeks, was roused from a fitful sleep by sharp chest pains. “I was struggling to breathe,” he recalls. “I knew that something was not normal. For a second, I thought I was about to die.”