Bujumbura – Burundi’s health authorities today launched the country’s first national polio vaccination campaign since 2011, targeting nearly 3 million children under seven years of age following the first alerts of circulating poliovirus type 2 in more than three decades.

Abuja, 9 June, 2023 - The Chief of Staff to the United Nations Secretary-General (COS), Mr Earle Courtenay Rattray, has applauded Nigeria on impressive integrated health delivery services adopted by the country in delivering essential healthcare services to its citizens. 

Mr Rattray also appreciated the commitment of UN staff in serving the course of sustainable development and health security in Nigeria. 

In continued support to improve Botswana’s emergency preparedness and response plan, WHO is conducting Basic Emergency Care (BEC) training sessions across the country. Developed by WHO in collaboration with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation for Emergency Medicine (IFEM), the training targets frontline health providers who manage acute life-threatening conditions with limited resources.

Two hundred kilometers from Uganda’s capital Kampala lies Bukakata sub-county in Masaka district. Located along the shores of Lake Victoria, the sub county is one of the areas that reported a case of yellow fever in 2022 through the sentinel surveillance system.

In the face of consistent opposition from the tobacco industry, Uganda is standing firm on its successful eight-year long ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), says World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative Dr Yonas Tegegn Woldemariam.

^{By Tatenda Chimbwanda}

Kampala - Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world's deadliest infectious killers and a growing challenge in Uganda with each day close to 240 people falling ill with TB and approximately 30 losing their lives.  More than half of TB-related deaths are among people living with HIV, yet it is preventable and curable.

Abuja, 6 June, 2023 - Before 2021, the cautionary advice on cigarette packs in Nigeria was “The Federal Ministry of Health warns that smokers are liable to die young.”  
Yet, this did not deter Useni Musa, a resident of the Federal Captial Territory (Abuja),  in Northcentral Nigeria, from trying out his first cigarette stick at  13. 
By the age of 19, he had become addicted, smoking an average of two packs a day.

Owerri, 6 June, 2023 - In 2020, approximately 50,000 children below age one in Imo State, South East Nigeria, missed the uptake of the Pentavalent Vaccine due to COVID-19 disruption. 
A single dose of the Pentavalent vaccine is expected to have been taken at the sixth week of age. The Pentavalent vaccine protects a child from 5 life-threatening diseases – Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B, and Haemophilus influenzae type b).