8 – 10 February 2022, Morogoro: Risk communicators must customize messaging to meet the needs and values of specific target audiences. This is because message design can influence the effectiveness of a message and ultimately behavior change.

Juba, 10 February 2022 – The government of South Sudan today inaugurated its Public Health Emergency Operations Center designed to respond promptly and effectively to public health risks and emergencies of international concern.

The center is part of a $4.2 million African Development Bank grant-financed COVID-19 response project that included procuring an oxygen plant, vehicles, a wide range of essential medicines, lifesaving biomedical equipment and personal protective equipment. The World Health Organization (WHO) implemented the project.

Abuja February 04, 2022 - “In 2014, I noticed a small swelling in my left breast and didn’t pay attention as it was initially painless and I thought it will resolve by itself” says Grace David, a 68-year-old woman living in FCT, Abuja that survived breast cancer.

“When the swelling became bigger, I noticed a dimple, with slight pain and nipple discharge, I confided in my neighbor who advised me to visit the hospital immediately for a proper check by a doctor. I immediately went to the hospital and had to undergo series of examinations and tests.

Kai Koang, at the crack of dawn on a Tuesday morning, armed with his loud megaphone tightly held to his mouth and moving from house-to-house stormed site D of the highly populated Bentiu internally displaced persons (IDP) camp passing on good news – on the commencement of the oral cholera vaccination campaign. Kai is a well-known social mobilizer in the camp.

A few minutes later the vaccination site was awash with people ready to receive the vaccine.

Abuja, 31 January, 2022 - “The first time I noticed a sore on my left hand, I did not take it seriously because I thought I had injured myself unknowingly. However, when the wound failed to heal, and sores came out, on the other hand, I decided to go to the hospital”, says Mr. Bako Ibrahim, a 25 years old taxi driver resident in Gima village, Konduga Local Government Area (LGA), Borno State.

Mr. Bako was diagnosed with Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTDs).

Abuja, 1 February, 2022 - In commemoration of the 2022 World Leprosy Day, the Government of Nigeria and Partners have decried the continuous stigmatization of people living with the disease.

The Honorable Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, speaking at a ministerial press briefing to mark the day in Abuja on 31st of January 2022, said stigmatization continues to have negative impact to the successful elimination of the disease and re-integration of those cured back into their communities.

On 31 January 2022, ETHIOPIA commemorated World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day in Hawassa, Sidama Regional State in an event led by the Federal Ministry of Health (MoH) and attended by health partners and Sidama and SNNP regional health authorities. The Day was commemorated with the global theme, “Achieving health equity to end the neglect of poverty-related diseases”. This is the third World NTD Day commemoration and the first since the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed 30 January as World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day.

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.