Francistown, Botswana, 17 September 2016 -- Concerned by the persistently high maternal deaths despite the high coverage of key maternal mortality reduction interventions (such as antenatal care, skilled birth attendance and postnatal care), the Ministry of Health convened a high level two-day national summit. Stakeholders in attendance, including MOH, DHMTs, all hospitals management and professional bodies, deliberated on the high levels of maternal and newborn mortality and to propose ways and means to accelerate their reduction.

High risk of spread to neighboring countries given the prevailing security situation, population movement and limited public health infrastructure in the affected areas.

More on the situation and actions undertaken (528.18 kB)

4 October 2016- The World Health Organization (WHO) is implementing a Human Resource for Health (HRH) project on ‘Enhancing the ability of frontline health workers to improve health in Nigeria’ with funding from Global Affairs Canada (GAC). The project supports the Federal Ministry of Health FMOH) to strengthen human resources for health at Federal, Bauchi and Cross River States.

Harare, 3 October 2016 -  The call was made by WHO Representative Dr David Okello at a media breakfast meeting to share information about Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) and the work that WHO, FAO, the organization for animal health (OIE) and other partners are doing in Zimbabwe to decrease this real and urgent threat.

3 October 2016 - Polio transition planning simulation exercise was conducted in Abuja on 27-28 September, 2016. The exercise reviewed output of polio asset mapping, especially personnel across ten polio programme main functional areas.

3 October 2016 - The World Health Organization (WHO) in Uganda made a presentation on the burden of Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) to the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Uganda under the theme “Non-Communicable Diseases: An Epidemic in Revolution”. The meeting was hosted by World Food Program at their offices in Kampala.

1 October 2016 - Take a Stand Against Ageism

The International Day of Older Persons is an opportunity to highlight the important contributions that older people make to society and raise awareness of the issues and challenges of ageing in today’s world.

30 September 2016 - The 22nd Annual Health Sector Joint Review Mission (JRM) under the theme “Embracing new health reforms and innovation to improve Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) services in Uganda took place at the  Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.

The objectives of the 22nd JRM were:

September 2016 – Health Sector partners are urgently scaling-up the emergency health response to the humanitarian crisis in north east Nigeria where some 3.7 million people are in need of health assistance. A Health Sector Coordination team was deployed to Maiduguri to support the Ministry of Health in the coordination of the health sector response. 17 partners are actively engaged with government authorities to strengthen coordination of resources and emergency response.

Maiduguri, 28 September 2016 - In response to the detection of wild polio viruses (WPV) in Borno in August 2016 after more than two years of maintaining a polio-free status, the government of Nigeria declared the outbreak as a national public health emergency. Equally, the governments of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad and Niger declared a regional public health emergency for the Lake Chad sub-region.

Following the declaration in Nigeria, plans were made to involve the military and civilian Joint Task Force (JTF) in accessing children in very vulnerable areas.