Banjul, The Gambia, 1st September 2015 - WorldBreast Feeding Week was observed in The Gambia, from 1st to 7th August 2015.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states have signed a call for action to establish a regional medicine regulation collaboration and harmonization mechanism to fight illicit medicine circulation and improve availability of safe, effective and quality-assured medicines. Substandard/spurious/falsely labelled/falsified/counterfeit (SSFFC) medical products cost the lives of many people in the region.

Harare, 7 August 2015 :  This was said during the official launch of World Breastfeeding Week which was held at the Lafarge cement plant in Harare.

The Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative, aims to ensure that maternity facilities become centres to protect, promote & support breastfeeding. The initiative has measurable and proven impact, increasing the likelihood of babies being exclusively breastfed for the first six months.

Eritrea launched the introduction of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV-13) in to routine immunization program.

The event which took place at Villagio Community Hospital was attended by officials of MOH, UN, Health Workers, Journalists and the General Public.

Pneumococcal disease is one of the leading vaccine-preventable killers of young children world wide. It killed more than 500,000 children younger than five years of age in 2008 alone. Approximately, 90% of these deaths occurred in the developing world.

Maseru, Lesotho, 6th August 2015 - Hundreds of factory workers and the community gathered to commemorate the National Breastfeeding Week in Maseru on Thursday the 6th of August 2015, under the theme, “Breastfeeding and Work: let’s Make it Work”. The commemoration took place near Thetsane Industrial Area and was targeting the factory workers who normally face many challenges in relation to breastfeeding their children because of the nature of their work. The main speaker in this event was Her Majesty Queen  ‘Masenate Seeiso.

When the Tonkolili District reported a new case of Ebola on 24 July 2015, it marked a change in the Sierra Leone Ebola response. A rapid response team was despatched to manage this new source of infection, the first case in that area for more than 150 days. It resulted in a whole village being quarantined, and showed how quickly Ebola can travel and that no district can let down its guard until there are zero cases of Ebola.

The Eritrean  Ministry of Health  conducted an assessment of the country capacity on the health Disaster Risk Management (DRM). This is a key step in the implementation of the Regional Health Sector DRM strategy as its findings will help develop DRM Road Map to operationalize Regional Strategy at country level.

Moses Alpha Turay survived Ebola but lost everything that was dear to him. In the space of one month last year, his wife, his two children, and four other close family members all died of the Ebola disease. “My wife and children died at the same Ebola treatment centre while I was still admitted there”.

Soroti, 4th August 2015: The 9th Campaign of the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV&AIDS was launched in Teso Sub-region at the Soroti sports grounds. The First Lady of Uganda, Hon. Janet Kataha Museveni, who is also the champion of the eMTCT program in Uganda under the Office of the First Lady was the guest of honour.