On a hot afternoon in November 2014, Benin’s Minister of Health, Dr Dorothée Kinde Gazard and WHO Country Representative Dr Youssouf Gamatié visited the Hôpital de Saint Jean de Dieu in Tanguiéta, in the country’s northwest. They were in a sombre frame of mind.

The last batch of Ebola responders from the Cuban Medical Brigade will depart Sierra Leone on 1 April 2015, following a farewell ceremony with local dignitaries on Monday, 30 March in Freetown. The first contingent of 98 Cuban health workers departed Sierra Leone on Sunday 22 March after nearly 6 months supporting the Ebola outbreak response in the country.

Accra, 31 March 2015 - Ghana has just ended a two day discussions on a comprehensive response to end the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic in line with the WHO End TB Strategy. The workshop was under the theme:  “Implementing the WHO End TB Strategy: Lessons from the Prevalence Survey” held in Accra from 25 to 26 March 2015.

29 MARCH 2015 | ADDIS ABABA - The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today to intensify collaboration on sustainable management of health programmes and projects in Africa. The agreement is the first of its kind between WHO and UNOPS in the African region.

Viana (Luanda/Angola), 30 March 2015 - A vaccination campaign against rabies in animals was launched on 27 March by Angolan authorities in Viana. The campaign is aiming to immunize 235 638 dogs, cats and monkeys targeting to control the current outbreak of this deadly disease that is affecting the province of Luanda, the most populous city of Angola with about 6.7 million inhabitants.

Hoima, 27 March 2015:- The First Lady of Uganda Hon. Janet Kataha Museveni,  who is also the “Champion” of  the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT) of HIV/AIDS campaign has   called upon men to be more cooperative in the fight against HIV/AIDS.  She said this at the  launch of the campaign for the Western Region  held at Boma in Hoima district.

Lilongwe, 27 March 2015 – The WHO country office in Malawi on 25 March convened a meeting between Malawi and Mozambique in the Mwanza district to discuss the cholera outbreak situation in bordering districts and provinces of the two countries among others. The meeting which was chaired by Dr Charles Mwansambo, Chief of Health Services in Malawi was organised to facilitate discussions and agreements on common approaches which the two countries can adopt to address the on-going cholera outbreak precipitated by the recent heavy floods.

A Nigerian mobile lab has been operating in Sierra Leone as part of the international effort to help test Ebola samples in the current outbreak. The lab saves critical hours by testing the samples rapidly and reducing the need to transport samples over long distances. The lab plans to return to Nigeria to work on Lassa fever when the Ebola outbreak is over.

Gulu, 27th March 2015:- The World Tuberculosis (TB) day was held at the Kaunda grounds, in Gulu district under the theme “reach the 60,000, patients in Uganda” to celebrate the reductions in numbers of TB patients in Uganda. 

Kampala, 27th March 2015:- Mulago National Referral Hospital received  Rotaviral testing equipment from the World Health Organization (WHO) to be used in the sentinel surveillance site to boost Rotavirus surveillance before introducing Rotavirus vaccine in 2016.