When Margaret Dudu, a 30-year old mother of two, visited her mother in Gumbo on the outskirts of Juba, she intended to stay for a few days then return home and resume her life.

After intense flooding, WHO Malawi Country Office has been in the field supporting health care delivery to flood disaster victims. This flooding has made 230 000 displaced persons live in temporary shelters, schools, churches and tents and presents complex challenges for many Malawians.

Abuja, 20 February 2015 -- Nigeria has introduced the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) into the nation’s routine immunization schedule at a ceremony presided over by the supervising Minister of Health, Dr Alhassan Khaliru which was attended by the WHO Country Representative (WR), Dr Rui Gama Vaz and other development partners such as UNICEF, USAID, CDC, DFATD – Canada among others, in Abuja on 20 February 2015. IPV is very safe and highly effective in preventing paralytic disease caused by all three types of polio viruses.

Since September 2014, 283 suspected, probable or confirmed cases, including 74 deaths have been reported for all affected areas in Madagascar. The outbreak peaked in November and December but has slowed for the time being. Health officials are keeping a close watch over the situation as the plague season on the island continues until April.

Dar es Salaam, 20 February 2015 - The WHO Tanzania country office provided the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare equipment to strengthen Ebola and pandemic influenza preparedness in the country. Items handed over included: heavy duty personal protective equipment (PPEs ) for Ebola such as gumboots, heavy duty gloves and aprons, protective goggles, sprayers and cadaver bags, laboratory incubator, 10 computers, 10 UPS and 12 printers, all worth a total of US$ 46 070 equivalent to Tanzania Shillings 83 617 100.

Brazzaville, 19 February 2015 – Newly elected WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, was received in audience by Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Basile Ikouebe. The audience was devoted to the presentation of Dr Moeti’s letters of credence, after taking office at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville (Congo).

19 FEBRUARY 2015. GENEVA/LONDON/ADDIS ABABA – TheWorld Health Organization (WHO) urges affected countries to scale up their investment in tackling 17 neglected tropical diseases in order to improve the health and well-being of more than 1.5 billion people. This investment would represent as little as 0.1% of current domestic expenditure on health in affected low and middle income countries for the period 2015-2030.

Abuja, Nigeria 19 February, 2015 - The World Health Organization (WHO) State office in Ogun, in collaboration with the State Ministry of Health (SMOH), has intensified surveillance activities along international border communities to ascertain the sensitivity of the surveillance system at priority sites and close any surveillance gaps as a major step towards achieving the realization of the temporary recommendations to reduce international spread of polio.

Kampala, 18th February 2015- Uganda hosted the Regional Meeting on Accelerating Nutrition Improvements (ANI) in Africa  that reviewed implementation status of the project from the 11 participating countries. At the same time, delegates analyzed and documented successes, challenges and lessons learned in addition to mapping ways of accelerating delivery of all targets by December 2015 when the project ends.

Dar es Salaam, 18 February 2015 - The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare with support from the World Health Organization, held the 2nd stakeholders’ meeting to review implementation of the first year of the HPV Demonstration Project in the Kilimanjaro region. The HPV Demonstration Project launched early in 2014 aims to demonstrate how the HPV vaccine targeting girls aged 9 to 13 years can be delivered in routine settings while looking at implications on coverage, feasibility, acceptability and cost.