Sierra Leone launched its National Mental Health Policy and Strategic Plan at the commemoration of World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2012. The documents and the commemoration were launched by the First Lady of Sierra Leone, Mrs Sia Nyama Koroma in a function attended by government functionaries and non-state actors including UN agencies and other development partners, mental health advocates, the civil society and the media.

Currently in Lesotho there are challenges facing the health sector, one of which is a declining vaccination coverage.

Tamalé, 9 October, 2012 -- About 2,999,293 Ghanaians aged between one and twenty-nine years including pregnant women and lactating mothers within the age brackets are to be immunized from 9-18 October, 2012 against Meningococcal type “A” also known as Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) in a vast campaign involving the three northern regions of Ghana which include Northern region, Upper East and Upper West. The vaccination is free of charge to the public and will take the form of an injection.

Lusaka, 9th October, 2012 -- The Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Joseph Kasonde has commissioned a National vaccine cold chain store for the Expanded programme on Immunisation with a total capacity of 200,000 litres to serve as a central storage facility and distribution point for vaccines for all the ten provinces in the country.

08 October 2012, Nairobi -- The Regional workshop to address Non-Communicable Diseases in the WHO African Region was officially opened today in Nairobi by the Honourable Minister of Medical Services, Hon. Anyang’ Nyong’o.

A new approach to routine immunization in the rural Afar region in north-eastern Ethiopia nearly quadrupled the numbers of children vaccinated against measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and other diseases in 2010 (from as low as 22% to nearly 80% coverage in the target area). The immunization activity used “community champions” to encourage nomadic, pastoral families to have their children vaccinated and introduced new approaches such as task shifting to improve service delivery to these hard-to-reach populations.

Harare, 5 October 2011 -- A workshop on how to track and support data collection on domestic expenditure on maternal, newborn and child health in the African Region kicked off in Harare yesterday. The meeting brought together participants from Rwan-da, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and facili-tators from HQ, AFRO and IST/ESA. The specific objectives of the meeting are:

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) conducted diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera Case Management Training of Trainers workshop in Freetown from 25-28 September 2012 as part of the scaling up response to cholera outbreak.
The purpose of the intensive training was to build capacity of district supervisors and trainers from all the districts to serve as trainers of health facility staff in their respective districts. This will contribute to strengthening national capacity for clinical management of cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases thus ensuring sustainability.

3 October 2012,  Nairobi, Kenya – Partners in the Harmonization for Health in Africa (HHA) initiative are convening in Nairobi this week as a follow-up to the recent Tunis ministerial conference for African health and finance ministers.

Sierra Leone launched the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Initiative on 2 October 2012 in Freetown. The event was launched by the Vice President (VP) of the republic, Chief Samuel Sam Sumana on behalf of His Excellency Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. The launch is a demonstration of the high-level commitment of the government and its leadership in the Initiative.