Second Round Of House-To-House Immunization Campaigns Prioritizes Previously Un-reached. Children, But Funding Shortfall And Civil Unrest Threaten Final Outcome

DAKAR/HARARE, 18 November 2004 - At a crucial stage of the global polio eradication effort, the second round in a series of massive cross-border polio immunizations starts this week in 24 African countries. The house-to-house campaigns follow a successful first round held last month.

Brazzaville, 16 November 2004 -- The fourth meeting of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on Traditional Medicine in the African Region got underway Tuesday in Brazzaville with a call on members of the group to come up with a "solid, evidence-based report" on positive health outcomes that could be achieved with the use of traditional medicine.

Brazzaville, 23 April 2004 -- Dr Ebrahim Malick Samba, WHO Regional Director for Africa has urged Member States to intensify anti-malaria activities, in order to achieve the objectives of the Abuja Declaration adopted in April 25, 2000 by the African Heads of State.
"Malaria control efforts have shown substantial progress and achieved significant results at country level, but we should not lose sight of our goal: halving the malaria burden by 2010".

Brazzaville, 2 November 2004 -- A target budget of between US$1.5 billion and US$2.5 billion is required annually to prevent and control malaria which claims over one million lives worldwide each year, more than 90% of these in sub-Saharan Africa, WHO experts write in an article published in Communicable Diseases Bulletin, a publication of the WHO Regional Office for Africa.

"Make every mother and child count"

WHO announces theme of World Health Day 2005

29 OCTOBER 2004 | GENEVA -- Highlighting an invisible health crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) is making maternal and child health the focus of World Health Day on 7 April 2005. The WHO is also launching the World health report - also dedicated to maternal and child health - on World Health Day for the first time ever.

Global health leaders join the World Health Organization to announce accelerated efforts to improve patient safety

Brazzaville, 25 October 2004 -- Botswana is recording steady progress in providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) in the country and this has considerably reduced the overall mortality of patients, according to a report in the current issue of the Communicable Diseases Bulletin a monthly publication of the WHO Regional Office for Africa (AFRO).

Harare, 11 October 2004 -- The third meeting of the Regional Reproductive Health Task Force in Africa ended Friday in Harare with a recommendation for the establishment of a special fund for the acceleration of maternal and newborn morbidity and mortality in the African Region.

World Health Organization supports global effort to relieve chronic pain

10 October 2004  --Nigerians have been urged to stay indoors from 6.00 am till 1.00 pm on Saturday, 9th October 2004, to enable vaccination teams immunize children below five years of age with Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), as they move from house to house during the forthcoming four-day National Immunization Days (NIDs) which starts on that day.