Lilongwe, 29 March 2007 -- Strategic collaboration among health practitioners is pivotal if southern African countries are to make significant headway in combating the region’s most daunting health challenges - Tuberculosis, Malaria and HIV and AIDS. According to World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luís Gomes Sambo, the region must work together to exchange experiences and increase epidemic surveillance and response.

29 SEPTEMBER 2016 | GENEVA - New analysis by WHO shows that negative or ageist attitudes towards older people are widespread. They also negatively affect older people’s physical and mental health.

Fully 60% of respondents in the "World Values Survey" analysed by WHO reported that older people are not respected. More than 83 000 people in 57 countries took part in the survey which assessed attitudes to older people across all age groups.* The lowest levels of respect were reported in high income countries.

Polio eradication remains one of the top priorities for WHO in the African Region. Efforts to eradicate polio began in 1988 with the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). At that time, polio paralyzed nearly 1000 children every day. As a result of massive efforts from national governments, coupled with significant technical and financial support of international partners, wild poliovirus (WPV) cases have fallen by 99%. At the end 2011, the total number of reported WPV cases was half of that reported in 2010, with 54% recorded in the African Region.

19 Country Synchronized Polio Campaign

Joint GPEI / IFRC Factsheet – March 2010

Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) 31 August 2010 – WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has urged countries in the Region to take concrete steps to check the emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR – TB) and extensively resistant TB (XDR-TB), high priority TB complications which continue to pose serious health threats to people in the African Region.

On the basis of the clear linkage between poverty and health, the WHO Regional Office for Africa has developed a strategy which explores the potential contribution of health to poverty reduction, economic growth and human development.

The overall objective of the strategy is to have the health sector, given its comparative advantage, contribute to poverty reduction by improving health. The strategy is to be discussed by the 52nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa scheduled for 8-12 October in Brazzaville, Congo.

It aims to :

Chad has launched a mass campaign to vaccinate nearly 2 million people against meningitis A, the primary cause of epidemic meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa. This is part of a multi-year immunization campaign covering the 25 countries of the African meningitis belt. Cameroon and Nigeria also began campaigns last week, with Mali and Niger completing the campaigns which they began last year. 

Harare -- The 52nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa (RC52) is scheduled to take place from 8 to 12 October in Harare, Zimbabwe.

This year's meeting of the Regional Committee, WHO's Governing Body at the Regional level, will discuss a report on the work of WHO in the African Region during the 2000-2001 biennium, to be presented by the Regional Director, Dr Ebrahim M. Samba,

05 April 2016 -WHO and partners need US$ 2.2 billion to provide lifesaving health services to more than 79 million people in more than 30 countries facing protracted emergencies this year, according to WHO’s Humanitarian Response Plans 2016 launched today.

20 July 2016, Geneva - Ahead of World Hepatitis Day, 28 July 2016, WHO is urging countries to take rapid action to improve knowledge about the disease, and to increase access to testing and treatment services. Today, only 1 in 20 people with viral hepatitis know they have it. And just 1 in 100 with the disease is being treated.