Enjoy the festive food without putting your health at risk 

Mrs Agnonkhese at the market in Abuja

Abuja - 23 December 2022 - The festive season is a time for celebration. However, enjoying the holiday’s food does not mean neglecting healthy diet, being inactive and putting your health at risk. 

Elizabeth Agbonkhese, a chef and event planner residing in Abuja, says despite the celebration in the air, she will ensure her family eats healthy meals during the yuletide season. 

Making every school in Namibia a health promoting school

Health Promoting School Initiative Training in Oshana Region.

WHO Namibia with support from the Regional Office in Africa trained 45 school staff, nurses, and school board members from schools in the Oshana region as part of the SURGE flagship programme. The aim of the training was to increase capacity of schools to implement the health promoting school initiative and prepare better to minimize impact of health outbreaks and other public health events on schools.

Sierra Leone vaccinates 70% of its population against COVID-19, meets global target

Sierra Leone vaccinates 70% of its population against COVID-19, meets global target
Freetown 21 December 2022 – Sierra Leone has achieved the global World Health Organization (WHO) target of fully vaccinating 70% of the population against COVID-19 by the end of 2022. The milestone places Sierra Leone among just three other countries in the African region to have reached the target. The 70% target was set by global health leaders with a strategy that outlined the priority actions needed from the different actors to achieve the targets.

Ethiopia hosts consultative meeting on cross border coordination of Pastoral nutrition project

Ethiopia hosts consultative meeting on cross border coordination of Pastoral nutrition project

The Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) in close collaboration with the Ethiopian Country Office of World Health Organization (WHO-Ethiopia) hosted an Inter-Country Coordination Meeting of Cross-Border Pastoral Project on Using innovative digital solutions for improving Access to Health Care Services and Nutrition Information in Cross-Border Pastoral Communities.

How mental health support is restoring hope in war-torn Nigeria

A Mental health nurse prescribing drug to a patient at PHC Mala-Kachallah during the consultation. Photo credit: Kingsley Igwebuike/WHO

Maiduguri, 20 December, 2022 – "At some point, I lost it,” says Hafsat Naya,* 59, who lives in Jere, a Local Government Area in Borno State, Nigeria. “I was separated from the people I knew. Everyone had been displaced. There were a lot of killings and we could not go to the farm or market because of fear.”

In Borno State, over two million women, children, and men have been forced to flee their homes to stay alive. More than a decade of conflict in north-east Nigeria has resulted in an ongoing humanitarian crisis, with a dramatic mental health cost. 

 Community Champions create awareness on mpox among  vulnerable populations of Adamawa State

A member of community health champion providing health risk messaging. Photo_credit: Kingsley Igwebuike/WHO

Yola, 20 December, 2022 - In August 2022, 31 years old Mrs Jenifer James, of Mumore community, Tongo Local Government Area in Adamawa State had just returned from the market when she developed a fever. 
“It started with a headache, high temperature, body ache and later rashes all over my body,” she says in an interview, as she describes the agonizing symptoms associated with the mpox (monkeypox) disease.  
Adding to the physical pain from the lesions was the mental stress because she did not know about the disease or where to go for care. 

Beating noncommunicable diseases through primary healthcare

Primary healthcare workers using WHO-PEN module to educate a woman about breast cancer before screening her at the Sunyani Municipal Hospital
In Ghana, NCDs account for 43% all-cause mortality, with major NCDs such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and respiratory disease becoming common in health facilities. However, the capacity to address NCDs at the primary health care has been identified to be limited

WHO boosts function of Maiduguri  Polio laboratory 

Donated generator. Photo_credit: WHONigeria/ Igwebuikek

Borno, 15 December, 2022 - One of the 36 States in Nigeria, had been experiencing incessant power outages since 2020, leaving some locations in the state in total darkness, due to the disruption of the power grid caused by insecurity. This has hampered operations at the polio laboratory situated at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). 

WHO donates cholera supplies to the Ministry of Health to strengthen case management

Lilongwe - The World Health Organization (WHO) has donated additional cholera supplies for Malawi government to support in the ongoing cholera outbreak response that has affected all the 29 districts of the country. WHO Representative for Malawi Dr Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo masde the official handover of the cholera supplies to the Minister of Heath Honorable Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda MP in Lilongwe, at the Ministry of Health Headquarters.