Abuja, 2 June, 2022 - Ernest Ajayi, a 45 years-old civil servant who resides in Abuja, recalls that he picked up smoking because he thought “smoking made people look successful, classy and respected”. 

He said growing up, many movies portrayed the rich and influential people were smokers and that enticed him to start smoking in his early twenties at the university. 

The Ministry of Health in Uganda, the World Health Organization (WHO), and members of the Civil Society conducted a series of activities in Entebbe municipality in Uganda to commemorate World No Tobacco Day 2022 under the theme “Protect the Environment”.

Activities included awareness-raising among over 4,750,000 community members on the negative impact of tobacco on health and the environment; Cleaning up tobacco Cigarette butts in the Entebbe market and Mass screening for some diseases caused by Tobacco, including diabetes and high blood pressure.

Lilongwe, 1 June 2022- The World Health Organization (WHO) Malawi Country Office has a new representative, Dr Neema Rusibamayila Kimambo. The new WHO country representative has officially assumed duties in Malawi on 1 June 2022 with the presentation of her letters of commission to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honorable Nancy Tembo. The presentation took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Lilongwe.

Lilongwe, 1 June 2022 – Ted Chaiban, the Global Lead Coordinator for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership (CoVDP), arrived in the country today for a three-day official visit.

Op-ed - The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. Tobacco kills more than 8 million people every year, and around 1.2 million of these deaths are due to exposure to second-hand smoke. This is far greater compare to deaths due to COVID-19 and it has been going on for decades.

Tanzania has completed the second round of supplemental polio vaccination and reached a total of 12,131,049 children against a target of 10,295,316 equivalent to 117.8%. The second round of supplemental polio vaccination is part of four rounds of synchronized campaigns aimed at prevent possibility of the spread of polio in countries bordering Malawi and Mozambique that have each reported a case of wild polio in February and April this year respectively.

Luanda, May 31th 2022 – Every year, more than 8 million people die worldwide due to smoking, of which 7 million result from direct consumption of tobacco and 1.2 million due to exposure of non-smokers to secondhand smoke. To educate the younger population about the dangers of smoking, the National Anti-Drug Fighting Institute (INALUD) held today in Luanda, another edition of the Writing and Drawing contest “Limpid Dreams Without Tobacco”.