Homa Bay, Kenya, 13 September 2019 – The World Health Organization (WHO) congratulates the Government of Kenya for launching the world’s first malaria vaccine today in Homa Bay County, western Kenya.
The malaria vaccine pilot programme is now fully underway in Africa, as Kenya joins Ghana and Malawi to introduce the landmark vaccine as a tool against a disease that continues to affect millions of children in Africa.

MAPUTO, Mozambique – A three-week long mission aiming to provide technical support for implementing the WHO Country Office Management Toolkits as well as staff training sessions concluded. IT, Project and Performance Management Officer from the WHO Country Office in Mali, Yahya Coulibaly, shared his technical knowledge and professional experience with all the staffs to pave the way forward for documentation practices.

Zimbabwe is set to roll out a Shorter, Highly-effective, Oral Regimen for Rifampicin-resistant Tuberculosis (SHORRT therapy) which reduces the length of treatment for Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) from nearly two years, to, nine to 12 months and brings a major improvement in treatment outcomes and quality of life of patients.

The Seventeenth African Traditional Medicine day was observed in Ghana on the 3rdSeptember 2019. The theme for the commemoration day focused on: “Integrating traditional Medicine in Health Sciences curricula in universities in the African Region” as part of mechanisms to integrate African Traditional Medicine in the national health system to achieve Universal Health Coverage. The 20th anniversary of traditional medicine week celebration in Ghana was also launched.

Abuja, 11 September, 2019 - As part of the activities leading to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to be held in New York on the 23 September 2019, the second edition of the Abuja Walk the Talk: “The Health for All Challenge” is being planned with the main aim of raising awareness about Universal Health Coverage (UCH). 

Homa Bay, Kenya, 13 September 2019 – The World Health Organization (WHO) congratulates the Government of Kenya for launching the world’s first malaria vaccine today in Homa Bay County, western Kenya.

The malaria vaccine pilot programme is now fully under way in Africa, as Kenya joins Ghana and Malawi to introduce the landmark vaccine as a tool against a disease that continues to affect millions of children in Africa.

Brazzaville, 12 September 2019 – The World Health Organization (WHO) is aware of a rumour related to the death of a person due to an unknown illness in the United Republic of Tanzania. We have reached out to Ministry of Health officials for further details and have offered our support. 

In line with our responsibility under the International Health Regulations, WHO regularly receives and investigates numerous rumours of public health events.

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched series of vaccination campaigns against polio outbreak to prevent the spread of the virus in high risk areas among children under five.
The first phase which is termed ‘round zero’ would ensure that children in all districts in Greater Accra who are eligible, are vaccinated from September 11 to 14th.
The polio outbreak response campaign comes after the health sector confirmed three events of circulating vaccine derived polio virus type 2 (cVDPV2) from 8 July this year.

Sierra Leone launches a comprehensive five-year National Action Plan for Health Security in compliance with International Health Regulations.

Following confirmation of circulating vaccine derived polio virus type 2 (cVDPV2) in the environmental sample from Tamale Metropolis and also detection of Polio in a two (2) years, (9) nine months old child from Chereponi district of the North East Region, the Ministry of Health /Ghana Health Service declared the event a Public Health Emergency of National Concern.  Again on 25th August 2019, the National Polio Laboratory further notified the Ghana Health Service of confirmation of Polio in environmental surveillance sample taken from a drain at Agbogbloshie in Accra Metropolis in