Targeted vaccine campaign underway to interrupt measles outbreak in remote northern Sierra Leone

A woman and her child in Yendeya Village displaying her child's measles vaccination card. Photo credit: WHO/S. Gborie

KABALA, 7 July 2018 --- On 3 July 2018, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone commenced implementation of a 6-day reactive measles vaccination campaign in Koinadugu districts, aiming to protect all children aged between 6 months and 15 years against the disease. The targeted campaign has sought to reach an estimated 187,707 eligible children with the lifesaving vaccine during this period.

Liberia Commemorates World Drug Day

Cross session of students during  the  parade on World Drug Day in Monrovia

Cross section of stakeholders at the World Drug Day Commemoration in Monrovia Monrovia, 26 June 2018: The Ministry of Health (MOH), WHO, Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) and other partners joined the rest of the global community in commemorating World Drug Day.

Resource Mobilization Training for WHO staff in Botswana

PMO Training - WCO Botswana team

Gaborone, Botswana - 06 July 2018: As part of ensuring the effectiveness of delivering services in Botswana, the World Health Organisation country office has undertaken a workshop to heed the clarion call by the Regional Director, Dr Matshediso Moeti, to actively mobilize resources. This came in the wake of the need for resources being availed via the regional office not being sufficient to meeting the operations and effectively supporting the country office in critical areas of need.

Ghana advances towards developing a National Action Plan for Health Security

Group photograph of Participants of the NAPHS meeting

Ghana has made tremendous progress towards the development of a National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS), following the completion of a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) process.
The JEE, which is a critical component of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, was conducted last year as a voluntary, multi-sectoral process to assess the country’s capacity to  prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to public health risks irrespective  of their origin.

An inclusive response: reaching Batwa communities to combat Ebola

Batwa Chief Ilinga Bopope Lopaka Lomba with his grandchildren and other family members
6 July 2018

Dr Bijoux Sambu Fiti is part of the surveillance team working in Itipo, a small community in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that has been battling Ebola since May. Her job is to go deep into the forest around Itipo to seek out sick people in Batwa villages potentially suffering from undiagnosed cases of Ebola. The Batwa, which is the plural term for Twa people, are hunter-gatherers living primarily off the forest.

Management of severe acute malnutrition mainstreamed into health workers’ pre-service training curricula in South Sudan

Facilitators guiding the group work s

Juba 2 July, 2018 – In South Sudan, it is estimated that 7.1 million people are food insecure; and it is expected that more than one million under five years to be suffering from acute malnutrition in 2018. 
 

According to the UNICEF/WHO Countdown Report 2017, among children aged 6 – 59 months, 31% are stunted, and 28% are wasted. Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates vary seasonally and substantially across states; with peaks of up to 30 % in some locations. 

WHO and the Ministry of Health engage Parliamentarians to discuss their support and contribution to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Patricia Lambert, Director of the International Legal Consortium, the Minister of Health, Dr. Chitalu Chilufya and the Vice Speaker of the National Assembly, Ms Catherine Namugala at the engagement meeting for Parliamentarians

The WHO Country Office in collaboration with the Ministry of Health convened a meeting to engage parliamentarians in a discussion on how they could support and contribute to the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO/FCTC). The meeting which took place on 27 June 2018 at parliament buildings in Lusaka was intended to raise awareness on the WHO/ FCTC and the WHO/ FCTC 2030 project including Zambia’s obligation to align its domestic tobacco control legislation with the requirements of the treaty.