FREETOWN, May 31, 2018 --- On World No Tobacco Day, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation joined WHO and partners in calling for a halt to the tobacco epidemic, asking communities, businesses, health workers and individuals to take a pledge to end tobacco use in Sierra Leone. Globally tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year, and is a leading but preventable risk factor for heart disease and cancer. 
 

It’s been ten days since Jean René* lost his brother to Ebola virus disease (EVD).

"My brother’s wife has come to live with my family," said Jean René, who lives in a community about 20 kilometers north of Mbandaka, the first urban centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo to have confirmed cases of EVD during the current outbreak.

Though mourning the loss of his brother, Jean René is comforted because his sister-in-law and the rest of his extended family have received the vaccine against Ebola.

Juba, 25 May 2018 – Disease outbreaks and other emergencies constitute a serious threat to public health security worldwide. Delayed and incomplete indicator and event-based reporting limits health managers’ ability to initiate timely event investigation and response. This reporting delay further constrains rapid event containment thus increasing the risk of extensive international disease spread and excess morbidity and mortality.

Yola, 28 May 2018 - The World Health Organization (WHO has deployed 39 staff with plans underway to engage additional 15 ad-hoc personnel, to rapidly contain a confirmed outbreak of cholera in Mubi North and South local government areas (LGAs) of Adamawa state.

Maiduguri, 28 May 2018  - In a bid to interrupt measles transmission in parts of Borno state as well as boost vulnerable population’s immunity in newly accessible areas, the World Health Organization (WHO) is providing technical and financial support to the Borno state health authorities to implement a selective measles vaccination campaign. 

Maiduguri,  25 May 2018 - “Why didn’t you educate us before cholera hit us last year?” asked Hauwa Bulama, an internally displaced person (IDP) at Muna garage of Maiduguri, Borno state where an outbreak of cholera affected thousands of people in 2017. 

Rwanda has organized from 14 to 18 May 2018 its annual Integrated Mother and Child Health Week. The Mother and Child Health week takes place twice a year and serves as an opportunity to catch up with health services provision, particularly to the hard to reach, the drop out and the most vulnerable. The Mother and Child Health Week was integrated in the African Vaccination Week and the World Malaria Day celebrations.