Dar es Salaam, 16 - 18 October 2017: Human health and animal health have been intertwined since time immemorial. Despite the link and the knowledge that especially a sick animal have a negative impact on human health, over the years, the two sectors have been working separately. It is known that the over sixty percent of emerging, re-emerging, and endemic human diseases have their origins in animals.

In Nigeria’s Borno State, malaria is currently claiming more lives than all other diseases combined. Children under the age of 5 are particularly vulnerable. WHO recently launched a special campaign in this state aimed at rapidly reducing the malaria burden among young children and, at the same time, protecting them against polio.

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Abuja, 31 October 2017 - The polio Outbreak Response Assessment (OBRA) team with representation from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partnership has started the second evaluation of the response to polio outbreak in Nigeria.

The independent assessment will “assess and strengthen efforts to increase population immunity; assess progress towards interrupting polio transmission and strengthen surveillance sensitivity”, says the Team Lead, Professor Daniel Tarantola.

The President of Uganda, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has highlighted the critical role communities play in managing and responding to disease outbreaks in Africa especially in resource-constrained settings. “Train communities to look out for these outbreaks because community participation is very important,” he said at the opening of the 4th High-level Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) meeting that was held in Kampala last week 

VICTORIA, 30 October 2017 ---- Today the World Health Organization handed over a number of vital supplies to the Ministry of Health in Seychelles that will help bolster preparedness against potential disease outbreaks, including 400 sets of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). In addition to supplies, efforts are also underway to ensure effective plans, systems and protocols are in place to respond to any suspected plague cases should they occur in the island country.

Abuja 27 October 2017: As part of the ongoing efforts to revamp routine immunization in Nigeria, the European Union (EU) on the 27th of October commissioned equipment, vehicles and solar refrigerators to support routine immunization activities in 23 states and the FCT.

KINSHASA, 28 septembre - Le Ministre de la Santé Publique, Dr Oly Ilunga Kalenga, a reçu en présence du Représentant de l’OMS en RDC, le Dr Allarangar Yokouidé, une mission conjointe inter-institutions comprenant les parties-prenantes impliquées dans la lutte contre la tuberculose et le VIH, en visite en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) du 27 septembre au 6 octobre 2017.

Today Sierra Leone starts a four day nationwide house-house supplementary immunization campaign to vaccinate an estimated 1.5 million children under five years old against polio. Additional interventions integrated into this campaign include vitamin A supplementation for children 6-59 months; deworming for children 12-59 months and the identification and correction of children under 2 years that have missed their routine immunization schedules for other vaccines.