Rasesa Village, Kgatleng District – 24 April 2017: A high profile and well attended community African Vaccination Week commemoration was held in Rasesa Village in Kgatleng District. Among dignitaries in attendance was the representative of the Honourable Minister of Health and Wellness DR Haruna Jibril, including Kgosi Rasesa and other Kgosi from the district environs. The Honourable Member of Parliament for Mochudi North West Hon.

The Minister of Health and Wellness, Honourable Dorcas Makgato delivered the first of a series of lectures on Health and Development at the University of Botswana Conference Centre. Fittingly, the inaugural lecture was on the importance of inter-sectoral action on the social determinants of health. Honourable Makgato intimated that her Ministry will work with other sectors to identify and address their impact on health to enable them accentuate the positives and mitigate the negatives.

25 April 2017, Rwanda joined the world to commemorate World Malaria Day. It is now time to highlight the need to sustain country efforts and commitment to control and eliminate this life- threatening disease. This year the world malaria day theme is:” Closing the preventive gap for Malaria.” It is thus very imperative to reflect on the achievements made so far, the challenges encountered and the way forward to end Malaria by 2030 in African Region and Rwanda in particular as recommended by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

For many decades Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs) have been used to protect people against malaria. Due to their effectiveness, the use of ITNs has increased substantially across the African region. WHO recommends that all people at risk of malaria sleep under ITNs particularly long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) every night [1]

Preparations are currently underway for a vast bed net distribution campaign in Sierra Leone. Planned for June this year, the campaign aims to distribute around 4.3 million insecticide-treated bed nets to households nationwide to help protect them against malaria, which remains one of the country’s leading causes of death and illness.

Brazzaville, 24 April 2017 - The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) announced today that Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi will take part in a WHO-coordinated pilot implementation programme that will make the world’s first malaria vaccine available in selected areas, beginning in 2018. 

Entebbe, Uganda - The World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) convened a  high-level tow-day meeting on tobacco taxation to enable countries including Ethiopia Gambia Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda,  have a better knowledge of the Italy tax project and share experiences among each other. The meeting also provided  an opportunity to beneficiary countries to strengthen their present tobacco tax policies.

The World Health Organization on the significance of the vaccine pilot programme.

Zanzibar, 24 April 2017 : WHO and partners supported the Zanzibar Island to conduct a Joint External Evaluation (JEE) for IHR Core Capacities. The event was officiated by the Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Honorable Riziki Pembe Juma. Also present during the occasion were the Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Ms. Asha Abdala, Directors from the Ministry of Health, Agriculture and Livestock, Disaster Risk Management, and, representatives of various sectors and agencies and the external evaluators.

24 March 2017 – Geneva/Brazzaville/New York/Dakar:  More than 190 000 polio vaccinators in 13 countries across west and central Africa will immunize more than 116 million children over the next week, to tackle the last remaining stronghold of polio on the continent.