In 2016, there were approximately 25,000 cases of measles among children in Nigeria, 97% of the cases were in children under the age of ten and at least a hundred children died.

The measles vaccination campaign, conducted in partnership with Nigerian government, WHO and several non-governmental organizations, also included vitamin A supplement for all children under five to boost their immunity and as well deworming tablets. Under the mass measles vaccination campaign across Borno state, 2,608,090 children have been vaccinated out of target of total 3,113,620 children of age group 6 months to 10 years in 25 LGAs with 84% coverage.

Monrovia 28th January, 2017 - Sinoe County is the second least densely populated county in Liberia with a population of 102,391. The County has one hospital and 34 clinics with a total of two Medical Doctors, 18 Physician Assistants and 67 Nurses. 41% of the population of the county live more than 5km away from any health facility. Some communities are hard to reach or inaccessible due to heavy forest cover and rivers which include Japuken community which has no health facility.

Alerts are based on 7 weekly reportable diseases in the national IDSR reporting format (IDSR 002) and 8 additional diseases/health events of public health importance in the IDP camps and IDP hosting areas.

Borno State Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin, 09 - 15 January

31 January 2017, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Today, Heads of State from across Africa adopted a Declaration on Universal Access to Immunization in Africa, in which they endorsed the Addis Declaration on Immunization, a historic and timely pledge to ensure that everyone in Africa – regardless of who they are or where they live – receives the full benefits of immunization. The endorsement was issued during the 28th African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

As part of its endeavors to ensure the health and wellbeing of its people, including women and children, Ethiopia has committed to eliminate female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriage by 2025.  In line with this, the Ministry of Health banned medicalization of FGM in all public and private medical facilities in the country.  As per the circular passed on 4 January 2017, medical personnel who engage in any form of FGM in medical facilities will be subjected to legal action.

The Director General of Health services in Ministry of Health (MoH), Uganda, Prof. Anthony Mbonye recently launched the National HIV Testing services policy and implementation guidelines that would enable Uganda reduce by half the number of HIV infected individuals and at the same time increase those who know their status.

The national measles vaccination campaign commenced on the 13th January targeting all children aged from 6 months to 10 years in accessible areas in Borno State has reached a total of 1,807,490 in 10 LGAs during the first 5 days of the campaign.

Dozens of people were killed after a Nigerian military plane mistakenly dropped a bomb inside the Rann IDP camp in Kale/Balge LGA. Several ICRC and MSF colleagues were reported as casualties.

Lusaka, 25 January 2017 - The WHO Country Office in Zambia is conducting the last in the series of workshops aimed at orienting senior managerial, finance and technical staff of the Ministry of Health on WHO’s business rules from 19 - 27 January 2017.

The national measles vaccination campaign commenced on the 13th January targeting all children aged from 6 months to 10 years in accessible areas in Borno State has reached a total of 1,807,490 in 10 LGAs during the first 5 days of the campaign.