14 November 2016 – On Friday, at the landmark West African Regional Conference on One Health in Dakar, Senegal, ministers of health, agriculture and wildlife renewed their commitment to working together to prevent and respond early to public health threats across West Africa. The collaboration comes as the region approaches the three year mark since the first Ebola case in the recent outbreak.

WHO has delivered two IEHKs (Interagency Emergency Health Kits) to the Maiduguri State Specialist Hospital and one IEHK to the Umaru Sehu Hospital in Maiduguri. Each kit contains essential medicines and medical supplies to treat 10,000 people for three months.

Malaria and Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) modules were also provided as part of these kits.

Moreover, WHO delivered 15,500 Malaria RDTs to the Malaria Control Unit of the Borno State Ministry of Health.

Suspected Measles cases continue to spur across IDPs camps spite ongoing routine immunization activities. As part of a phase I measles campaign, Borno State Ministry of Health and partners conducted reactive measles vaccination in three camps: Muna Garage, Custom House and Fariya informal camp.

The total vaccinated children aged 6 months to 15 years was 13,537 with vaccination coverage of 98.2%.

Reactive measles vaccination campaigns are ongoing targeting 16 camps in MMC and Jere LGAs.

Eritrea observed the World Diabetes Day 2016 at Cinema Roma on the 12 November 2016 in Asmara under the theme “Eyes on Diabetes”. The ceremony began with students parade from Bahtimeske to Cinema Roma with banners and caps featuring key messages of the day.

Francistown, Botswana, 11 November 2016 -  Botswana National TB Program held Training of Trainers Workshop, in collaboration with the City of Francistown, with the objective of building a network of trainers that are skilled in training methodologies meant to improve TB Programme performance outcomes. These trainers will in turn capacitate District Health Care workers on TB management. This was necessitated by the changing landscape of TB and attrition of current trainers.

South Africa’s Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), as part of the country’s October Transport Month, hosted the National Schools Road Safety Debate and Participatory Education Techniques (PETs) competitions finals from 03-07 October 2016. The competing participants were learners in grades 10 and 11 provincial finalists who are themselves at-risk on roads as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, novice drivers, and passengers.

Thirty-four Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) Managers from fifteen Anglophone countries attended a two weeks (10-21 October, 2016) WHO AFRO Mid-Level Managers Training Course in Pretoria, South Africa. Participants were trained on 16 revised WHO AFRO EPI modules.

Monrovia 10th November, 2016 - The Ministry of Health of Liberia held the 8th Joint Annual Health Sector Review Conference that reviewed the first year of implementation of the Investment Plan for Building a Resilient Health System (2015-2020).  The conference held at Paynesville City Hall in Monrovia from  7th to  9th November, 2016 run under the theme “Reflecting the Gains: Building a Resilient and Sustainable Health System in Liberia Post Ebola”.

WHO has donated lifesaving medical supplies to three health sector partners responding to the emergency health needs of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Borno State, Nigeria.

The WHO 2016 sponsored CNN Multichoice Best African Health and Medical Journalism award has been won by Ms Veronica Narkwor-Kwabla, of Tv3 Network, Ghana, for her documentary Ebola Orphans.   According to the judging panel, her documentary filed from Liberia and Sierra Leone shone a light on some of the ostracized children who are seeking new families. The question she examined was how the two countries will recover from the crisis that crippled health care systems, families and businesses.