Luanda, 23 March 2016 – Two months after the first yellow fever cases were confirmed in the Viana municipality, Luanda province, the Angolan authorities and health partners involved in the outbreak response are facing new challenges with reports of local transmissions in other Provinces of the country. In spite of all the efforts made since 21 January 2016, ten out of the eighteen provinces in Angola continue reporting yellow fever cases with a a total of 459 confirmed cases and 178 deaths to date.

Yei Town, 22 March 2016 - South Sudan’s largest ever immunization  campaign was launched  by the Minister of Health, Dr Riek Gai Kok amidst large crowd of youths in the presence of the State Governor, Parliamentarians, government sectors and cross-section of stakeholders including religious and community leaders and partners in Yei River State.

Juba, 19 March 2016 - WHO country office held a three-day workshop for state focal points from 17 to 19 March 2016 at Juba Regency Hotel.

The objective of the workshop was to strengthen the capacity of WHO state focal points and Health Cluster Coordinators to develop substantive knowledge in the overall WHO technical outputs as well as Coordination related skills that will improve the performance of WHO and Health Cluster operations in South Sudan in line with the smart technical focus of the WHO/AFRO Transformation Agenda.

Ethiopia commemorated World Cancer Day under the global theme “We can. I can.” by inaugurating a comprehensive cancer treatment center in Addis Ababa in Woreda Eight Health Center on 6 February 2016. The center is the first ever at woreda (district) level and second in the country Black Lion Specialized Hospital. 

At a landmark Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa held from 24-25 February 2016 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, African ministers of health and other line ministers signed a declaration to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against vaccine-preventable diseases and to close the immunization gap by 2020.

At a lunch meeting organized by GAVI – the Vaccine Alliance on the Unfinished Business of Immunization during the Ordinary General Assembly of the Organisation of African First Ladies against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), immunization partners and OAFLA came together to renew their commitment to complete the “unfinished business with child health in Africa”. 

Brazzaville, 18 March 2016 - The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti will begin a 4 day official visit to China from 22 to 25 March 2016 at the invitation of the Chinese government. The visit is aimed at further exploring areas of mutual interest in health with a view to having a more structured collaboration between WHO and the Chinese government.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti visited Ethiopia on 22-26 February 2016 to lead the historic first-ever Ministerial Conference on Immunization in Africa organized by the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions of the World Health Organization together with the African Union Commission.

Dr Moeti also spoke at the Meningitis Vaccine Project closure conference held ahead of the First Ministerial Conference on Immunization. 

Guinea, (Nzérékoré), 18 March 2016 - Two cases of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) out of four suspected cases admitted at the Nzérékoré Ebola Treatment Centre have just been confirmed. All the cases are from the same family in Koropara Sous-préfecture in the south of Guinea.
Alert and response