Kyegegwa 12th October 2015: The Mass Measles Campaign was launched in Kyegegwa district at the Humura Primary School grounds under the theme ‘Uganda united against measles’. The key message to parents was to have their children immunized against the Vaccine Preventable Diseases (‘VPDs’).

Monrovia, 10 October 2015: At a sub-regional surveillance meeting, held on 5-6 October 2015 in Monrovia, health experts from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone discussed a regional surveillance strategy for Phase 3 of the Ebola response. This entails transitioning from a strategy exclusive to Ebola to one designed to detect Ebola as one of a range of notifiable diseases under the Infectious Diseases Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system.

According to different surveys conducted in Rwanda, the rate of Fully Immunized Children (FIC) has reached and maintained to more than 90% for several years. Due to high routine immunization coverage and periodic supplementary immunization activities (SIAs), the country is on track to meet global target of Vaccine preventable diseases control, elimination and eradication. In fact, the last case of wild polio virus was reported in 1993, neonatal tetanus has been eliminated in 2004 and Rwanda is in process to implement measles elimination mode of surveillance countrywide.

Cape Town, 6 October 2015 - The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti has underscored the critical role of health in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  Addressing delegates at the Second Ministerial Forum on China-Africa Health Development, in Cape Town, South Africa, Dr Moeti observed that although health is a desirable outcome of the SDGs in its own right and an input into other goals, it is a reliable measure of sustainable development.

Accra, 06 October, 2015 - WHO in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service organized a Multi-Country workshop from the 15-16 September 2015 at the Ghana Institute for Public Administration at Greenhill, Accra. The workshop themed “Epilepsy care, a shared responsibility” sought to emphasize the fact that one stakeholder cannot do it alone- That Care for people living with Epilepsy is a concerted effort by all stakeholders- health workers, family members, community members including faith-based and traditional healers.

Accra, 06 October, 2015 - The first WHO implementation workshop organized by the WHO/HIS/EMP in collaboration with the Ghana Food and Drugs Authority was held from 8-19 September at the Fiesta Royale Hotel in Accra. This workshop presented the opportunity for NRA’s in the African region to discuss regulations on Biologicals, vaccines, and other bio-therapeutics in the African region which is an entirely new experience for most NRAs in the African region.

Monrovia, 30 October 2015: Health workers and researchers in Liberia will soon gain access to the world’s largest online collection of biomedical and health literature following the signing of  a five-year license agreement between the Liberian Ministry of Health and  World Health Organization’s (WHO) HINARI program – Access to Research.

Johannesburg, 2 October 2015 - The South African government has established a Ministerial Advisory Committee on Mental Health which will be inaugurated on Friday, 2 October 2015. The WHO Representative in South Africa, provided a statement of support at the inauguration which was attended by the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, the Director-General of Health, Ms Precious Matsoso, members of the Ministerial Advisory Committee and other key stakeholders.

UN agencies have agreed to develop a joint work plan on antiretroviral (ART) adherence after the WHO in South Africa presented the current status and challenges of ART adherence to UN agencies. This followed a request by the UN Resident Coordinator on how UN agencies could contribute to improving adherence rates.

ART adherence is particularly important in South Africa which has the largest treatment program in the world and is rapidly expanding ART to over 3 million people and introducing new policies for earlier treatment initiation.

Mpumalanga, September 2015 - The World Health Organization with South Africa’s National Department of Health and partners including the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases have begun training Malaria Case Investigators to strengthen malaria surveillance efforts for the 2015/2016 malaria season.  The training is being held to ensure that case investigators are able to classify all malaria cases.