The Kingdom of Lesotho launched its National Cervical Cancer Screening Program on the 30th January 2013 at Sankatana Centre of Excellence in Maseru, with the assistance of the American People, through funding from the United States for International Development (USAID), and in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and EGPAF. The inauguration also celebrated a very important day which is celebrated every year on the 04th February, World Cancer Day, under the theme of “Know the fact about Cancer”.

Sierra Leone launched the first round 2013 polio immunization campaign on 24 January 2013 in Moyamba District. This was integrated with the Maternal and Child Health Week (MCHW) Campaign The event was launched by Dr Abu Bakarr Fofanah, Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). In his address Dr Fofanah stated that scaling up of maternal and child health services is a high priority on the government’s agenda. He urged the full participation of stakeholders for a successful outcome of the campaign.

Sierra Leone will conduct first round 2013 Maternal and Child Health Week (MCHW) Campaign from 24-28 January 2013. Preparations for the campaign are underway. Trainings/orientations were done for Civil Soci-ety Organizations (CSOs), Independent Monitors (IM), National Super-visors, Zonal and District Teams. The media have also been briefed for awareness raising and social mobilizations activities including street to street announcements are ongoing. Trainings of vaccinators/distributors commenced on 22 and will end 23 January in all the districts.

The Kingdom of Lesotho received United Nations Central Emergency Response Funds (CERF) following food insecurity after severe drought in July 2012. In anticipation of severe malnutrition and other childhood illnesses, the WHO Lesotho and other UN Agencies supported the government on nationwide training of health workers in health facilities.

The Ministry of Health conducted a two day consultative meeting to review three documents that are aimed at revitalizing Primary Health Care from the 05th to 06th December 2012.The documents include the Primary Health Care Strategy, Community Health Worker policy and Ministry of Health supervision policy. The Director General of Health Services, Dr. Moteetee in the Ministry of Health opened the workshop. State functionaries, UN agencies, other development partners, and health implementing partners attended this consultative meeting.

WHO reports unprecedented progress against 17 neglected tropical diseases, thanks to a new global strategy, a regular supply of quality assured, cost-effective medicines and support from global partners.

Brazzaville, 15 January 2013 – The African Advisory Committee on Health Research and Development has concluded its 27th session in Brazzaville, Congo with a range of recommendations aimed at improving health research in the Region.

Inside this issue:

Polio Campaign activities launched in 2012
Cross - Border Collaboration for Polio Eradication Activities
Rotarians praised during the debriefing of Cross border Synchronized SIAs
Ethiopia Observed World AIDS Day
Annual Review Meeting ended with recommendations to scale up Blood Transfusion Services
Training, Communication and Advocacy Workshops conducted on NTDs to boost Promotion, Prevention and Control

My name is Peter John Kisma, I am a polio campaign supervisor. I started doing this work in 2008 in Munuki Payam as a vaccinator. In 2009 I became a team leader and later a Boma supervisor. As a Boma supervisor I monitor the work of my teams at the payam level. When I was a team leader, I monitored and ensured that the teams assigned under my supervision were vaccinating all children in the Boma where we were allocated.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in collaboration with its health sector partners validated 2013 Sector Annual Operational Plan (AOP) in a two day workshop held on 8-9 January 2013. The AOP was developed by consolidating 19 Local Council Health Plans, 21 Hospital Plans and the Central Level Plan which were individually validated and finalized in November 2012 with the input of the health sector partners. The initial validation processes helped the sector to align and endorse plans at all levels based on the available resource envelop.