Windhoek, 19 April 2011 -- WHO Director General Dr Margaret Chan will touch down on 23 April 2012 for a four-day visit to Namibia. Dr Chan’s visit coincides with World Malaria Day, 25 April which will be commemorated under the theme, “Sustain Gains. Save Lives. Invest in Malaria.” The high-level mission will focus on efforts to accelerate malaria control and elimination, among other priority issues.

Zvishavane, 13 April 2012 -- The Right Honorable Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was speaking at the commemoration of World Health Day in Zvishavane where he was the Guest of Honor. Zimbabwe commemorated World Health Day on 13th April under the theme Ageing and health: Good health adds life to years at Maglas Stadium in Zvishavane.

Tanzania like other WHO Member States has commemorated the World Health Day (WHD) 2012. The WHD 2012 was deferred as it coincided with Easter. Hence the Tanzania Government decided to postpone the WHD Occasion to 17th April in order to give it due prominence. The main planned activity was stakeholders’ advocacy and information dissemination. A Media advocacy session was organized on 17th April 2012 and it attracted larger than expected participation of the Media.

Brazzaville, 17 April 2012 -- African countries are gearing up for this year's launch of the African Vaccination Week (AVW) which will be observed throughout the region from 23 to 28 April under the theme "An unimmunized child is one too many. Give polio the final push."

The Sierra Leone Health Sector Steering Group (HSSG) held one of its regular meetings at the Conference Room of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) on Tuesday 17 April 2012. The meeting was Chaired by the Hon Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation and co-chaired by the Director of Planning and Information. In welcoming the partners, the Director of Policy, Planning and Information, Dr Magnus Gborie said that the regular meetings have helped to strengthen coordination among health partners in supporting the Joint Programme of Work and Funding (JPWF) 2012-2014.

The Sierra Leone Psychiatric Hospital with support from WHO, EU and the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) on 12 April presented the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme Intervention Guide (mhGAP-IG) to 21 mental health nurses-in-training at the psychiatric hospital in Freetown. The intervention guide was provided to the trainees for use during the course of their training and to guide them in identifying priority mental health conditions after completion.

Sierra Leone commemorated World Health Day (WHD) together with other WHO member states on 7 April on the theme: Ageing and Health, with the slogan: Good Health Adds Life to Years. Activities to mark the occasion included a 5 Kilometre walk along the Lumley-Aberdeen beach. The walk was facilitated by the Ministry of Health & Sanitation (MoHS) and WHO. It drew participants from different groups including sport clubs, UN agencies, NGOs, government departments and the general public.

A team of senior officials from the directorate of Post Graduate Training, Non-communicable Diseases and Research in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, on Thursday 29 March paid a courtesy call on the WHO Representative, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu. The purpose of the visit was to update Dr Alemu on the on-going support for the introduction of local post graduate training and Continuing Professional Development that WHO is supporting. The team was led by Dr Donald Bash Taqi, director of the programme.

World Tuberculosis (TB) Day was commemorated on 29 Match 2012 under the theme, “Stop TB in my Lifetime,” with an urgent call for ZERO TB DEATHS. This year’s event had a special focus on Childhood TB towards getting to ZERO.

Banjul, 09 April 2012 -- During the past couple of weeks The Gambia had been actively engaged in a series of international health events – synchronized polio NIDs, World TB Day and World Health Day respectively. The first in the series was the successful conduct of National Immunization Days against polio (NIDs) from 23 to 26 March 2012.