Directorate of Drug and Medical Supplies in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation held a technical stakeholders consensus meeting from 11-12 January 2012 to further deliberate on the draft National Medicines Policy, National Essential Medicines Lists, Standard Treatment Guidelines, and National Formulary. Updating of the Na-tional Medicines Policy and its component documents and their sub-sequent implementation seek to strengthen pharmaceutical care de-livery in the country.

16 January 2012 – There is a threat of malnutrition and possible vector-borne, water borne and respiratory tract disease outbreaks among the displaced population in Pibor county.

The displacement follows intertribal clashes in the last week of December 2011 and first week of January 2012, in which over 60 000 people from Pibor, Lekuangole, Fertait, Bilait, Dorein and many other areas were displaced, with many reported wounded or dead.

16 January 2012, Brazzaville -- The 130th Session of the World Health Organization's Executive Board is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland from 16 – 23 January 2012.

Government of Sierra Leone and Health partners on 19 December 2011 signed the Country Compact which was witnessed by His Excellency the President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma. In His statement, the President thanked the health sector for their commitment to work in a more coordinated manner to meet the Millennium Development Goals.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in partnership with its stakeholders organized a two-day retreat from December 15 to 16, 2011. The retreat brought together key stakeholders under MoHS leadership to review and agree on key policy areas of focus in the medium-term as provided for by the country compact.

In December, 2010, WHO announced the official endorsement of the new Xpert molecular technology.

Xpert MTB/RIF has been described by many as a revolutionary breakthrough in the fight against TB. Xpert MTB/RIF detects M. tuberculosis as well as Rifampicin-conferring resistant mutations and provides results within 100 minutes. It is an automated cartridge-based Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) for TB based on the GeneXpert multi-disease platform.

Lesotho, often called the "Kingdom in the sky", has one of the highest rates of new tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world. The lack of health-care facilities in remote areas makes it hard for people with TB to get tested and treated, so the disease spreads quickly through communities.

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The Ministry of Health of Rwanda in collaboration with WHO organized a two day workshop from 13th to 14th December 2011 to define priority operation/implementation research questions. The role of operation/implementation research is significantly to improve access to efficacious health interventions by developing practical solutions to common, critical problems in the implementation of these interventions. Therefore the workshop objectives were:

Sierra Leone commemorated World AIDS Day 2011 on 1 December on a theme “Getting to zero new infection by 2015” with the campaign slogan, „Believe it! Do it!. The Day is commemorated every year to heighten awareness, promote the existing available services, advocate for positive attitudes towards people living with the disease as well as to reflect and renew commitments on the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) completed a three day training workshop for the National Rapid Response Team members in Freetown from December 6-8, 2011. The training is part of MOHS’s efforts to strengthen the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) programme in the country.