News Releases

Brazzaville – Africa faces a chronic shortage of oral health workers due to underinvestment, leaving millions of people without adequate care and vulnerable to preventable oral diseases, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) workforce fact sheet on oral health released today. 

Brazzaville – The African region has made progress in lowering maternal mortality since 2000 but needs a 12-fold increase in the annual reduction rate to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) target of fewer than 70 deaths per 100 000 live births by 2030, new estimates by the United Nations Maternal Mortality Estimation Interagency Group show.

Apac, Uganda – Today, Uganda’s Ministry of Health, with support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and alliance partners, UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), PATH and CHAI rolled out a malaria vaccination campaign in Apac District, northern Uganda. This makes Uganda the 19th country in Africa to introduce the malaria vaccine into routine immunisation and it is the largest vaccine rollout to date in terms of target districts and population. 

Freetown, Sierra Leone – March 2025 – The Government of Sierra Leone, through the Ministry of Health’s Directorate of Policy, Planning, and Information, successfully conducted two critical assessments to evaluate and strengthen the country’s Health Information System (HIS). Held from 26 to 28 March 2025 at the Lumley Atlantic Hotel Conference Room in Freetown, the assessments were supported technically by the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office and financially by the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO-AFRO).

Brazzaville – The African region has recorded the steepest decline globally in tuberculosis (TB) deaths since 2015, despite falling short of key milestones to significantly lower the burden of the disease and end its toll on health and lives.

Deaths from TB fell by 42% between 2015 and 2023 while cases declined by 24% over the same period, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Report 2024.