News Releases

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. 

In a landmark collaboration to promote health equity for mobile and displaced populations, the World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with the National Department of Health (NDOH), conducted a week-long Health System Review and an Agenda initiative focused on health, migration, and displacement in South Africa.

Dar es Salaam – Tanzania today declared the end of Marburg virus disease outbreak after recording no new cases over 42 days since the death of the last confirmed case on 28 January 2025.

The outbreak, in which two confirmed and eight probable cases were recorded (all deceased), was the second the country has experienced. Both this outbreak, which was declared on 20 January 2025, and the one in 2023 occurred in the north-eastern Kagera region.

Kampala – Uganda today discharged eight patients who had been receiving treatment for Sudan virus disease – which belongs to the same family as Ebola virus disease – after two negative tests carried out 72 hours apart. 

The recovered patients were receiving care at treatment centres in the capital Kampala and in Mbale, a town in the east of the country. A total of 216 contacts are currently being monitored in quarantine centres at various facilities in the country. 

Brazzaville – An estimated 135 000 women could lose their lives to breast cancer by 2040 in sub-Saharan Africa if urgent actions are not taken to reverse the trends, a new World Health Organization (WHO) report finds.