News Releases

Ebola vaccination of people at high risk kicked off today in Guinea as the emergency response was escalated to counter the spread of the virus that re-emerged in the country a little more than a week ago for the first time since 2016.

Africa marked the move from planning to action in the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines at a World Health Organization (WHO)-hosted African Health Ministers meeting on 17 February, as a rapid vaccine rollout is expected in the wake of the WHO listing of two versions of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.

With efforts gathering pace to promptly tackle the new Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) is deploying teams of experts to support the national authorities ramp up the response and avert widespread infections.

With efforts gathering pace to promptly tackle the new Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) is deploying teams of experts to support the national authorities ramp up the response and avert widespread infections.

Health authorities in Guinea today declared an outbreak of Ebola in the rural community of Gouéké in N’Zerekore prefecture after three Ebola cases were confirmed by the national laboratory, marking the first time the disease has been reported in the country since an outbreak ended in 2016.

Deaths from COVID-19 in Africa have surged by 40% in the last month, pushing Africa’s death toll towards 100 000 since the first reported case on the continent on 14 February 2020. This comes as Africa battles new, more contagious variants and gears up for its largest-ever vaccination drive.

The Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today announced that a new case of Ebola has been detected in Butembo, a city in North Kivu Province, where a previous outbreak was declared over in June 2020.

COVAX has notified countries in Africa of the estimated dose allocation for the first phase of COVID-19 vaccine delivery. The global initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi the Vaccine Alliance and The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) aims to start shipping nearly 90 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to the continent in February, in what will be Africa’s largest ever mass vaccination campaign.

Early cancer detection improves the chances of successful treatment, which presupposes the availability of equipped facilities and health workforce. Yet without the right information on prevention and care, many patients are diagnosed late, reducing their chances of survival. In her home state of Niger in North-Central Nigeria, Dr Amina Abubakar Bello, also the state’s first lady, is spearheading a campaign to improve awareness and treatment of breast and cervical cancers – the most common cancers in women in Nigeria.

COVID-19 cases and deaths are surging in Africa as new, more contagious variants of the virus spread to additional countries.