Latest news

Sixty-seventh session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa

WHO

28 August 2017 – The Sixty-seventh session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa opened in Zimbabwe today. Delegates will review recent progress and agree on next steps to safeguard the health of people throughout the region.

• Regional Committee for Africa
• Speech by WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros
• Consultation on the thirteenth General Programme of Work

• Cholera
• Emergencies
• Mothers and children
• Mudslides

Rapidly responding to cholera in north-eastern Nigeria

WHO/C.Onuekwe

30 August 2017 – WHO and partners are moving swiftly to help health authorities contain a cholera outbreak in a camp for internally displaced people in north-eastern Nigeria. A total of 69 cases have been reported in a camp on the outskirts of the state capital Maiduguri, which is home to 44 000 people displaced by conflict and famine.

• Read the story
• More on the crisis in Nigeria

Partnering to respond to health emergencies

WHO

25 August 2017 – WHO works together with partners to respond to public health needs in the most difficult situations, ranging from disease outbreaks to conflicts and natural disasters.

This photo gallery shows some of the work WHO has done with partners in recent and ongoing emergencies such as Ebola, Hurricane Matthew in Haiti, yellow fever in Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the earthquake in Ecuador.

• Feature story

Enabling mothers and children to survive, thrive, and transform

WHO

25 August 2017 – Since 1990, the global mortality rate for children under five years of age has dropped by 53% – yet nearly 6 million children still die each year from largely preventable causes.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros delivered a video address to the 2017 Acting On The Call conference, reaffirming WHO's commitment to ensuring that every woman, child and adolescent can survive, thrive and transform.

• Video address
• News release

Preventing spread of disease after Sierra Leone mudslide

WHO/S. Gborie

21 August 2017 – WHO is working closely with the Government of Sierra Leone to prevent the spread of infectious diseases such as malaria and cholera in the wake of last week’s mudslides and flooding in Freetown. The Organization is also working with partners to ensure ongoing health care for the injured and displaced, and to provide psychological aid to those coping with trauma.

• News release

Highlights

• Reaching key populations to prevent the spread of disease in Ethiopia
  August 2017 – In Ethiopia, thousands of pilgrims flock to holy water sites for spiritual cleansing and physical healing. People often drink the holy water and perform ceremonial cleansing, but there is a risk that these sites can be contaminated with bacteria, causing waterborne diseases.

• Breaking the link between disability and exclusion in Tajikistan
  August 2017 – Several hundred Tajik people developed impairments and now need long-term rehabilitation care following a large poliomyelitis (polio) outbreak in 2010, which also spread to 3 neighbouring countries. To improve the provision of and access to rehabilitation services for people with disabilities in Tajikistan, WHO set up a disability rehabilitation programme in 2013 that focuses on people affected by polio.

• WHO delivers medicines and medical supplies to Al-Qamishli, Syria
  August 2017 - For the first time in 3 years, WHO has delivered almost 30 tons of medicines and medical supplies by road to health facilities and mobile clinics in Al-Qamishli. The supplies will support the delivery of health services to displaced people from northern and eastern regions of Syria.

• WHO prequalifies first generic hepatitis C medicine and first HIV self-test
  July 2017 – In the lead-up to Paris AIDS conference, WHO today prequalified the first generic version of sofosbuvir, a critical medicine for the treatment of hepatitis C, as well as the OraQuick ® HIV Self-Test.