News Releases

A major donation of azithromycin, an antibiotic, is being delivered to Cameroon, Central African Republic and the Republic of Congo to contribute to the ongoing efforts to eradicate yaws in the three countries that are among nine in Africa where the disfiguring and debilitating childhood infectious disease is still endemic.

It has been over a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and subsequently a global pandemic. The world has experienced a lot of uncertainty since then as we all get used to this new ‘normal’ with social distancing measures, lockdowns, the emergence of new variants, and an array of hope with the development of vaccines.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) is supporting the work of the World Health Organization (WHO) to boost COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and increase coverage in 15 African countries.

Inadequate investment and funding for tuberculosis (TB) control in Africa is jeopardizing the efforts to meet the global target of ending the disease by 2030, while the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to roll back progress made so far in the continent, an assessment by World Health Organization (WHO) finds.

With new COVID-19 cases significantly dropping, many countries are increasingly curtailing COVID-19 surveillance and quarantine measures. While the need to reopen economies and resume social life is important, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for caution and consideration of the risks involved. 

Hundreds of farmers in Migori County, Kenya will break free from risky tobacco farming and transition to producing more sustainable crops, through the Tobacco-Free Farms Project being launched today. 

Malawi will on Sunday launch the first round of vaccination campaigns against wild poliovirus type 1. More than 80 million doses will be administered to more than 23 million children under 5 years in the four-round vaccination drive in five southern African countries after Malawi declared an outbreak on 17 February—the first such case in the country in 30 years, and the first in Africa since the region was certified free of indigenous wild poliovirus in 2020. 

Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine uptake rose by 15% between January and February as several countries embarked on mass vaccination drives to expand coverage and protect populations against the adverse health impacts of the virus.

Nineteen-year-old Armande* recalls her disastrous first visit to a health centre. “It was awful,” says the teen from Kongo Central, in western Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I was younger then and looking for information on HIV, and the nurse there made fun of me in front of everyone because of my age.”

Disruptions to essential health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic are being felt broadly. As the world marks International Women’s Day, a new World Health Organization (WHO) analysis finds that women’s health services are far from being fully restored, with 40% of African countries reporting disruptions to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services.