Eritrea News

World Health Day was nationally commemorated in Eritrea on April 7, 2011 under the theme, “Combat Drug Resistance: No action today, No cure tomorrow”.

The event was marked through a conference and a panel discussion on key issues on drug resistance in the presence of high officials from the Ministry of Health, physicians, pharmacists, Orotta School of Medicine and Asmara College of Health Science staff and students, UN representatives as well as community representatives.

Eritrea, adhering to the global commitments to tackle the appalling human and economic losses from road traffic accidents, launched the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.

The launching ceremony was held on the 11th of June 2011 in the capital city in the presence of government officials from the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transportation and communication, WHO and UNICEF representatives as well as representatives from key stake holders and the community.

To promote and sensitize all staff on the objectives of the international women’s day, the WHO Country Office marked the event on the 8th of March at the WCO Cafeteria.

The WR gave a brief opening remark that emphasized on the critical role the female staff members have on the day to day delivery of the WHO Eritrea Country Office. Female represent 64% of the WCO staff.

Eritrea has been officially certified free of Dracunculiasis transmission.

This was officiated with a Letter of Certification from the WHO Director General, Dr Margaret Chan, which was delivered by Dr Idrissa Sow, WHO Representative in Eritrea, to Ms Amina Nurhusien, the Minister of Health in December 2011.

Eritrea is among the nine countries certified by the International Commission for the Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication (ICCDE) in 2011. In the African region, three countries namely Burkina Faso, Eritrea and Togo were certified dracunculiasis free.

The Ministry of Health, with the support of WHO, conducted a national TB program review from 15 to 23 March 2012.

The review was conducted with a technical support of a team of five external reviewers from the WHO Regional Office, IST, WHO Kenya and Zambia, National TB Program Manager and Lab Specialist from Malawi.

The objective of the review was to conduct an in-depth review of the status of prevention and control interventions of the TB control program in Eritrea from 2004 to 2011.

One of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) aims at improving maternal health - MDG 5. The two targets of this goal are reducing by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio; and achieving, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health.

According to a WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA and World Bank 2012 report, “Trends in maternal mortality: 1990 to 2010”, the annual number of maternal deaths dropped from more than 543,000 to 287,000 – a decline of 47 per cent.

Over 500,000 children have been protected against eight killer but vaccine-preventable diseases -tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, measles and hepatitis B, and homophillus influenza B - throughout the country during the 2nd African Vaccination Week (AVW).

This was held integrated with other activities as a Child Health, Nutrition and Vaccination week from April 28 to May 02, 2012 in Eritrea.

The interventions of the campaign included:

World No Tobacco Day was nationally commemorated in Eritrea on the 2nd of June 2012 under the theme, “Tobacco industry interference.” The event was marked at the capital city in Asmara through an advocacy meeting that was organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Regional MoH office with the support of the WHO Country Office.

World Breastfeeding Week 2012 was observed in Eritrea under the theme, “Understanding the past – planning for the future.” It was nationally celebrated from 1 to 7 August.

The objective of the event was to raise awareness of the community on the advantages of breastfeeding. Various awareness activities were carried out in the country.

The event was officially opened by Dr Andebrhan Tesfatsion, acting Director General of Public Health Division. He elaborated on the successes and achievements Eritrea has made in breastfeeding.

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