South Africa News

Honorable Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi
Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Gwen Ramokgoba
Director General of Health, Ms Precious Matsoso
Senior Government Officials from National and Provincial levels
Your Excellencies, Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Heads of Diplomatic Missions and Representatives of Development Partners of the health sector
Colleagues from the UN in South Africa
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen

Geneva, 29 November -- On 28 November, the Pretoria News published an article entitled “Alarm at hike in SA HIV infections”. The article states that “The World Health Organization […] sees worrying signs of accelerating incidence of the disease in some regions, notably in KwaZulu-Natal.” Further, it quotes the Director of the WHO HIV Department: “What is really of concern is that in certain parts such as KwaZulu-Natal there are still very high rates of transmission among very young people, among adolescents. It is in the range of 20-30 percent”.

Policy makers and key academics from multiple sectors including media, marketing and advertising, nongovernmental organizations and consumer organizations met at a two day dialogue to develop a research agenda that would support South Africa’s Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases 2013-2017.  The plan flows directly from targets set at the South African Summit on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable diseases and on the WHO global NCD monitoring framework.

The World Health Organisation is currently working with the National Department of Health and key stakeholders in planning the following:

WHO, at the request of South Africa's Department of Health, has been providing technical assistance with the development of the National Strategy on Community Mobilization for PMTCT to address late booking.

The World Health Organization, together with South Africa's National Department of Health have trained 110 Facilitators on the new WHO cost effective Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) facilitation methodologies covering the IMCI computerized adaptation training tool (ICATT) and distance learning IMCI (dIMCI).

31 October 2013 -- Vectors are small organisms such as mosquitoes, bugs, ticks and freshwater snails, that can carry disease from person to person and place to place. They can put our health at risk, at home and when we travel. The World Health Day 2014 campaign focuses on some of the main vectors and the diseases they cause and what we can all do to protect ourselves. Check the site regularly for tools and materials that will help you prepare for your World Health Day activities.

Cluster RSU Management Officers, ISTs Management Officers and HR Officers, Operations Officers from DRC and South Africa, including HR Assistants from Angola and Kenya are attending a training workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, to enhance their core competencies and develop skills and strategies for managing their work. It is expected that on completion the training, the attendants will have a more coordinated effort in: 

The WHO Country Office has an annual invitation to address the Executive National Security Programme (ENSP) of the South African National Defence College.  This year the topic was on the “World Health and Demographic Trends”.  Presented by Ms Mary Anne Groepe, WHO NPO/Malaria, the presentation provided deeper insight into the security implications of world health and demographic trends with specific reference, but not limited to, Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.  The presentation covered four areas:

WHO supported the National Department of Health in the national plan to introduce Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination among girls in Grade 4 (9 years and above) in public schools.  Among the many joint activities carried out included an assessment to provide on the ground support, identify gaps in planning and high risk factors timely enough to allow remedial action and ensure success. The assessment was carried out from 18 to 27 February in all South Africa’s nine provinces. The NDOH launched the HPV vaccination campaign nationwide in Bloemfontein on March 12, 2014.