News Releases

To efficiently provide treatment to people needing urgent medical care during epidemic situations, the Ministry of Health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are this week training inaugural members of the country’s first national emergency medical units for epidemics.

WHO prequalifies an Ebola vaccine for the first time, a critical step to speeding licensing, access and roll-out in countries most at risk of Ebola outbreaks. It marks the fastest vaccine prequalification process by WHO.

Tanzania is among African countries facing a growing scourge of non-communicable diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) comprise just above 30 percent of all deaths in Tanzania. WHO and partners are supporting country efforts to address NCDs through a two-pronged approach: development of national level guidelines and policies and, promoting integration of health precepts in non-health sector policies.

Nine middle-income countries in Africa have agreed to work towards pooled procurement mechanisms by first sharing vital information on their vaccine purchasing practices, including the prices they pay and their suppliers. Sharing information and ultimately pooling their orders will better leverage their individual purchasing power and thus strengthen their vaccine security and increase their access to affordable life-saving vaccines.

The interministerial technical secretariat of the response to the Ebola outbreak, the Ministry of Health and their partners from the United Nations (the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and  the United Nations Emergency Ebola Response Operations (UNEERO)) condemn in the strongest possible terms the violence that took place last night in Lwemba in Ituri Province, in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The second phase of an oral vaccination campaign to protect more than 835 000 people from cholera in the North Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) begins today. While North Kivu has been struggling with an outbreak of Ebola virus disease for more than a year, this north-eastern province is also endemic for cholera.

Universal access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) is one of the key components of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 and 5 and contributes to the achievement of all the other SDGs. Sadly however, in Africa the SRHR goals are those that made little progress during the MDG era where no country in the African Region achieved the target on universal access to reproductive health.

The African Academy of Sciences and WHO unveil strategic partnership to strengthen technology and innovations aimed at promoting good health and well-being in Africa.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo and its nine neighbouring countries endorse a joint framework to strengthen cross-border collaboration on preparedness and response to Ebola virus and other disease outbreaks.

To curb smoking and the many diseases related to tobacco, Rwanda increased the tax on cigarettes. The country joins Benin, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal and Togo in implementing WHO-supported tax reforms on cigarettes.