Sierra Leone Events

WHO Africa Online Press Briefing on COVID-19 and health worker infections in Africa

23 Julho 2020

Ask your questions to the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti

Please join an online media briefing with the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, Ministers of Health of Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone and International Maternal Health & Midwifery Specialist from Ghana. The briefing is on-the-record and it is an opportunity for you to ask questions about the COVID-19 and health worker infections in Africa. The media briefing is facilitated by APO Group.

Speakers include:

- Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa
- Hon Dr Léonie Claudine Lougue, Minister of Health of Burkina Faso
-  Hon Dr Alpha T. Wurie, Minister of Health and Population of Sierra Leone
-  Dr. Jemima A. Dennis-Antwi, International Maternal Health & Midwifery Specialist

Date: Thursday 23 July
Time: 12:00 Brazzaville/Kinshasa Time GMT +1 / 13:00 Central Africa Time  / 14:00 Nairobi Time

Moderated by: 
Tsepiso Makwetla, Journalist

Language: English/ French

To attend, please register athttps://apo-opa.com/who/

Interpretation will be provided in French. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with details on how to access the event.

You can send questions in advance in English or French. Please email Collins Boakye-Agyemang: boakyeagyemangc [at] who.int and Danielle Siemeni: ngom [at] who.int with your full name, your country and your media organization. Anonymous questions will not be accepted.

You can also ask questions live during the briefing using the Q&A function in Zoom. Please specify your full name, your country and the media organization you work for.

World No Tobacco Day

31 Maio 2018

World No Tobacco Day

Tobacco and heart disease

Date: 31 May 2018

Every year, on 31 May, WHO and partners mark World No Tobacco Day, highlighting the health and other risks associated with tobacco use, and advocating for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption.

The focus of World No Tobacco Day 2018 is "Tobacco and heart disease." The campaign will increase awareness on the:

link between tobacco and heart and other cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including stroke, which combined are the world’s leading causes of death;
feasible actions and measures that key audiences, including governments and the public, can take to reduce the risks to heart health posed by tobacco.
World No Tobacco Day 2018 coincides with a range of global initiatives and opportunities aimed at addressing the tobacco epidemic and its impact of public health, particularly in causing the death and suffering of millions of people globally. These actions include the WHO-supported Global Hearts and RESOLVE initiatives, which aim to reduce cardiovascular disease deaths and improve care, and the third United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of NCDs , being held in 2018.

How tobacco endangers the heart health of people worldwide

World No Tobacco Day 2018 will focus on the impact tobacco has on the cardiovascular health of people worldwide.

Tobacco use is an important risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease.

Despite the known harms of tobacco to heart health, and the availability of solutions to reduce related death and disease, knowledge among large sections of the public that tobacco is one of the leading causes of CVD is low.

Facts about tobacco, heart and other cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) kill more people than any other cause of death worldwide, and tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure contribute to approximately 12% of all heart disease deaths. Tobacco use is the second leading cause of CVD, after high blood pressure.

The global tobacco epidemic kills more than 7 million people each year, of which close to 900 000 are non-smokers dying from breathing second-hand smoke. Nearly 80% of the more than 1 billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest.

The WHO MPOWER measures are in line with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and can be used by governments to reduce tobacco use and protect people from NCDs. These measures include:

Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies;
Protect people from exposure to tobacco smoke by creating completely smoke-free indoor public places, workplaces and public transport;
Offer help to quit tobacco (cost-covered, population-wide support, including brief advice by health care providers and national toll-free quit lines);
Warn about the dangers of tobacco by implementing plain/standardized packaging, and/or large graphic health warnings on all tobacco packages, and implementing effective anti-tobacco mass media campaigns that inform the public about the harms tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure.
Enforce comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and
Raise taxes on tobacco products and make them less affordable.
Goals of the World No Tobacco Day 2018 campaign

World No Tobacco Day 2018 aims to:

Highlight the links between the use of tobacco products and heart and other cardiovascular diseases.
Increase awareness within the broader public of the impact tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke have on cardiovascular health.
Provide opportunities for the public, governments and others to make commitments to promote heart health by protecting people from use of tobacco products.
Encourage countries to strengthen implementation of the proven MPOWER tobacco control measures contained in the WHO FCTC.

Find out more
 

Global Hand Hygiene Day

5 Maio 2018

Every year WHO joins governments, health workers and partners in promoting clean hands, as a key intervention for preventing the spread of healthcare-associated infections.

This year the theme is 'It’s in your hands – prevent sepsis in health care.'
Health care-associated infections, infections acquired during health care delivery, are a risk factor for developing sepsis . Effective hand hygiene plays a key role in their prevention. 

5 May 2018 calls to action
Health workers: “Take 5 Moments to clean your hands to prevent sepsis in health care."
IPC leaders: “Be a champion in promoting hand hygiene to prevent sepsis in health care.”
Health facility leaders: "Prevent sepsis in health care, make hand hygiene a quality indicator in your hospital.”
Ministries of health: "Implement the 2017 World Health Assembly sepsis resolution. Make hand hygiene a national marker of health care quality."
Patient advocacy groups: "Ask for 5 Moments of clean hands to prevent sepsis in health care."

Activities

In Sierra Leone, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation plans to commemorate the event with healthcare workers, to help raise awareness on sepsis prevention and the role of hand hygiene.

You too can get involved. We call on health workers and pharmacists to help organise events at your health facility or hospital, or support our outreach and campaigns.

Remember, hand hygiene saves lives.

Find out more:

http://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/clean-hands/5may2018/…

World TB Day 2018

24 Março 2018

World TB Day celebrated on 24 March each year, is an opportunity to raise awareness about the burden of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide and the status of TB prevention and care efforts. It is also an opportunity to mobilize political and social commitment for further progress in efforts to end TB.

TB is the ninth leading cause of death worldwide and the leading cause from a single infectious agent, ranking above HIV/AIDS. Over 25% of TB deaths occur in the African Region. The emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) poses a major health security threat and could risk gains made in the fight against TB.

World TB Day provides the platform for affected persons and communities, civil society organizations, health-care providers, policy makers, development partners and others to advocate, discuss and plan further collaboration to fulfil the promise of reaching all people with quality TB prevention and care services, as well as enabling TB prevention through multisectoral development efforts.

The theme of World TB Day 2018 - “Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world”- focuses on building commitment to end TB, not only at the political level with Heads of State and Ministers of Health, but at all levels from Mayors, Governors, parliamentarians and community leaders, to people affected with TB, civil society advocates, health workers, doctors or nurses, NGOs and other partners. All can be leaders of efforts to end TB in their own work or terrain.

WHO Sierra Leone Lunchtime seminar on Universal Health Coverage

22 Março 2018

Lunchtime seminar on Universal Health Coverage

“No one should have to choose between death and financial hardship. No one should have to choose between buying medicine and buying food.” Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of WHO.

Date: 22 March 2018, from 12pm-1pm. 
Speaker: Dr Selassi Amah D'Almeida
Venue: WHO Country Office
             Riverside Drive, Off King Harman Road
             Freetown
kakayb [at] who.int (RSVP)kakayb [at] who.int