Africa needs seven-fold rise in COVID-19 vaccine shipments

While Africa’s third wave continues to ease, 108 000 new cases were recorded, and more than 3000 lives lost in the week to 19 September

COVID-19 vaccine shipments to Africa must rise by over seven times from around 20 million per month to 150 million each month on average if the continent is to fully vaccinate 70% of its people by September 2022. The 70% target was agreed at the global COVID-19 summit hosted by…

Video News Release: WHO Africa Online Briefing

Guinea declares end of Marburg virus disease outbreak

WHO continues to support Guinea in its efforts to remain vigilant, maintain surveillance and build capacity to respond quickly to a possible resurgence of the virus

Guinea today declared the end of the Marburg virus disease outbreak having recorded no new cases over the past 42 days—two incubation periods, or the time between infection and the onset of symptoms. The virus was confirmed on 9 August, marking the first time the disease emerged in the country…

Coronavirus: Africa faces 470 million COVID-19 vaccine shortfall in 2021

About 95 million more doses are set to arrive in Africa via COVAX throughout September

As the COVAX Facility is forced to slash planned COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Africa by around 150 million this year, the continent faces almost 500 million doses short of the global year-end target of fully vaccinating 40% of its population. This shortfall comes as Africa tops 8 million COVID-19 cases…

Video News Release: WHO Africa Online Briefing

New study challenges understanding of pandemic preparedness and resilience in Africa

Our results show that we should not equate high levels of preparedness and resilience with low vulnerability

Countries in Africa assessed as being least vulnerable to an epidemic were the worst affected by COVID-19, new research suggests. Nations with more urban populations and strong international travel links were worst affected by the pandemic, the study shows. Mortality rates and levels of restrictions – such as lockdowns and…

Liberia Concludes Three-Day Training to Strengthen Event Based Surveillance through Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS)

EIOS is an important aspect of Event Based Surveillance as emphasized in the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy

To better detect acute public health events with pandemic potential and to monitor disease control measures on a real time basis, the National Institute of Public Health in Liberia (NPHIL) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) with support from World Health Organization (WHO) conducted a three-day workshop on Epidemic Intelligence…

Eritrea- Green Light Committee Monitoring Mission 2021

Eritrea conducted Green Light Committee monitoring mission during 9-18 August and 20-31 August 2021 by two TB experts namely TB Laboratory and TB Programmatic expert

The Green Light Committee (GLC) Initiative, together with the Working Group on MDR-TB, promotes implementation of the component two of the Stop TB Strategy that calls for the control and prevention of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) through: (i) increased access to quality-assured second-line anti-TB drugs; and (ii) prevention of development of…

Coronavirus: South Sudan receives its first consignment of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX Facility

The arrival of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine means that the country has now received a total of 271,200 COVID-19 vaccine doses

South Sudan received its first consignment of 152,950 doses of the Johnson & Johnson ‘Janssen’ COVID-19 vaccines today. These single dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines are the third batch of vaccine shipments to South Sudan through the COVAX Facility.   The first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines were shipped through…

WHO Logistics Hub Airlifts its Largest Single Shipment of Humanitarian Cargo to Ethiopia

WHO and partners are working closely to address the health needs of nearly 2.5 million people in the current crisis

The World Health Organization (WHO) Logistics Hub in Dubai delivered 85 metric tons of life-saving medical supplies to Ethiopia, the largest single shipment of humanitarian cargo to date airlifted by the Hub. The supplies including essential medicines, trauma and surgical medicines, infusions, consumables equipment and cholera kits were flown by…