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WHO Regional Office for Africa
Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa |

Coronavirus - Nigeria: Community informants employ mobile data collection tools to strengthen COVID-19 surveillance

WHO is supporting engagement of more than 670 Auto-Visual Acute Flaccid Paralysis Detection and Reporting (AVADAR) informants to conduct house-to-house COVID-19 surveillance

With the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria, WHO is supporting government to leverage on the existing  Auto-Visual Acute Flaccid Paralysis Detection and Reporting (AVADAR) system to strengthen community-based surveillance for the disease. In 731 wards across eleven (11) COVID-19 high risk states, WHO is supporting engagement of more…

WHO Regional Office for Africa
Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa |

Coronavirus - Africa: Polio eradication expertise backs Africa’s COVID-19 response

A quarter of World Health Organization (WHO) polio staff are dedicating more than 80% of their time towards COVID-19 efforts

Expertise in polio eradication that has put Africa on the verge of being certified free of wild poliovirus has been brought to the frontlines of COVID-19 fight. A network of responders from the World Health Organization (WHO) Polio Eradication Programme and partner organizations is providing critical resources and skills to…

WHO Regional Office for Africa
Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa |

Coronavirus - Benin goes on digital offensive against COVID-19

On the official pandemic website, the most visited portal, up to 16,000 hits are being registered per day

After the first case of COVID-19 was announced in Benin on the 16 March, within four days, the West African nation had set up a range of digital platforms to help combat both the spread of the disease and what the World Health Organization (WHO) has called “infodemic” of misinformation…

WHO Regional Office for Africa

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    • Dr Onyibe (right) leading other personnel on contact tracing
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Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa |

Coronavirus - Nigeria: Nigeria’s polio infrastructure bolster COVID-19 response

The polio programme was among their first calls for support for its human resources, technical expertise, disease surveillance and community networks, as well as its logistical capacity

When the Nigerian Government announced the first confirmed novel coronavirus (COVID-19) case in the country on the morning of February 27th, Dr Rosemary Onyibe was ready to report for duty. Dr Onyibe, who has worked with the Polio Eradication Initiative for more than 10 years, is the South West Nigeria…

WHO Regional Office for Africa
Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa |

The Future of Public Health Response is here: World Health Organization (WHO) Summit explains the lives it will save

The experience of Uganda and other countries is part of a four-day WHO summit this week in Brazzaville, Congo

It was the tenth outbreak for its neighbour, but it was the closest that Ebola virus disease had come to Uganda since 2012. When the first cases were reported in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in August 2018, only 200 km from their shared border, Uganda health authorities…

WHO Regional Office for Africa

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    • The Go.Data makes tracing people possibly exposed to Ebola more discreet and faster, says Léa Kanyere, a contact tracer in Goma
    • Léa Kanyere and Kavira Kasomo talk like old friends when actually the contact tracer (left) is checking for any potential exposure
    • Léa Kanyere, a contact tracer, from Mabolio District of Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo, is one of the first to be trained to use the Go.Data app
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Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa |

Speeding up detection to slow down Ebola: Smartphone app is game-changer for contact tracing in hotspots in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Go.Data is a major innovation in outbreak investigation tools for field data collection

Standing in front of her house, Kavira Kasomo chats with Léa Kanyere as if they are old friends. Kanyere shows Kasomo something on her mobile phone that makes her smile. Then Kanyere lends a hand as Kasomo hangs out her laundry. No one around them seems suspicious of Kanyere. The…

WHO Regional Office for Africa
Source: WHO Regional Office for Africa |

The mobile phone app that discovers disease and saves lives in Africa

The system allows WHO and health ministries to monitor in real time the visits that people and caregivers make to the most remote areas and to make sure that people most in need are being reached

What if a mobile phone could prevent a health epidemic? It may sound like science fiction, but the World Health Organization's (WHO) Polio Geographic Information System (GIS) Technology is doing just that in 43 countries in Africa. The idea is simple: Health workers visit remote villages to check if local…