The leishmaniases are a group of diseases caused by Leishmania spp., which occur in cutaneous, mucocutaneous and visceral forms. They are neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which disproportionately affect marginalized populations who have limited a...ccess to health care. HIV co-infected patients with Leishmania infection are highly infectious to sandflies, and an increase in the coinfection rate in an endemic area is likely to increase the effective infective reservoir.
more
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a category of chronic, disabling, and at times disfiguring diseases and conditions that occur most commonly in the setting of extreme poverty. Historically, NTDs have received less attention and funding when compared to other diseases occurring in the same regi...ons of the world. Several NTDs have internationally agreed upon targets for their control, elimination, and eradication. Nineteen countries in the WHO African Region have successfully eliminated at least one NTD, however recent gap analyses identified moderate to severe gaps across technical, strategy and service delivery, and enabling factors. This report summarizes the findings of a scoping review of published literature undertaken to highlight control, elimination, and eradication efforts towards NTDs across the WHO African Region over the last 30 years.
more
The Transformation Agenda (TA) ushered in an ambitious reform process intended to transform the World Health Organization (...o-highlight medbox">WHO) into an organization that is proactive, results-driven, accountable and which meets stakeholder expectations, towards transforming and improving public health services in the African Region. It aimed to achieve a WHO that is pro-results, which optimally and creatively targets technical work as well as make operations more responsive, with greater effectiveness in both communications and partnerships. The Africa Region has been the epicentre of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic and it’s one of the leading causes of disease and death on the continent. The WHO, with partners, has worked tirelessly for many years to control the threat and reduce the negative impact of the disease. Since the early 2000s, significant progress has been made in the global fight against the scourge of HIV. However, the WCA subregion was falling concerningly behind ESA on several key indicators of progress. In 2016, the WHO joined UNAIDS, UNICEF and other partners in a call for a strong and urgent response to support WCA countries to develop catch-up plans to triple and fast-track ART coverage, to enable the region to catch up with ESA by the end of 2020. Implementation of a widespread test-and-treat strategy, coupled with the scale-up of differentiated service delivery (DSD) and mobilization of requisite funding, accelerated WCA’s progress towards this goal. The HIV treatment catch-up and fast-track plan has achieved its target of seeing the West and Central African region (WCA) catch up with the Eastern and Southern African region’s (ESA) antiretroviral coverage rate of 78% in 2021, albeit later than the 2020 target time frame. A 33% improvement was achieved in WCA, against 21% in ESA, between 2015–2020. WCA achieved a significant 42% increase, compared to ESA’s 23%, between 2015 and 2021, to see WCA draw level with ESA at 78%. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone, progress of up to 47% was observed between 2015 and 2020, for example. In addition, 1.6 million more People Living with HIV (PLHIV) were enrolled on antiretroviral treatment (ART) between 2015 and 2020.
more
The African Region has been experiencing unprecedented health challenges due to the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which have compounded the already difficult task the Region was facing in moving towards universal ...te-to-highlight medbox">health coverage (UHC) attainment.
more
The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases 2010 projec...ts that noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) will be responsible for over 44 million deaths during the next decade, representing an increase of about 15% since 2010. Most of these deaths will occur in the WHO regions of Africa, South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. In the African Region alone, NCDs will cause around 3.9 million deaths by 2020.
more
n 2015, Member States of the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its accompanying Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the third goal of the agenda focusing on health – good ...ght medbox">health and well-being. This has the attainment of universal health coverage (UHC) as its umbrella target. Since then, the WHO Regional Office for Africa has been supporting countries plan, and monitor progress towards this goal. This report represents an analysis of the evidence so far countries are making towards this goal, and includes the effect COVID-19 has had on its attainment so far. It also makes recommendations on how countries can prioritize their health actions post COVID-19, in a manner that allows acceleration of progress towards UHC.
more
It provides insight into WHO’s work that aims to improve the health of the people of the United Republic of Tanzania in collaboration with key stakeholders.
Anopheles stephensi is a mosquito species that is capable of transmitting both Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax malaria parasites. Unlike the other main mosquito vectors of malaria, it thrives in urban and man-made environments. Originally native to parts of South Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, A...n. stephensi has been detected, to date, in 7 countries in the African continent.
more
During the Programme Managers’ Review Meeting of Central and East Africa and South-East Asia (online meeting, June 2022), experts proposed additional regional and national subtargets related to VL incidence, as defined below. These targets can be ...revisited as progress is reviewed and access to diagnosis and treatment and surveillance improves.
more
This document offers guidance to Member States in the African region on the key steps used to conduct contact tracing related to the COVID-19 response. It is to be used by national and local health authorities in the implementation of tracing of con...tacts of probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
more
Africa is off track to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and lags behind in building resilient health systems
and health security, a...gainst a backdrop of limited resources. The world envisaged a significant role for governments
in funding the Sustainable Development Agenda, but inadequate funding for health in African countries is
persistent, despite additional continental commitments to address the problem. When commitments to global health
targets and available fiscal space do not align, innovation is warranted.
more
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has determined that the upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa constitutes a pub...lic health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR). Dr Tedros’s declaration came on the advice of an IHR Emergency Committee of independent experts who met earlier in the day to review data presented by experts from WHO and affected countries. The Committee informed the Director-General that it considers the upsurge of mpox to be a PHEIC, with potential to spread further across countries in Africa and possibly outside the continent.
more
WHO needs US$2.54 billion to provide life-saving assistance to millions of people around the world facing health emergencies. ...e-to-highlight medbox">WHO’s Health Emergency Appeal is a consolidation of WHO’s priorities and financial requirements for 2023 to carry out health interventions in emergency and humanitarian responses. The number of people in need of humanitarian relief has increased by almost a quarter compared to 2022, to a record 339 million. WHO is responding to an unprecedented number of intersecting health emergencies: climate change-related disasters such as flooding in Pakistan and food insecurity across the Sahel in the greater Horn of Africa; the war in Ukraine; and the health impact of conflict in Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria and north eastern Ethiopia – all of these emergencies overlapping with the health system disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and outbreaks of measles, cholera, and other killers. Contributions to the appeal can be fully flexible, flexible across a region, or flexible within a country appeal.
more