Ethiopia News

ADDIS ABABA | 15 July 2015 - On 14 July 2015, His Excellency, Mr Demeke Mekonnen, Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, launched an ambitious 10-year national strategy and plan of action to develop local pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity in order to increase access to locally manufactured, quality-assured, medicines. The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the European Union Commission and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provided technical assistance to the Government of Ethiopia in the development of this strategy, the first of its kind in the country.

The African Union First Ladies made a call for action on 31 January 2015 for continent-wide efforts, leadership and political commitment to kick polio out of Africa. The First Ladies agreed to advocate for a polio-free Africa as a top priority for their governments in 2015 at an event jointly organized by the Organization of African First Ladies Against HIV/AIDS (OAFLA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (WHO, Rotary, CDC and UNICEF) at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Jigjiga/Wardher, 9 February 2015 - A pledge of commitment for a polio-free Ethiopia was made on 8 February 2015 in Jigjiga and Warher at the launch of the polio national immunization days (NIDs) in Somali Regional State. Ethiopia has been polio free since 5 January 2014, but the risk of polio cases in Horn of Africa prevails. The campaign running until 11 February 2015 aims to reach over one million children under the age of five in the region.

Ethiopia's Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and development partners signed a Joint Financial Arrangement (JFA) on 15 July 2015 to commit resources to a pooled funding mechanism for health. The signing ceremony took place at the side-lines of the Third Financing for Development (FFD3) conference in Addis Ababa.

19 FEBRUARY 2015. GENEVA/LONDON/ADDIS ABABA – TheWorld Health Organization (WHO) urges affected countries to scale up their investment in tackling 17 neglected tropical diseases in order to improve the health and well-being of more than 1.5 billion people. This investment would represent as little as 0.1% of current domestic expenditure on health in affected low and middle income countries for the period 2015-2030.

WHO Urges Affected Countries to Invest More to Tackle Neglected Tropical Diseases

Ethiopia commemorates the World Hepatitis Day for the third time under the theme “prevent and act now” by expressing strong commitment to fight the viral Hepatitis disease that affects millions of its people.  The commemoration took place on 28 July 2015 at Saint Paul Hospital.

A recent expert estimate shows that nearly 10 million Ethiopians are living with viral Hepatitis and many more are becoming newly affected.

WHO and partners conduct Ebola assessments in 14 high risk countries in Africa

The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners conducted Ebola Virus Disease preparedness assessments in 14 countries in the African region in 2014. The assessment team visited Ethiopia 2-8 December 2014 to explore what systems were in place and what areas of preparedness could be strengthened.

The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states have signed a call for action to establish a regional medicine regulation collaboration and harmonization mechanism to fight illicit medicine circulation and improve availability of safe, effective and quality-assured medicines. Substandard/spurious/falsely labelled/falsified/counterfeit (SSFFC) medical products cost the lives of many people in the region.

Ethiopia launches national strategic action plan on non-communicable diseases and the Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership