Feature Stories

Pretoria – One night in September 2023, 21-year-old university student Sinalo Tungwashe, who had been experiencing flu-like symptoms for some weeks, was roused from a fitful sleep by sharp chest pains. “I was struggling to breathe,” he recalls. “I knew that something was not normal. For a second, I thought I was about to die.”

Malabo ‒ Equatorial Guinea has made remarkable progress in its fight against tuberculosis (TB), with screening rates increasing significantly from 34% to 87% between 2020 and 2023. This progress is thanks to the implementation of a national strategy supported by World Health Organization (WHO) and the adoption of cutting-edge diagnostic tools.

Sokodé –​​​​ In Togo, the health landscape is characterized by high morbidity and maternal mortality rates. According to the National Health Development Plan (NHDP 2023–2027), the maternal mortality rate in 2021 was 399 deaths per 100 000 live births, a slight improvement from the 401 deaths per 100 000 live births reported in the 2013–2014 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS).

Luanda – When municipal health promotion supervisor Papa Diabanza underwent intensive training as part of a strategy to boost epidemiological surveillance and disease prevention in Angola, he became an important cog in the country’s renewed bid to leverage local communities in an effort to improve response time to health emergencies.

Dakar – ​​​​In Senegal, as in most countries in the African region, hospital-acquired infections are a major challenge. Also known as nosocomial infections, they are among the most frequently observed adverse events in the context of health service delivery. According to estimates from World Health Organization (WHO), in high-income countries seven out of 100 patients hospitalized in intensive care will contract at least one nosocomial infection during their stay in hospital. In low- or middle-income countries this number rises to 15.

Moroni ‒ In the Comoros, an oral health project supported by World Health Organization (WHO) and involving thousands of children aged 5–12 years, has provided free dental care and consultations to detect any associated heart disease. 

Oral diseases increase the risk of heart disease due to inflammation of the gums, as bacteria in the mouth can spread through blood vessels and cause serious infections such as endocarditis, or cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis and cardiac arrest.

Bujumbura – “It’s unacceptable that in 2024, children are still born with HIV,” says Novela Irakoze, a woman living who with HIV and advocate for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. “I was born with HIV and my goal is to protect children from experiencing what I did.”

Novela is part of a group called Mentor Mothers, which supports pregnant women living with HIV in receiving treatment to protect their babies from HIV.

Port Louis – Sutrajeet Ghuburrun was 16 when he smoked his first cigarette. Over the next 40 years, the taxi driver from Bel Air, a village in the east of Mauritius, smoked between 15 and 20 cigarettes a day. Although he had long known about the harms of smoking, it was only in 2022, following a coronary angioplasty (a procedure to open narrowed arteries), that he finally quit. He is now more health conscious: the 56-year-old says he has adopted a daily walking regimen and tries to sensitize those around him against this highly destructive habit.

Niamey ‒ In Niger, efforts are underway to mainstream screening for gynaecological cancers into primary health care services thanks to the WHO PEN approach, a WHO programme that aims to integrate the management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) into basic health care. This initiative, in its pilot phase, is being carried out in Mayahi District, Maradi Region, in the centre south of the country.