News Releases

Africa cuts HIV infections, deaths but key targets still elusive

Africa has made significant progress against HIV over the past decade, reducing new infections by 43% and nearly halving AIDS-related deaths. However, the continent is unlikely to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 with many countries falling behind key elimination milestones and COVID-19 aggravating challenges, an analysis by World Health Organization (WHO) finds.

Botswana is first country with severe HIV epidemic to reach key milestone in the eli...

Botswana has become the first high-burden country to be certified for achieving an important milestone on the path to eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV by the World Health Organization (WHO). High-burden HIV countries are defined as those with more than 2% of pregnant women living with the virus. Botswana has achieved the “silver tier” status, which moves it closer to eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission. WHO awards this certification to countries which have brought the mother-to-child HIV transmission rate to under 5 %; provided antenatal care and antiretroviral treatment to more than 90 % of pregnant women; and achieved an HIV case rate of fewer than 500 per 100,000 live births.

Striving for safer roads in Senegal

The 69-year-old father was travelling from Dakar, Senegal’s capital, to neighbouring Mauritania with four of his children for Eid al-Fitr, his eldest son at the wheel. But about 90 km outside the capital, his son suddenly lost control of the vehicle, crashing into a tree. “I blacked out,” Dieng recalls, “and woke up in the hospital.” When he inquired about his four children, he received tragic news: they had all been killed on impact. “It’s been 10 years,” he says. “But it feels like yesterday.”

Stronger governance needed to fight superbugs in Africa: Antimicrobial Resistance th...

17 November 2021, Accra – The leaders of six regional organizations in Africa are calling for stronger governance to fight antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, on the eve of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week (18-24 November).

The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance in Africa – where micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites are resistant to antimicrobial treatment – is complicating the management of many infectious diseases, and endangers animal health and welfare, and food production, safety and security.

Mobile cash in polio response: three things to know

In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa pioneered mobile money transfer system under the Polio Eradication Initiative programme essentially to pay vaccination campaign workers. So far eight African countries have adopted the payment system, with others working to deploy mobile-based cash transfers in health programmes beyond polio. Dorcas Karimi, Digital Finance Officer with the WHO Regional Office for Africa, explains the progress achieved so far.