WHO & Regionals [to 18 April 2015]
:: World Immunization Week: 24-30 April 2015 – Close the immunization gap
World Immunization Week, which will be held from 24-30 April 2015, will signal a renewed global, regional, and national effort to accelerate action to increase awareness and demand for immunization by communities, and improve vaccination delivery services. This year’s campaign focuses on closing the immunization gap and reaching equity in immunization levels as outlined in the Global Vaccine Action Plan, which is a framework to prevent millions of deaths by 2020 through universal access to vaccines for people in all communities.
Read more about the goals of the campaign

Africa – Vaccination a gift for life
24-30 April 2015
Americas – Boost your power! Get vaccinated!
25 April – 2 May 2015
Eastern Mediterranean – Close the immunization gap
24-30 April 2015
Europe – Close the immunization gap
24-30 April 2015

:: Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly – 18–26 May 2015

:: Kenya: Closing the gap on pneumonia through immunization
17 April 2015 – As World Immunization Week approaches, WHO reports on Kenya’s successes preventing deaths from pneumonia among babies and young children through national implementation of the PCV-10 vaccine. A mother in Kilifi tells the story of her daughter’s near-fatal episode of pneumonia and how her younger children were protected through immunization.
Read the story from Kenya

:: Liberia succeeds in fighting Ebola with local, sector response
14 April 2015 — The story of how Montserrado Liberia, turned around an exponentially-growing Ebola outbreak is intriguing. WHO’s team and national officials, aided by veterans from WHO’s polio eradication group in India, decentralized the response, using quality management principles that empowered local teams and held them accountable for results. These local sector teams involved community members and used business best practices as well as an incident management system to improve surveillance, case finding, contact tracing, and overall management of key response activities.
Read the story from Liberia

:: The Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) 17 April 2015, vol. 90, 16 (pp. 161–168) includes:
:: Eradication of yaws in India

:: Global Alert and Response (GAR) – Disease Outbreak News (DONs)
– 16 April 2015 – Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Saudi Arabia
– 15 April 2015 – Human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus – China

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:: WHO Regional Offices
WHO African Region AFRO
:: Implementing cervical cancer interventions key to save African women – 13 April 2015

WHO Region of the Americas PAHO
:: New PAHO/WHO network will monitor the health of women and newborns in Latin America and the Caribbean (04/16/2015)
:: PAHO’s Director and Panama’s Health Minister Raise Hopes for Reform of Country’s Health Care (04/12/2015)
:: Development Bank of Latin America-CAF and PAHO/WHO join to help countries prepare for disease outbreaks (04/11/2015)

WHO South-East Asia Region SEARO
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WHO European Region EURO
:: Time running out to reduce climate change threats to health 16-04-2015
:: Call for papers on intersectoral action for Public Health Panorama 14-04-2015
:: Water and sanitation: still a luxury for millions of Europeans 14-04-2015

WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region EMRO
:: WHO delivers life-saving health supplies into Yemen
16 April 2015, Cairo, Egypt — The World Health Organization (WHO) has delivered critical life-saving medicines, and medical/surgical supplies to Yemen, where fighting has resulted in hundreds killed and thousands injured, and newly displaced up to 100 000 people since March. The shipment, which landed in Sana’a today, contains more than 17 tonnes of medicines and medical/surgical supplies for a total of 41 100 beneficiaries…

WHO Western Pacific Region
:: A month after Cyclone Pam, Vanuatu continues to face health challenges
PORT VILA, 15 April 2015 – Working with the Ministry of Health of Vanuatu and other partners, the World Health Organization (WHO) has made significant progress in addressing the health needs of the more than 160 000 people affected by Cyclone Pam. However, a month after the Category 5 storm ravaged the Pacific island country, many pressing health challenges remain.
Read the news release