WHO & Regionals [to 19 March 2016]

WHO SAGE Meeting
Geneva: 12 – 14 April 2016.
:: Draft agenda pdf, 145kb As of 11 March 2016

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Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) 18 March 2016, vol. 91, 11 (pp. 133–144)
Contents
133 Zoonotic influenza viruses: antigenic and genetic characteristics and development of candidate vaccine viruses for pandemic preparedness
143 Monthly report on dracunculiasis cases, January 2016

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Disease Outbreak News (DONs)
:: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Saudi Arabia 16 March 2016
:: Chikungunya – Argentina 14 March 2016
:: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) – Saudi Arabia 14 March 2016

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WHO: Syria 5 years on – delivering health against all odds
15 March 2016 – After five years of a brutal and senseless conflict over 250 000 Syrians have been killed and over half the population forced from their homes out of fear and want.
In the past few weeks however, we are seeing signs of momentum, fragile glimmers of hope. As humanitarians we welcome progress where it means real change..
:: View the photo story
:: Watch the video
:: Read the news release

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:: WHO Regional Offices
WHO African Region AFRO
:: Official visit of Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa to China
Brazzaville, 18 March 2016 – The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti will begin a 4 day official visit to China from 22 to 25 March 2016 at the invitation of the Chinese government. The visit is aimed at further exploring areas of mutual interest in health with a view to having a more structured collaboration between WHO and the Chinese government.
:: Guinea: Two (2) confirmed Ebola cases in Koropara village in Nzérékoré – 18 March 2016
:: WHO statement on the end of the Ebola flare-up in Sierra Leone – 17 March 2016

WHO Region of the Americas PAHO
:: Regional Parliamentary Front against Tuberculosis in the Americas launched in Brazil (03/16/2016)

WHO South-East Asia Region SEARO
:: Media Statement – Create Healthy Environments to Save Lives
15 March 2016

WHO European Region EURO
:: Zika virus vectors and risk of spread in the WHO European Region 18-03-2016
:: TB elimination at stake unless Europe cares urgently for vulnerable, poor and marginalized populations and migrants 17-03-2016
:: Antibiotic awareness drives digital conversation in European countries 16-03-2016
:: Informing policy for young people’s health 15-03-2016
:: New WHO study reveals that while smoking by school-aged children has declined significantly, young people’s health and well-being is being undermined by gender and social inequalities 15-03-2016

WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region EMRO
:: New shipment of health supplies arrives in Taiz City
18 March 2016
:: Sudan: monitoring for polio across sub-Saharan sands
14 March 2016
:: Mobile medical clinics connect patients to health care in camps in Iraq
13 March 2016

WHO Western Pacific Region
:: Zika Outbreak Response in Tonga: Providing Special Care for Pregnant Women
TONGA, 16 March 2016 – On 1 February 2016, the Ministry of Health declared a Zika outbreak in the Kingdom of Tonga. Coincidentally, it was on the same day that the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the recent cluster of microcephaly cases and other neurological disorders reported in Brazil, following a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) as per the International Heath Regulations (IHR, 2005). Pregnant women living in or travelling to areas of Zika virus transmission are given special care in Tonga as the Zika virus may cause microcephaly in babies.