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Photo Stories

Traditional healers broaden health care in Ghana

For many years, traditional medicine has received limited consideration from medical experts demanding more scientific evidence. However, a growing number of African countries are demonstrating a renewed interest in this ancient art of healing. Traditional medicine backed with scientific methods, tools and guidelines can make a significant contribution to better access to medicines and achieving universal health coverage in Africa.
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Good handwashing habits for good health in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Butembo is a bustling city of around a million people in North Kivu Province in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and in a region known for growing tea and coffee. Since August 2018, it is also a region known worldwide for an outbreak of Ebola virus disease, the tenth and largest such outbreak in the country’s history.
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Tracking Ebola to its last refuges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ending the tenth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) means searching, sometimes at extraordinary lengths, for people who possibly may have been infected by someone they know but are afraid to be treated. Some people have taken to hiding in the forests; some keep moving to evade the health workers and World Health Organization (WHO) contact tracing teams, like NAME NAME above, trained to search for people who came into contact unknowingly with a person infected with the virus. The point is to monitor their health condition and get them the medical care they need as quickly as possible if symptoms should occur.
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How fighting Ebola is helping one hospital prevent other diseases in the Democratic ...

Kitatumba Reference Hospital nestles on a hill in Butembo, which has been fighting an Ebola outbreak for the past year. With more than 80 health workers infected with Ebola since the outbreak came to the city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, health facilities like Kitatumba are critical battle fronts. “This hospital was built in 1923, and many of the buildings are old, which makes it a challenge to maintain infection prevention and control standards,” says Dr Eugene Syalita Nzanzu, the Medical Director.
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Improving hand hygiene practices for quality of health care in Sierra Leone

As Sierra Leone joined a network of over 180 countries around the world to commemorate World Hand Hygiene Day on the theme “Clean care for all – it’s in your hands”, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in collaboration with WHO, CDC and other partners has launched a week of advocacy to promote and sustain hand hygiene practices among healthcare workers in Sierra Leone. The week of clean care campaign aims to improve ongoing efforts at national and sub national levels to improve and sustain hand hygiene practices among health professionals, making information available on health care-associated information at health facility, community and district levels
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Cyclone Idai: 1-month of critical health needs

In the first weeks of Cyclone Idai's aftermath, WHO and partners moved rapidly to support the Ministry of Heath to save lives and limit the suffering of more than 1.8 million people left without shelter, food, safe water and sanitation and health services.

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WHO Malawi leads the health Sector’s response to the people severely affected cyclon...

Lilongwe 24 April 2019 - The torrential rains did not stop for three days and nights. It was on the fourth night that the walls gave way from the mud brick house that Eunice Sopo and her three children called home.

Parts of Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe had been swept away before Cyclone Idai’s torrential rains hit Malawi, creating extraordinary flood conditions that swept away homes, crops and lives. At least 60 people died and approximately 87,000 have been displaced (source, OCHA).

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