Newsletter

Third African Ministerial Meeting for Disaster Risk Reduction

The Third African Ministerial Meeting for Disaster Risk Reduction was held within the framework of the Fifth Africa Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction from 13 to 16 May 2014, Abuja, Nigeria.

The meeting was hosted and chaired by the Federal Republic of Nigeria and convened by the African Union Commission with support from the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

Ebola virus disease, West Africa – update

Disease Outbreak News 
30 May 2014

Guinea

Cases and deaths attributable to Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak continue to be reported from new (Telimele and Boffa) and some affected districts (Conakry and Macenta) that did not report cases for more than 42 days. Since the last update of Disease Outbreak News of 28 May 2014, 10 new cases and 7 new deaths have been reported. The current evolving epidemiological situation could be partly explained by persistent community resistance in some communities in Gueckedou, Macenta, and Conakry.

Good Governance of Human and Animal Health Services: On-going collaboration between OIE and WHO

Knowing that more than 60% of animal diseases are transmissible to humans and that 75% of recent emerging diseases are zoonotic, human and animal health systems need to be strong; they also need to work in close partnership to jointly address common issues regarding early detection, assessment and response to events of potential international health concern.

WHO Risk Assessment of human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus

On 8 April 2014 WHO conducted a risk assessment in accordance with the WHO recommendations for rapid risk assessment of acute public health events.

Taking into consideration all information available to date to WHO, it is concluded that the public health risk from avian influenza A(H7N9) virus has not changed since the previous assessments of 24 and 11 March and 28 February 2014.

MERS-CoV: Towards a Better Understanding of the Disease

Food and Agriculture Organization;  06 May 2014 - The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) first emerged in 2012 and has caused 4991 human infections, including 137 deaths based on reports from affected countries as of 4 May 2014. The majority of cases have been detected in Saudi Arabia although cases were also reported in Jordan, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Countries in Asia, Europe and North Africa have reported individual cases in travellers returning from the Middle East. The last countries that reported their first imported MERS-CoV case include Egypt and the United States of America.

Multi-sector training - a practical challenge for multi-sector collaboration

The Collaborative Arrangement for the Prevention and Management of Public Health Events in Civil Aviation (CAPSCA: www.capsca.org) programme is a multi-sector initiative of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a United Nations Specialized Agency based in Montreal, Canada.  During eight years of CAPSCA operation and in many meetings and discussions between specialists with a variety of different backgrounds it has become clear that one of the challenges of working in a multi-disciplinary way is the potential for confusion due to the use of language in one discipline that may have a different meaning in another.

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