Health Care Programmes: Essential updates on public health initiatives, medical breakthroughs, and wellness trends tailored for the West African public.
Côte d'Ivoire has handed over the keys to the provisional headquarters of the West African Health Organisation in Grand-Bassam, following a December 2025 ECOWAS decision to relocate the agency. The premises at the VITIB technology village include 76 offices and space for about 120 staff, pending a permanent headquarters.
A survey of 20,000 adults across 40 communities in Kano, Kaduna and Katsina states found that over 85% were multidimensionally poor, 45.2% scored in the high range for psychological distress and 18.5% screened positive for high-risk substance use. The researchers say the findings link climate stress, poverty and substance use, but caution that the one-time study cannot establish which causes which.
A new global burden study estimates that at least 2.1 million people suffer snake envenoming each year, with the true figure possibly reaching 7 million and annual deaths ranging from 274,000 to 513,000. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 45% of the global burden, a share the authors say has been underestimated for decades.
A new paper examines national genome projects across Africa, where Tunisia, Egypt and Senegal have launched initiatives and government-led efforts in Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa are at earlier stages. The authors argue that sequencing must be paired with local expertise, data governance and sustained funding, and that the number of genomes read should not be the main measure of success.
Research by Adrià San José Plana and Xavier Rodó links year-to-year changes in cutaneous leishmaniasis transmission in north Africa to climate variability originating in the Atlantic Ocean. The study found that slowly varying Atlantic temperatures influence westerly winds that carry moisture to the region, affecting rainfall, desert vegetation, rodent reservoirs and sandfly habitats. The findings lay groundwork for forecasting the disease in Morocco and Tunisia.
A study of South Africa's COVID-19 social listening system found 964 instances of misinformation across 12 themes and 573 recommended actions in 91 reports produced between 2021 and 2023. The research, led by Herkulaas MvE Combrink, examined a circular process of listening, understanding, recommending and listening again, while noting the study did not track what happened after recommendations were made.
Senegal has recorded 114 confirmed diphtheria cases and 11 deaths across 12 of its 14 regions as of 20 September 2026, with the Ministry of Health warning the epidemic is progressing rapidly. The outbreak, first detected in Kédougou in late July, marks the country's first diphtheria epidemic in more than twenty years. A researcher who studied a related outbreak in Guinea explains how the disease spreads, why it kills, and why vaccination gaps are driving its return.
ECOWAS has used World Rabies Day to urge member states, health services and communities to intensify joint efforts against rabies. The bloc's Regional Animal Health Centre in Bissau cited regional surveillance data showing dog-transmitted rabies accounted for 38.8 per cent of reported priority zoonoses outbreaks in the first quarter of 2026.
A review of 50 studies published between 2015 and 2025 finds stunting remains the most frequently reported form of child malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than 25% of under-fives stunted in many countries. The research groups responses into nutrition-specific, nutrition-sensitive and integrated approaches, concluding that combining strategies may offer the most sustainable results.
Africa CDC has launched a Continental Immunisation Strategy for 2026–2030 after about 7.1 million African children under one received no routine vaccine dose in 2025. The strategy covers six areas, and its authors identify five priorities including domestic financing, digital systems and vaccine sovereignty.
