Ethiopia

WHO's Exceptional Measures for Health Needs in Emergencies. Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO Director-General, announced exceptional action in response to health needs in emergency and crisis situations throughout the world. Her statement was made at the World Health Assembly, the WHO's 191 Member States' decision making body, which held its fifty-fifth annual meeting between 13 and18 May in Geneva.

In a crisis, every humanitarian actor is concerned with saving lives and diminishing the suffering of the population. But efforts in immediately obvious areas like shelter, food and protection alone do not guarantee health. There is little benefit in providing food if people are still to die of meningitis, malaria, measles or childbirth.

The mission of the WHO Department of Emergency and Humanitarian Action is to increase, through a concerted effort across WHO, the capacity and self-reliance of countries in the prevention of disasters, preparation for emergencies, mitigation of their health consequences, and the creation of a synergy between emergency action and sustainable development.
New documents available on the EHA website (http://www.who.int/eha/disasters)

New documents available on the EHA website:

New documents published in August and available at EHA:

• Angola: Update on the Situation of Meningitis in the Country
• Angola: Epidemic Outbreaks Update
• Kosovo Health Talks 30 and 31
• Health Situation Report West Timor
• Interim Health Policy Guidelines for Kosovo
• Humanitarian Action and Public Health in Disasters. Allocation of National and International Resources, EHA Paper for the World Congress on Medicine and Health, Hanover 21 July - 20 August

New documents published in July and available from EHA: