The World Health Organization said Friday it deployed experts to investigate a mystery flu-like disease that in recent weeks killed dozens of people in southwest Congo.

The World Health Organization says the death toll from Tropical Cyclone Freddy, which ravaged Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique over the past two months, now stands at more than 600 people.

Health officials in Burundi have declared an outbreak of polio linked to the vaccine, the first time the paralytic disease has been detected in the east African country for more than three decades.

The World Health Organization’s Africa director said that the continent is preparing for the next health crisis by strengthening gaps in health systems found in the continent's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A top World Health Organization official says Uganda’s Ebola outbreak is “rapidly evolving” a month after the disease was reported in the East African country.

The outbreak of monkeypox is subsiding in Europe and parts of North America.

The World Health Organization says it is launching a $1.5 billion campaign, hopefully including a new vaccine, to eliminate outbreaks of bacterial meningitis across Africa by 2030.

The World Health Organization says that the number of outbreaks of diseases that jumped from animals to humans in Africa has increased by more than 60% in the last decade, a worrying sign the planet could face increased animal-borne diseases like monkeypox, Ebola and coronavirus in the future.

Health authorities in Mozambique have declared a polio outbreak after confirming that a child in the country’s northeastern Tete province had been paralyzed by the disease.

The World Health Organization says that Africa is seeing a surge of outbreaks of preventable diseases as a result of disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The World Health Organization says the number of coronavirus cases and deaths in Africa have dropped to their lowest levels since the pandemic began, marking the longest decline yet seen in the disease.

The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported to the World Health Organization has fallen for a third consecutive week.

The World Health Organization said that up to 65% of people in Africa have been infected with the coronavirus and estimates the number of actual cases may have been nearly 100 times more than those reported.

Zimbabwe has launched a new COVID-19 vaccination campaign that includes jabbing children aged 12 and above to rescue a drive faltering due to vaccine hesitancy and complacency.

The World Health Organization’s Africa director Matshidiso Moeti says Africa is moving to the “control phase” of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased vaccination rates will be crucial in helping the continent live with the disease.

Africa’s top health official is launching a campaign to enlist young people to encourage vaccinations, as just 11.3% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people are vaccinated against COVID-19.

The director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that at least 2.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines donated to the continent's countries have expired, citing short shelf lives as the major reason.

Congolese health authorities have declared an end to the Ebola outbreak in the country's east that had killed at least six people since October.

Authorities in Nigeria have announced that the West African country will no longer accept COVID-19 vaccines with short shelf lives after it was unable to use 1 million doses before they expired.

The World Health Organization has urged countries not to impose flight bans on southern African nations due to concerns over the new omicron variant.

African health officials and the United Nations are warning of a looming shortage of up to 2 billion syringes for mainly low- and middle-income countries around the world as the supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses rises, and routine vaccinations could be affected, too.

Senegal and Rwanda have signed an agreement with German company BioNTech for the construction of its first start-to-finish factories to make messenger RNA vaccines in Africa.

According to a new study by the World Health Organization, only one in seven COVID-19 infections in Africa are being detected, meaning the continent’s estimated infection level may be 59 million people.

The World Health Organization has endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine and said it should be given to children across Africa in the hope that it will spur stalled efforts to curb the spread of the parasitic disease.

The French government has called on the head of the World Health Organization to uphold his pledge for an “action plan” to combat sexual abuse and exploitation by WHO employees.

Africa’s already thin supply of COVID-19 vaccines has taken another significant hit.

The Africa director of the World Health Organization says the continent was able to triple its COVID-19 vaccination rate over the past week, helped by growing numbers of donations of doses from developed countries.

The Africa director for the World Health Organization says rich countries’ decisions to roll out COVID-19 booster shots while so many people across Africa remain unvaccinated “threaten the promise of a brighter tomorrow" for the continent.

Thousands of new coronavirus cases have been reported in West Africa in recent weeks amid low vaccination rates and the spread of the delta variant.

New infections in South Africa have risen to record levels in recent days.

Holding out for nearly $9,000 in unpaid medical bills, one hospital in Uganda allegedly refused to hand over the dead body of a patient who had received oxygen therapy for several days.

Driven by the delta variant, a new wave of COVID-19 is sweeping across the African continent where new cases, hospital admissions, and deaths are increasing.

Africa is facing a devastating resurgence of COVID-19 infections whose peak will surpass that of earlier waves as the continent’s countries struggle to vaccinate even a small percentage of the population.

Some of the most desperately poor countries in the world are seeing a two-headed crisis: a surge in COVID-19 cases and a critical shortage of vaccine.

Billionaire philanthropist Mo Ibrahim is criticizing vaccine hoarding by wealthy nations, urging the international community to “walk the talk” as Africa desperately lags behind in vaccinating against COVID-19.

The World Health Organization says COVID-19 vaccine shipments have ground to “a near halt” in Africa while virus cases have spiked 20% over the last two weeks.

South Africa has begun a campaign to vaccinate its citizens aged 60 and older.

Several world leaders have praised the U.S. move to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines for poor nations by suspending patent protections on the shots.

Africa's top public health official says the continent is “watching with total disbelief” as India struggles with a devastating resurgence in COVID-19 cases.

“It’s a concern, and everyone is talking about it.”The East African nation of 45 million people was receiving under 1 million vaccine doses — 864,000. It’s the first batch of a total of 18 million COVAX doses for Uganda, but when all will arrive is not known. While the COVAX initiative was created to ensure that low- and middle-income countries receive COVID-19 vaccines, it has faced delays and limited supply. And Nigeria began its vaccination campaign after Africa’s most populous country received almost 4 million doses. AdThe COVAX delays have pushed other African countries to seek more doses elsewhere, including via bilateral deals that can be unfavorable.

WHO regional director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti said Thursday that 11,000 Ebola vaccines are being prepared in Geneva and are expected to arrive in Guinea over the weekend. The WHO has called on six African countries to be on high alert for Ebola infections after both Guinea and Congo recorded cases in recent weeks. As of Thursday, Guinea has recorded three confirmed Ebola cases, including one death, according to WHO. Health officials hope to stem the spread of Ebola in West Africa, which experienced the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history from 2014 to 2016 that killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Tests have since shown he was negative for Ebola, according to Ministry of Health and Sanitation spokesman Harold Thomas.

African countries without the coronavirus variant dominant in South Africa should go ahead and use the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, while the World Health Organization suggested the vaccine even for countries with the variant circulating widely. No other has expressed concerns about the AstraZeneca vaccine. The African continent has seen an average 18% decrease in new virus cases over the past four weeks, which Nkengasong called encouraging. The African continent on Sunday will mark one year since the first virus case was confirmed there, in Egypt. “We cannot afford today to have the same pace and time for access to (COVID-19) vaccines,” he said.

FILE - In this Saturday, July 13, 2019 file photo, a child is vaccinated against Ebola in Beni, Congo. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, file)BENI – Health officials in Congo confirmed another Ebola outbreak in the country’s east on Sunday, the fourth in less than three years. On February 3, a woman died in Butembo town in North Kivu province, Minister of Health Eteni Longondo announced. AdHealth officials worry a new Ebola outbreak could badly affect the nation’s fragile health system, especially as it faces a resurgence of COVID-19. The Ebola virus is highly contagious and can be contracted through bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen.

FILE In this Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020 file photo, a long-distance traveller undergoes a COVID-19 test at a mobile clinic at a taxi rank at Johannesburg's main railway station. The level of testing across Africa is considerably less than what health experts say is needed to effectively control the spread of the disease. Just 10 countries — South Africa, Morocco, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and Cameroon — are carrying out more than 70% of the continent’s testing. Increased testing is needed to help Africa locate where cases are rising and where additional medical responses are needed. In efforts to track the level of infections in communities, countries such as South Africa and Ghana are testing for the prevalence of COVID-19 in sewage water.

(AP Photo/Denis Farrell, file)JOHANNESBURG African governments should accelerate the reopening of schools, the World Health Organization has urged, saying that the continent's youths will suffer from prolonged closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only six African countries have fully opened schools, according to a survey of 39 countries by WHO and UNICEF. Many governments closed schools as part of measures to limit the transmission of the coronavirus. Just as countries are opening businesses safely, we can reopen schools, said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa. Reopening schools has been particularly challenging in Africa, where millions of children attend crowded classrooms, and schools often lack running water and proper toilets.

The minister said his country of more than 4 million people is still waiting for testing supplies ordered via the WHO. Central African Republic has more than 4,300 confirmed virus cases a small fraction of the more than 644,000 across Africa but the true number is unknown. Confirmed virus cases across Africa have jumped by 23% in the past week, and South Africa makes up nearly half of all cases. In some African countries the more you test the more cases you find, Moeti said, but not always. She noted that had not occurred in Senegal when the country produced its own test kits and significantly expanded testing.

(AP Photo/Denis Farrell)JOHANNESBURG Africa now has more than a half-million confirmed coronavirus cases. A tremendous problem, a real crisis of access, the World Health Organizations Africa chief, Matshidiso Moeti, said last week. So far most testing has been concentrated in capital cities, but infections in many cases have spread beyond them. This week alone, some anxious health workers in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Congo and Sierra Leone have gone on strike or demonstrated for adequate protective gear or better pay. The African continent has just 2.2 health workers and 0.3 doctors per 1,000 people, according to the WHO.

Thats even as Africa had more than 463,000 confirmed virus cases as of Sunday and South Africa, its most developed economy, already struggles to care for COVID-19 patients. Senegals president has said international flights will begin on July 15. Kenya Airways wants to resume international flights. And she suggested that when we see a flare-up that is unacceptable in virus cases, the loosening of travel restrictions could be reversed. African nations can seize the moment and do more tourism at home, Amani Abou-Zeid, AU commissioner for infrastructure and energy, told reporters last week.

But much of that aid has been tied up in uncharacteristic delays nearly three months after the passage of the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, the letter from aid groups says. Other aid organizations signing the letter include CARE USA, the Norwegian Refugee Council USA, American Jewish World Service, WaterAid and Physicians for Peace. In fact, just 50 ventilators have arrived in Africa from the U.S. government, all of them going to South Africa in recent days. A State Department official on Thursday said the U.S. has pledged ventilator assistance to Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Rwanda as well. It has been a challenging time for many countries to fight their own pandemic.___Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg contributed to this report.