Willingness of WHO staff to work in health emergencies in the African Region: opportunity for phased deployment of staff and ensure continuity of health services

A human resource base that ensures appropriate deployment of staff to emergencies, addressing different shock events in emergencies, without disrupting continuity of service is germane to a successful response. Consequently, the WHO Health Emergencies programme in the African Region, in collaboration with Africa Centre for Disease Control (ACDC) launched the African Volunteer Health Corps (AVoHC) and Strengthening and Utilization of Response Group for Emergencies (SURGE), an initiative aimed at ensuring a pool of timely responders. We explored the willingness of WHO staff to work in emergencies. A call for expression of interest to be part of the Elite Emergency Experts (Triple E) was published on 5th July 2022 via email and was open for 5 weeks. The responses were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics and presented with graphic illustrations. A total of 1253 WHO staff, from all the six WHO regions, cutting across all cadre, applied to the call. The applicants had various trainings and experiences in emergency and have responded to mostly disease outbreaks. Two-third of the applicants were males. This paper did not explore reasons for the willingness to work in emergencies. However, contrary to fears expressed in literature that health workers would not want to work in emergencies with potential for infections, the applicants have worked mostly in infectious emergencies. Literature identified some themes on factors that could impact on willingness of health workers to work in emergencies. These include concerns for the safety of the responders and impact of partners, child and elderly care, as well as other family obligations, which emergency planners must consider in planning emergency response.

Family Life and HIV/AIDS Education (FLHE) in schools in Enugu State: baseline study of reproductive health issues among in-school adolescents in Enugu State

We studied the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge and practices among junior secondary school grades 1 and 3 students Enugu State; preparatory to incorporating family life and HIV/AIDS education (FLHE) into the school curricula in the state. Results show that over 90of the respondents were regularly involved in sexual activities. More than seventeen per cent (17.5) indicated that they would definitely have sex in the next two years while 19.2may have sex in the next two years. The students lacked proper knowledge of protection and knowledge scores on SRH issues was low especially among the urban dwellers (p0.001). Some respondents (64.4) did not know if condoms prevent pregnancy. Some indicated that charms and herbs are effective ways of preventing pregnancy. Against this background; the opinion leaders and community members welcome the FLHE for improving youth knowledge on SRH issues and pledge their support for the programme