Message from Acting WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu
World Oral Health Day 2025, observed annually on 20 March, is a vital opportunity to raise awareness and prioritize oral health – an essential component of overall well-being that is often overlooked.
Oral diseases such as dental caries, gum disease and tooth loss affected 42% of the WHO African Region’s population in 2021. The region also has the highest number of noma cases, a rapidly progressing, non-contagious gangrenous disease of the mouth that primarily affects young children. If left untreated, noma has a high fatality rate, and survivors often suffer from life-long impairments, disfigurement, stigma and discrimination.
To tackle these challenges, Member States endorsed the Regional Oral Health Strategy 2016–2025, integrating oral disease into noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention and control programmes. Oral diseases share common risk factors – tobacco, alcohol, high sugar intake, and socioeconomic and commercial determinants – with other NCDs such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases, making an integrated approach more effective.
At the global level, the Seventy-fourth World Health Assembly (WHA74) in 2021 recognized oral health as a core part of the NCD agenda and Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This led to the endorsement of the Global Strategy on Oral Health (WHA75) and the Global Oral Health Action Plan 2023–2030 (WHA76), which includes a monitoring framework.
With the support of partners like Hilfsaktion Noma e.V. and the Borrow Foundation, as well as WHO Collaborating Centres, several countries in the region have taken concrete action:
· Lesotho, Nigeria and Sierra Leone developed oral health policy documents.
· Ethiopia and Kenya trained nearly 180 primary care workers and 1200 community health workers using WHO’s online courses on noma and oral health.
· Ethiopia strengthened its noma surveillance system, identifying cases through active case-finding during onchocerciasis mass drug administration campaigns.
· A new capacity-building project has been launched in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia to improve access to WHO-listed dental materials, supported by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
Despite these advances, the African Region lags behind key oral health indicators. For example, only 17% of the regional population has access to essential oral health care services. Progress in disease prevention is also slow, including fluoride use and sugar reduction efforts.
The oral health workforce also remains inadequate. In 2022, the region had 56 772 oral health workers, including dentists, dental assistants and therapists (0.37 per 10 000 population) – far below the required 158 916 oral health workers (1.33 per 10 000 population) needed to meet the demand.
We must do more.
To accelerate the implementation of the Global Oral Health Action Plan, WHO convened its first-ever Global Oral Health Meeting in Thailand (November 2024). The meeting brought together about 350 participants, including the Comoros Minister of Health and representatives from 29 Member States in the Region. Delegates developed national roadmaps to advance oral health efforts, and a Regional Framework for accelerating implementation will be discussed at the Seventy-fifth Regional Committee for Africa later this year.
Now is the time to act. We have the strategy – now we must implement it.
This requires:
· Engaging multisectoral stakeholders.
· Securing funding through innovative financing mechanisms, such as allocating health tax revenue to oral health.
· Integrating oral health services into national benefits packages.
· Using a people-centred approach to implementation.
Let’s work together for better oral health outcomes! Together, we can go further!
Learn more:
Oral Health, WHO Regional Office for Africa
World Oral Health Day 2024
Africa burdened with largest global increase of oral diseases
Oral health project screens children for heart disease in Comoros
Tanzania prioritizes delivery of oral health services at primary care level
