Families of Israel’s Female Hostages Plead for Deeper Intervention by WHO and UN Officials in Geneva
Shay Dickmann stood stoically as the recorded screams of a woman pierced the darkness of the sealed metal container, followed by shouting and screams, the sounds of gunshots and a baby crying. A narrow tunnel led to a tiny room with a single lightbulb and a dirty mattress on the floor. On the wall, a […] Continue reading ->
“Tobacco [is] the biggest public health threat the world has ever faced. […] Together we have made great progress. We have saved lives,” the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated at the opening of the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) on the Framework Convention Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Panama on […] Continue reading ->
Europe’s Health Emergency Response Agency (HERA) has pledged €6 million to assist the Africa Centre for Disease Control (ACDC) to scale up sequence-based disease surveillance and laboratory capacity on the continent. This was announced by Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, at the start of a three-day meeting between the African […] Continue reading ->
With only 10 official negotiating days left, the Working Group on Amendments to the International Health Regulations (WGIHR) is under pressure to reach agreement on changes to the rules that govern global health emergencies. The seventh WGIHR meeting which began on Monday officially kicked off the 2024 pandemic ‘season’ negotiations at the World Health Organization […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – As Pakistan heads towards general elections on Thursday, February 08, leaders of its polio programme are hoping that improved political stability and a more stable security situation could help make 2024 the year for final eradication of the crippling disease from the country. Pakistan and Afghanistan, neighbouring countries sharing a porous border, are […] Continue reading ->
In resource-restricted countries like Nigeria, parents of children with special needs, particularly mothers, bear the entire burden of care. In an unexpected turn of events in early 2015, Modupe Famodun’s baby son was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. A neurologist at the Federal Neuropsychiatry Hospital (FNPH) in Lagos in South-West Nigeria, had been strolling down the […] Continue reading ->
New tobacco and nicotine products and the tobacco industry’s extensive lobbying of governments are likely to be in the spotlight when country representatives meet next week to discuss the implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) starts in Panama on Monday (5 […] Continue reading ->
Dr Soumya Swaminathan is returning to the international stage after leaving the World Health Organization (WHO) in late 2022, just as the world was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. She became the agency’s first Chief Scientist just before the pandemic, a position that propelled her to become a widely-known global voice for WHO, analyzing and […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations estimates that 363 million people are currently impacted by humanitarian crises driven by increasing fragility and conflict, the climate crisis and widening inequality. Around 108.4 million people were forced to flee their homes in 2022, meaning one in every 74 persons globally. Humanitarian crises, such as those occurring in Ukraine, Gaza, Libya, […] Continue reading ->
New cancer cases are projected to increase by a massive 77% between 2022 and 2050 – mainly as a result of tobacco, alcohol, obesity and air pollution. Ageing and population growth are also factors pushing new cases from 20 million in 2022 to an expected 35 million in 2050, according to the Global Cancer Observatory […] Continue reading ->