Global health leaders need to prioritize action against oral diseases – which impact nearly half of the world’s population. While noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), which cause some 74% of all deaths, are getting increased attention from global health influencers, there is one elephant in the room that has received insufficient attention to date. Oral disease. That’s […] Continue reading ->
New evidence indicating that raccoon dogs from the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan may have been infected with SARS CoV2 in January 2020 was published on a shared database by China’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in January – but removed recently after scientists started asking questions. This was revealed at a media briefing […] Continue reading ->
Health authorities in Burundi have declared a national public health emergency response to an outbreak of circulating poliovirus type 2. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa region announced on Friday that polio had been detected in an unvaccinated four-year-old boy in Isale district in western Burundi and two other children who had been in contact […] Continue reading ->
A genetic revolution is coming. It’s time the medical community and policymakers discuss it. As technology advances and the price for genetic testing decreases, it is likely that within the next five years, DNA sequence information will be part of a patient’s medical records. Such a move would revolutionize the way doctors diagnose and treat […] Continue reading ->
When London Mayor Sadiq Khan introduced a ban on junk food advertising on the city’s buses and tubes, he faced a backlash from big food companies. Meanwhile, tobacco companies went all-out trying to stop Montevideo in Uruguay and Kampala in Uganda from banning smoking in public areas, including resorting to litigation. Tobacco company Phillip Morris […] Continue reading ->
Five months after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that countries affected by cholera had to start rationing vaccine doses due to shortages, there is no immediate solution – yet cases are spiking. In 2022, 36 million vaccine doses were produced and a similar number is expected this year. “The South Korean manufacturer is making significant […] Continue reading ->
Ninety percent of 131 countries exceeded the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air pollution guidelines for fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) in 2022, according to a new report that combines data from official monitoring stations and “citizens science” monitors around the world. . The report was the fifth such World Air Quality Report to be released […] Continue reading ->
Eight more countries in the global south have dangerously low numbers of healthcare workers in the wake of the COVID pandemic, a new WHO report has found. The World Health Organization’s 2023 report on “Health workforce support and safeguards” found that some 55 countries now rank below the global median in terms of their density […] Continue reading ->
Three years after the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, the era of hourly headlines updating death and case counts has come to a merciful end. But the virus is still killing around 1,000 people worldwide every day, and it isn’t going anywhere. As of 7 March, WHO has confirmed over 750 […] Continue reading ->
The US and Australia lifted COVID-19 travel restrictions on Chinese travellers last Friday and Saturday respectively, effectively acknowledging that the world’s biggest pandemic outbreak is over. Until the weekend, Chinese citizens had to present a negative COVID-19 test or proof of recovery to enter either country. In late January, the Chinese government reported that 80% […] Continue reading ->