A $15 million initiative to address the harms of alcohol consumption through policy change was launched Tuesday, roughly doubling the total global spending on mitigating the effects of alcohol. Alcohol is one of the top-ten drivers of death, illness and injury, with wide-ranging social and economic harms, many disproportionately affecting young adults, according to Vital […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) launched the first global knowledge platform dedicated to climate and health on Monday called climahealth.info. The global open-access platform is envisaged as being the “go-to technical reference point for users of interdisciplinary health, environmental, and climate science”, according to the WHO in a media release.  […] Continue reading ->
The SARS-CoV2 virus just won’t give up. As the northern hemisphere heads into its third pandemic winter, experts say the continued evolution of Omicron’s sub-variants indicates a fresh wave is coming, but no one knows which variant will fuel it. Scientists have catalogued 390 Omicron lineages and 48 recombinants of the virus – which occur […] Continue reading ->
The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is going to focus on vaccinating high-risk populations, introducing new treatments, boosting testing and securing sustained access to COVID-19 tools in the next six months. ACT-A announced its new transition plan at a meeting on Friday as the world moves to long-term COVID-19 control.   “Recognizing the evolving nature […] Continue reading ->
Six schoolchildren in the Ugandan capital of Kampala are the latest to be infected with Ebola, according to the country’s health minister on Wednesday – and with 15 cases in the densely populated city, some want the government to impose a lockdown. So far, there have been 109 confirmed cases, including 30 deaths, of the […] Continue reading ->
Africa faces some of the world’s most severe health impacts from air pollution – with five countries on the continent ranking among the ten most polluted countries in the world, according to a new report by the US-based research organization Health Effects Institute.  Those countries include Niger, Nigeria, Egypt, Mauritania and Cameroon, where the report, […] Continue reading ->
The existential project to save the planet set out by the 2016 Paris Agreement is in tatters. There is currently “no credible pathway” to limit increases in global temperatures to the 1.5°C degree target detailed in the accords, the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) said in its global emissions gap report released Thursday. The chance of […] Continue reading ->
Countries’ voluntary commitments to fight climate change will still mean an increase in global emissions by some 10.6% as of 2030, according to the latest report of UN Climate Change,  which tabulates the most recent ‘Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs) of countries to the climate battle. This represents only a slight “improvement” over the commitments as […] Continue reading ->