Authorities in Equatorial Guinea have confirmed another four cases of deadly Marburg virus disease, bringing the total number of cases for the country’s current outbreak to 13 – although some sources warn that the case count could be much higher, due to the lack of lab capacity and reporting delays. In a Twitter post late […] Continue reading ->
At the first international conference on water security in five decades, governments, international organizations and civil society groups from over 170 countries committed to nearly 700 new initiatives to address a global water crisis that is causing record droughts, threatening food security, and threatening global supplies of drinking water. This week’s UN Water Conference is only […] Continue reading ->
The worsening drought in Somalia is likely to have caused 43,000 excess deaths in 2022, of which around 21,500 are children under the age of five, according to a new report released on Monday. “We are racing against time to prevent deaths and save lives that are avoidable. We have seen, deaths and diseases thrive […] Continue reading ->
The world will heat up by at least 1.5ºC by the 2030s – and our best hope is that global warming does not “go blasting” way beyond this point, according to scientists from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC released its sixth synthesis report on climate change in Interlaken in […] 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 ->
A new UN Environment report calls for more attention to be focused on the environmental factors fostering the development of strains of drug-resistant bacteria immune to all known antibiotics, known as “superbugs”. By 2050, the UN estimates that up to 10 million deaths could be caused by superbugs and associated forms of antimicrobial resistance, matching […] Continue reading ->
The number of people requiring treatment for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) decreased from 2.19 to 1.65 billion between 2010 and 2021 – an impressive 25 percent decline. However, interlinked challenges, including the COVID pandemic and, now, accelerating patterns of climate change are putting this progress at risk. On World NTD Day, we need to recognise […] Continue reading ->
At least 300,000 people lose their lives to air pollution each year across the European Union, and the bloc is pushing to tighten air quality regulations as part of its Green New Deal legislative package. The new rules aim to reduce the number of premature deaths and illness caused by air pollution, as well as […] Continue reading ->
The World Economic Forum (WEF) will partner with Wellcome Trust to collect research-based data on how climate change is affecting health. Making the announcement, WEF’s head of health Shyam Bishen said that while several organisations were working on data collection, most data is fragmented with different organisations. “We want to ensure that we have a […] Continue reading ->
The “cost-of-living crisis” and failure to mitigate climate change are the most acute global risks, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) which opened in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday. The forum’s risk assessment report 2023 released last week identifies a “polycrisis” of risks, most of which relate to environmental and societal issues, such as biodiversity […] Continue reading ->