A four-year, multi-country trial measuring health impacts of reduced indoor air pollution due to the shifting of households from biomass to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) has yielded  mixed results – defying expectations that reduced indoor air pollution would yield significant health benefits. The study of 3,200 households in four Asian, African and Latin America countries […] Continue reading ->
Encephalitis “remains under-recognized, under-diagnosed, and underfunded”,  according to a new policy report from the World Health Organization (WHO). Climate change, vaccine hesitancy, and the rising burden of vector-borne diseases are also fuelling an increased number of encephalitis cases, a rare but serious inflammation of the brain.  The technical document urges coordinated global action to “confront […] Continue reading ->
WHO Member States appeared to give strong backing to a proposed new WHO roadmap to reduce air pollution’s health impacts – with the ambitious global goal of cutting mortality attributable to human-produced sources by 50% by 2040.  At the same time, a draft Climate Change and Health Action Plan, also aired at Saturday’s WHO Executive […] Continue reading ->
Hours after reclaiming the presidency, Donald Trump moved swiftly on Monday to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement and unleash a barrage of executive orders aimed at dismantling US climate policy, boosting fossil fuel production, and undercutting green energy technologies. The sweeping actions, which are expected to trigger months of legal challenges […] Continue reading ->
Global temperatures increased by 1.6ºC above pre-industrial levels.in 2024, the first year that they have crossed the 1.5ºC threshold set by the global Paris Agreement. Last year was the hottest since temperatures started being recorded in 1850, with a global average temperature of 15.1ºC. This was 0.12ºC hotter than 2023, the previous record-holder. “Multiple global […] Continue reading ->
Nearly one fifth of dengue cases in Latin America and the Caribbean, or about 45 million infections a year, are attributable to climate change, in the past decade, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard and Stanford Universities.  Rising temperatures combined with mosquito species uniquely suited to sprawling urbanization and deforestation are fueling […] Continue reading ->