Fourteen months into its devastating civil war, one-half of Sudan’s 25.6 million population faces levels of food security ranked as “crisis,” emergency, or “catastrophic,” according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis. The IPC analysis of Gaza also found that a “high and sustained risk” of famine persists across the entire occupied […] Continue reading ->
WHO framework to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a deadly disease most prominent in East Africa, was launched Thursday. It can play an important role in eliminating VL as a public health problem by 2030: a goal key countries of the East African region committed to in last year’s Nairobi Declaration. “The VL elimination framework will offer […] Continue reading ->
As many as 65 million people in over a dozen Southern and Eastern African countries from Mozambique to Ethiopia are facing unprecedented challenges with food security, extreme weather events and conflict, UN officials say. The crises disproportionately affect women, who are already in a more vulnerable situation due to their gender, said Lydia Zigomo, UN […] Continue reading ->
Most H5N1 infections spreading through US dairy cattle and other animal populations are likely going undetected despite stepped up surveillance by the US Department of Agriculture, Michael Osterholm, director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), told Health Policy Watch on Wednesday. Osterholm spoke as a growing number of infectious experts were […] Continue reading ->
A new programme aiming at providing 1.2 million rapid cholera diagnostic tests has been launched in 14 African and Asian countries. “Routine use of diagnostics will bolster cholera surveillance in impacted countries, and must be leveraged to better target vaccination efforts, which play a critical role in multisectoral cholera prevention and control programmes,” said Aurélia […] Continue reading ->
The number of children who died before their fifth birthday has dropped to 2.9 million in 2022, reaching a historic low, according to the latest estimates of under-5 mortality released today by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME). And since 2000, the global under-five mortality rate has declined by more […] Continue reading ->
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) needs at least five million cholera vaccines to address the worst outbreak of the disease on the African continent – but it has received none so far. Meanwhile, Zambia has received half the cholera vaccines it needs and less than a third of Zimbabwe’s vaccine needs have been met, […] Continue reading ->
From a community well in east Africa to a standpipe in an urban slum, small water operators furnish vital supplies for billions of people the world over. Now, for the first time in nearly 30 years, the World Health Organization (WHO) has published new guidelines for drinking water quality for small water supplies with up-to-date […] Continue reading ->
A milestone World Health Organization (WHO) decision to recognise noma (cancrum oris or gangrenous stomatitis) as a neglected tropical disease (NTD) is the result of a longstanding campaign waged for over a decade by global health researchers and advocates in Geneva and beyond. Proponents believe that inclusion can offer noma’s victims the […] Continue reading ->
Incidence of dengue virus has soared in 2023 to near historically high levels, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Friday, with more than 5 million cases worldwide and 5,000 deaths from the virus that still lacks an effective treatment or vaccine. Moreover, formerly dengue-free countries in southern Europe, such as France, Italy and Spain […] Continue reading ->