In April 2022, amidst the continuing uproar of the COVID pandemic, four deans of schools of public health from the USA, China, Switzerland and Singapore, first got on a call with each other to see how they could ramp up cooperation – remotely. Barred by lockdowns from the usual academic meetings and conferences, the urge […] Continue reading ->
New evidence shows that one in four deaths between 2009 and 2019 is linked to PM 2.5, one of the most dangerous pollutants commonly monitored. NEW DELHI – In November Delhi recorded its worst day of air pollution since 2019. As concerned citizens expressed outrage, authorities scrambled for answers – and it seems that the […] Continue reading ->
Climate change, unplanned urbanization, sprawling cities, and the El Nino effect all converged to make 2024 a “historic” year for dengue transmission. With increased opportunities for Aedes aegypti mosquitoes–the insects that carry dengue– to breed, cases reached a record 12.7 million cases in the WHO’s Americas Region, nearly three times more than in 2023. This translates […] Continue reading ->
Some 75% of heat-related deaths occurred amongst people under the age of 35 , and one-third of such deaths were young adults between the ages of 18 to 35, according to a new study on heat mortality in Mexico. This contradicts previous assumptions that the elderly are the most vulnerable to heat. “We project, as […] Continue reading ->
Climate change poses an immediate and catastrophic threat to human health worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief warned the UN’s highest court on Friday as it considers a landmark case that could establish fresh legal obligations for nations to cut emissions and pay for climate damages. WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus testified to […] Continue reading ->
More than one-third of countries worldwide lack government-level air quality monitoring, leaving nearly one billion people in the dark about one of the greatest risks to their health, a new report showed on Friday. The assessment by non-profit OpenAQ, which maintains the largest open-source database of air quality measurements, found significant gaps in government tracking […] Continue reading ->
There is still no clarity about the cause of the mystery disease affecting people in the Panzi district of Kwango province in south-west Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), despite hopes that it would be diagnosed by the past weekend. Getting laboratory test results is proving more challenging than previously hoped as the district’s “limited laboratory […] 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 ->
Negotiations to produce a legally binding treaty to curb the global explosion of plastic pollution fell short on Sunday as efforts to limit the production of fossil fuel-based plastics supported by over 100 countries, including the European Union, met fierce opposition from oil-producing nations. A coalition of oil and gas producers led by Saudi Arabia […] Continue reading ->
The world needs to urgently change the way food is grown and land is used in order to avoid irreparable harm to global food production capacity, according to a major new scientific report released Sunday. Currently seven out of nine ‘planetary boundaries’ have been negatively impacted by unsustainable land use, mostly related to unsustainable agriculture, […] Continue reading ->