Only a quarter of countries worldwide have a national plan to support people with dementia and their families, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ‘Global status report on the public health response to dementia’ released on Thursday. More than 55 million people globally are living with dementia and the number is estimated to increase […] Continue reading ->
When Algerian service stations stopped providing leaded petrol last month, this marked the successful end to a global campaign to eliminate this “major threat to human and planetary health”. Celebrating the official end of the use of leaded petrol on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres said that when the global campaign to eliminate the […] Continue reading ->
Although the World Health Organization (WHO) has issued technical guidelines for the development of digital COVID-19 ‘vaccine certificates’, it has stressed that these should not be a prerequisite for international travel. At the release of the technical guidelines last Friday (27 August), the WHO stated that it “does not support the requirement of proof of […] Continue reading ->
One billion children – almost half the world’s children – live in 33 countries that are at an “extremely high-risk” from the impacts of climate change including heatwaves, cyclones, air pollution, flooding and water scarcity. This is according to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index (CCRI) which provides the first global comprehensive view of children’s exposure […] Continue reading ->
KABUL – As the Taliban blitzed through towns and villages of Afghanistan finally capturing Kabul August 15, the war-ravaged country’s fragile health system was also crumbling, leaving the sick and vulnerable in despair. Over the past week, the health ministry’s previously daily updates of coronavirus infections, vaccinations and other key updates on public health have […] Continue reading ->
The Delta variant is finding fertile ground to spread – and claim lives – around the Middle East and North Africa. The New Humanitarian, a nonprofit newsroom covering crises around the world, provides a snapshot of COVID-19 across the region. After months of relative calm, COVID-19 has again been coursing through much of the Middle […] Continue reading ->
WHO Rolling Out Emergency Aid in Afghanistan – Stresses Importance of Retaining Women Health Workers
WHO has affirmed that it is staying in Afghanistan and providing emergency aid to the tens of thousands of recent victims of conflict and displacement – even as staff in some NGOs go into hiding or desperately seek to leave the country for fear of their lives. “The World Health Organization (WHO) is committed to […] Continue reading ->
This year’s 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), will be a critical moment of decision on climate policies, as the clock runs down before the more severe ravages of global warming become irreversible. Against the panoply of issues under debate, health is getting more attention from this year’s COP26 organisers as a […] Continue reading ->
As wealthy countries opt to give third COVID-19 vaccine booster doses to vulnerable citizens, some researchers have called instead for “fractional doses” to stretch the scarce resources. “If you have two million doses of vaccine, you can give that as two doses to one million people. But what about if you gave fractional doses?” asked […] Continue reading ->
While the US was contending with the COVID-19 pandemic, huge wildfires that swept across the country in 2020 may have contributed to thousands of COVID cases and deaths, according to a US study on fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) air pollution from wildfires and COVID-19. The study, conducted by researchers at the Harvard Chan School […] Continue reading ->