When Elvis Ndikum Achiri, a long-time veteran of tobacco control campaigns, began collecting data on air pollution in his community in Cameroon, he was surprised to discover how many people around him, both young and old, suffered from related illnesses even though they had never smoked – including a beloved high school teacher who had […] Continue reading ->
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first-ever vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). The single-shot vaccine intended for use in adults aged 60 or older represents the culmination of six decades of research to protect the world from RSV. With the green light from the FDA on Wednesday, GSK’s Arexvy vaccine […] Continue reading ->
The G7 summit in Hiroshima needs to produce a strong, clear high-level statement, acting upon recent commitments by Environment Ministers to end lead poisoning, and consigning this leading cause of childhood death and disability to the dustbin of history. In 2014, residents of Flint, Michigan, began reporting problems with the tap water in their homes. […] Continue reading ->
The world’s largest global health organizations have announced a partnership to reverse the years-long backslide in global childhood vaccination rates caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. An estimated 67 million children missed at least one essential vaccination between 2019 and 2021 and 50 million of these didn’t receive any vaccines – setting back childhood vaccination rates […] Continue reading ->
Health authorities in Burundi have declared a national public health emergency response to an outbreak of circulating poliovirus type 2. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Africa region announced on Friday that polio had been detected in an unvaccinated four-year-old boy in Isale district in western Burundi and two other children who had been in contact […] Continue reading ->
Respiratory infections contracted in early childhood nearly double the risk of dying prematurely from respiratory diseases as an adult, according to a new study published in The Lancet. The study followed a British cohort of over 3,500 people from their births in 1946, and then again between the ages of 26 and 73 years of […] Continue reading ->
More than half of the world’s population may be overweight or obese by 2035—with the sharpest rise expected to occur among children and adolescents, according to a new report by the the World Obesity Federation. About 2.6 billion of the world’s 8 billion people are already overweight or obese, and COVID lockdowns likely exacerbated trends […] Continue reading ->
Infant formula companies have “pathologised” normal baby behaviour to promote their products, and there should be “an international, legal treaty” to prevent their marketing, according to health experts. In addition, political lobbying by milk formula companies to influence public policy should be sharply curtailed. These are some of the suggestions contained in a three-part series […] Continue reading ->
Five billion people around the world have no protection against industrially produced trans fats (ITFAs), putting them at risk of heart disease and death, the World Health Organization said. ITFAs are responsible for over 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease every year. Commonly found in baked goods, cooking oils, and packaged foods, ITFAs are […] Continue reading ->
An estimated 7.1 million children and teens up to the age of 24 years died in 2021, according to a United Nations (UN) report released on Tuesday. Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South Asia bore higher burden of these deaths than other regions. This includes five million children under the age of five and 2.1 million […] Continue reading ->