Investing in as little as $0.24 per patient per year in digital health interventions – telemedicine, mobile messaging, and chatbots – could significantly lower the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), says a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Telecommunication Union (UTI). These interventions could avert 2 million deaths and 7 […] Continue reading ->
Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi has been announced as the new European Commissioner for Health, in a portfolio that now includes animal welfare. He succeeds Cyprus’s Stella Kyriakides, whose portfolio was health and food safety. Várhelyi has been the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement since 2019, leading efforts to increase membership of the European Union. “He […] Continue reading ->
Health will be an important focus of the upcoming annual United Nations (UN) climate conference taking place in November in Baku, Azerbaijan, according to the COP29 Presidency and the World Health Organization (WHO). Like the previous COP, there will be a health day and there is a slew of health-focused initiatives, according to Elmar Mammadov, […] Continue reading ->
Tanzania’s Dr Faustine Ndugulile has been nominated as the next Regional Director for the World Health Organization (WHO) African Region, defeating more experienced WHO insiders in a closely contested race. Ndugulile secured 25 of the 46 votes at the WHO Africa regional conference in the Republic of Congo, defeating Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall (proposed by […] Continue reading ->
A little known, but potentially lethal virus is spreading throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, prompting the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other health agencies to issue warnings for travelers and clinicians. Oropouche virus, an arbovirus like dengue, Zika, and chikungunya, is spread through certain midge or mosquito bites. Oropouche symptoms are similar […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization and UNICEF have appealed for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in the grinding Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in August and September to facilitate a massive polio booster campaign – as three suspected polio cases were being investigated by a Jordanian laboratory. The appeal came as the entire region see-saws between the possibility […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to begin a major polio booster vaccination campaign in Gaza next week with the dispatch of over 1.2 million vaccines to the war-torn Palestinian enclave – against a backdrop of spiralling regional tensions.   WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned again on Wednesday that the presence of polio virus […] Continue reading ->