Professor Hanan Balkhy will step into the shoes of Dr Mariângela Simão, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Assistant Director-General for access to medicines and health products, when she leaves on Thursday, according to WHO sources. Currently WHO Assistant Director-General of antimicrobial resistance, Balkhy served as executive director of infection prevention and control in Saudia Arabia […] Continue reading ->
The term monkeypox will be replaced by mpox within the next year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This follows “racist and stigmatizing language” being used in relation to the large outbreak of mpox for the first time in Europe and the US. The WHO said it had been approached by a number of […] Continue reading ->
Women and girls are more at risk of getting killed at home by intimate partners or family. A new report by UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) said that more than five women or girls are killed every hour across the world by their partners or families. The report, released […] Continue reading ->
Some 7.7 million people are estimated to have been killed by bacterial pathogens in 2019 according to a study published in The Lancet this week, making this the second leading cause of death globally in2019. Some 33 bacterial pathogens across 11 infectious syndromes were linked to 13.6% of all global deaths in 2019, according to […] Continue reading ->
Oral diseases are the most common form of noncommunicable disease (NCD) in the world. Globally, these conditions affect almost 3.5 billion people – almost half of the world’s population. Long a neglected subject in global health circles, oral diseases affect about 1 billion more people than all five main NCDs – mental disorders, cardiovascular disease, […] Continue reading ->
A new survey of citizens in 14 WHO member states in the Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia found that one third of respondents questioned said that their last course of antibiotics was obtained with a medical prescription. This is at least three times more than that reported from a similar survey of 30 European Union […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has strongly recommended that babies born before 37 weeks of gestation (preterm) or with low birth weight should be provided immediate skin to skin contact with a caregiver, which in turn increases their chances of survival. This recommendation by the global health agency is a significant change from the previous […] Continue reading ->
In the aftermath of massive pandemic-related disruptions to family planning services, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that women can be taught to give themselves contraceptive injections. This is one of the practical measures to ensure the continuity of family planning services during epidemics that is contained in the WHO’s updated family planning handbook, which […] Continue reading ->
Colombia’s Congress has voted to impose taxes on ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks to curb obesity and address other health issues. Ultra-processed foods facing taxes are those with high added sugars, salt, and saturated fats, including sausages, cereals, jellies and jams, purees, sauces, condiments and seasoning. These will face a 10% tax in September 2023, […] Continue reading ->
Two shorter treatment regimens for multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis have proven to be safe and more effective than the current treatment, the Union World Conference on Lung Health heard on Tuesday. Results from Stage 2 of the STREAM clinical trial, published in The Lancet on the same day, show that a fully-oral nine-month bedaquiline-based regimen […] Continue reading ->