We use cookies to improve your experience. By your continued use of this site you accept such use.
World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

Countries Begin Negotiations on Global Agreement to Protect World from Future Pandemic Emergencies

WHO Member States will continue negotiations of the zero draft of the pandemic accord at the INB’s next meeting, to be held over 3-6 April, with a view to collecting all inputs necessary to develop the first draft

Countries of the World Health Organization have begun negotiations on a global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, using the “zero draft” as a basis for negotiating an agreement to protect nations and communities from future pandemic emergencies. Ending Friday, discussions on the draft pandemic accord took place during…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

Disease Outbreak News: Marburg virus disease - Equatorial Guinea

WHO assesses the risk posed by the outbreak as high at the national level, moderate at the regional level and low at the global level

Situation at a glance  On 7 February 2023, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Equatorial Guinea reported the deaths of a number of individuals with suspected hemorrhagic fever. On 12 February 2023, one sample was confirmed positive for Marburg virus by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), at the…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

African leaders unite in pledge to end AIDS in children

Currently, around the world, a child dies from AIDS related causes every five minutes

Ministers and representatives from twelve African countries have committed themselves, and laid out their plans, to end AIDS in children by 2030. International partners have set out how they would support countries in delivering on those plans, which were issued at the first ministerial meeting of the Global Alliance to end…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

Africa emerges from holiday travel season with low number of COVID-19 cases

COVID-19 vaccination remains critical in protecting against severe illness and death, as the virus remains in circulation and continues to mutate

Africa is emerging from the New Year travel season without a significant upsurge in COVID-19 for the first time since the start of the pandemic. A total of 20 552 new cases were recorded in the first three weeks of January 2023, a 97% slump compared with the same period…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

World Health Organization (WHO) launches funding appeal to help a record number of people in complex, intersecting health emergencies

WHO’s Health Emergency Appeal 2023 calls for US$ 2.54 billion

WHO is launching its 2023 health emergency appeal today for US$ 2.54 billion to provide assistance to millions of people around the world facing health emergencies. The number of people in need of humanitarian relief has increased by almost a quarter compared to 2022, to a record 339 million. Currently,…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

Five billion people unprotected from trans-fat leading to heart disease

Industrially produced trans fat-is commonly found in packaged foods, baked goods, cooking oils and spreads

Five billion people globally remain unprotected from harmful trans fat, a new status report from World Health Organization (WHO) has found, increasing their risk of heart disease and death. Since WHO first called for the global elimination of industrially produced trans fat in 2018 – with an elimination target set for…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

A child or youth died once every 4.4 seconds in 2021 – United Nations (UN) report

Another 1.9 million babies were tragically stillborn during the same period, according to a separate UN report

An estimated 5 million children died before their fifth birthday and another 2.1 million children and youth aged between 5–24 years lost their lives in 2021, according to the latest estimates released by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME). In a separate report also released…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

Accelerated action needed to ensure safe drinking-water, sanitation and hygiene for all

The GLAAS 2022 report, which details the latest status of WASH systems in more than 120 countries, is the largest data collection from the greatest number of countries to date

Urgent action is needed globally and locally to achieve safe and sustainably managed water, sanitation and hygiene for all in order to prevent devastating impacts on the health of millions of people. Findings from WHO and UN-Water’s Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) report show that acceleration…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

Despite continued impact of COVID-19, malaria cases and deaths remained stable in 2021

Seasonal malaria chemoprevention (SMC) is recommended to prevent the disease among children living in areas with highly seasonal malaria transmission in Africa

New data released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that countries around the world largely held the line against further setbacks to malaria prevention, testing and treatment services in 2021. According to this year’s World malaria report, there were an estimated 619 000 malaria deaths globally in 2021 compared…

World Health Organization (WHO)
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) |

Tackling Emerging Antimalarial Drug Resistance in Africa

In recent years, there have been reports from Africa of emerging parasite resistance to artemisinin – the core compound of the best available medicines to treat malaria

WHO is launching today a new strategy to respond to the urgent problem of antimalarial drug resistance in Africa. The strategy is being released during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, a global annual campaign to improve awareness of the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics and other medicines. In recent years,…