Author: Global Author

COVID-19 and climate change have exacerbated malnutrition in all its forms and threatened the sustainability and resilience of food systems around the world. At the Nutrition for Growth Summit in Tokyo on 7 – 8 December 2021, the World Health Organization has announced six new commitments to accelerate progress on the 2025 nutrition targets which have been pushed even further off course during the pandemic. These include: Expand initiatives to prevent and manage overweight and obesity; Step up activities to create food environments that promote safe and healthy diets; Support…

7 December 2021 – WHO held a virtual dialogue today with donors currently providing flexible voluntary contributions to WHO. The objective of the exchange was to provide donors with information on how their flexible contributions to WHO are being used, to exchange views and seek ideas around reporting and donor visibility for these contributions, among other issues. Flexible funds are a lifeline to the work of WHO. These are the catalytic funds that enable all aspects of WHO’s work, and therefore its impact in countries and on people everywhere. In…

A self-help psychological intervention developed by the World Health Organization, Self-Help Plus, was effective in preventing the onset of mental disorders among Syrian refugees in Turkey, according to a study published in World Psychiatry today. The study, the first randomized controlled trial on prevention of mental disorders conducted among Syrian refugees experiencing psychological distress but without a diagnosis of a mental disorder, found that the likelihood of having a mental disorder six months after the intervention was approximately half for participants receiving Self-Help Plus as compared with those in the…

From Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination              The social and economic upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic has been particularly hard on persons affected by leprosy and their families, many of whom were in a vulnerable position to begin with. Lockdowns implemented by governments have made it harder for them to access treatment and care, deprived them of income-generating opportunities, and exacerbated the deprivations their marginalized communities already faced. With this in mind, in August 2021 I launched an awareness campaign called “Don’t…

WHO has recommended two new drugs for COVID-19, providing yet more options for treating the disease. The extent to which these medicines will save lives depends on how widely available and affordable they will be. The first drug, baricitinib, is strongly recommended for patients with severe or critical COVID-19. It is part of a class of drugs called Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors that suppress the overstimulation of the immune system. WHO recommends that it is given with corticosteroids. Baricitinib is an oral drug, used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.…