Category: Development

Don’t let smoking steal life’s breathtaking moments, urges UN health agency Tobacco use continues to claim around eight million lives a year, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, in a call for faster action from governments to tackle smoking and the “enormous” health, social, environmental and economic costs it entails. Ahead of World No Tobacco Day, marked on… Read More

Ahead of World No Tobacco Day, marked on Friday, 31 May, WHO’s Dr Vinayak Prasad, acting Director, Department for the Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases, highlighted the damage that tobacco causes to the lungs of smokers and non-smokers alike. Why waste your breath on ? when there are far greater things in life that should take your breath away? Nature ?… Read More

Violent attacks in Nigeria drive thousands of refugees into Niger An upsurge in violence in areas of north-west Nigeria beyond the reach of humanitarians, has forced thousands of people to flee to neighbouring Niger, UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday. Warning that some 20,000 people have been uprooted from their homes since April in Nigeria’s Sokoto and Zamfara states, the agency’s… Read More

Marking the International Day on 23 May to end the almost entirely preventable condition, the head of the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, said that sufferers continue to “face devastating social stigma”.   “Shame, isolation and segregation are among the indignities faced by the hundreds of thousands of women and girls worldwide who suffer from obstetric fistula”, said Dr.… Read More

‘Time for action is now’ senior UN peacekeeping official says, urging more support for Sahel force The five-year-old force working to stabilize Africa’s Sahel has shown great potential, but needs more support from the international community to reach full operational capacity, a top UN peacekeeping official said on Thursday, calling for enhanced political and economic solutions to help tackle the… Read More

Around one-in-seven babies worldwide weighed less than 5.5 pounds, or 2.5 kilogrammes at birth, according to latest data from 2015. The Lancet Global Health research paper was developed by experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which not only reveals that more than 20 million babies that… Read More

In Christchurch, UN chief calls for tolerance, solidarity to extinguish ‘wildfire’ of hate speech  On a three-day visit to New Zealand, UN Secretary-General António Guterres paid his respects to the victims of the horrific mosque attacks in Christchurch, where dozens of Muslims were gunned down in two separate incidents during Friday prayers on 15 March.  Calling for solidarity to  counter the recent upsurge in… Read More

People can reduce their risk of #dementia by:-Getting regular exercise-Not smoking-Avoiding harmful use of alcohol-Controlling their weight-Eating a healthy diet-Maintaining healthy blood pressure, cholesterol & blood sugar levels New WHO guidelines https://t.co/fuDYH7aFQy pic.twitter.com/xKK7mmngkM — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 14, 2019 In recommendations to counter an expected tripling in the number of people with the degenerative condition in the… Read More

In an appeal for $20 million to help victims hurt during protests dubbed the Great March of Return – weekly rallies on Fridays by Gazans that began a year ago, leaving 29,000 people injured, many by live ammunition – Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), said that more resources were urgently required. “The health structures really… Read More