Category: Development

In a statement, UN Environment described the Global Environment Outlook, which was produced by 250 scientists and experts from more than 70 countries, as the most comprehensive and rigorous assessment completed by the United Nations in the last five years. Unless environmental protections are drastically scaled up, the report says, there could be millions of premature deaths by the middle… Read More

Announcing the revised Global Influenza Strategy for 2019-2030, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, warned that the “question is not if we will have another pandemic, but when”. “The threat of pandemic influenza is ever-present,” he said, noting that the risk of a new influenza virus transmitting from animals to humans and potentially leading to a pandemic is… Read More

Just hours after the assault, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), toured the centre, which was also attacked last week, thanking personnel for their steadfast dedication. “It breaks my heart to think of the health workers injured and police officer who died in today’s attack, as we continue to mourn those who died in previous attacks,… Read More

Many people live with unidentified hearing loss, often failing to realize that they are missing out on certain sounds and words. To address this problem, the World Health Organization (WHO) is urging people on this year’s World Hearing Day, held on March 3, to check their hearing. Read More

“Persistent harmful socio-cultural norms, stigma, misconceptions and taboos around menstruation, continue to lead to exclusion and discrimination of women and girls”, said the independent human rights experts, ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March. Despite recent campaigns by women to challenge menstruation taboos and increasing attention to the issue of menstruation in the media, research, policy-making, and cultural discussion,… Read More

The male patient, who was being treated for lymphatic cancer at a London hospital in the United Kingdom, underwent a stem cell transplant in 2016, with cells from a donor carrying a rare genetic resistance to the HIV virus. Both his cancer and HIV went into remission, and 18 months on, he is no longer taking HIV drugs and all… Read More

“Legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes, as seen in a small number of countries, represents not only a challenge to the universal implementation of the treaties and the signatories to the treaties, but also a significant challenge to health and wellbeing, particularly among young people”, INCB President Viroj Sumyai said, following the publication of the body’s latest Annual Report. The… Read More

At the Human Rights Council in Geneva, David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, insisted that air pollution is a “silent, sometimes invisible, prolific killer” which affected women and girls more than men. This is despite the fact that the right to a healthy environment is legally recognised by 155 States, Dr. Boyd explained. “Air pollutants are… Read More

Worldwide, some 466 million people have disabling hearing loss, and the WHO estimates that by 2050 that figure will almost double, affecting one in 10 people. The cost of unaddressed hearing loss is believed to be around US$ 750 billion. To mark World Hearing Day 2019, WHO has launched a new mobile and web-based app called “hearWHO,” which allows people… Read More

In Geneva, spokesperson Christian Lindmeier condemned the “deplorable” targeting of two Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) facilities earlier this week in Katwa and Butembo. WHO was “doing everything and talking with everyone” to ensure that the operation to overcome the current Ebola outbreak continues, he insisted. To date, the agency and its partners have relied on armed protection from UN peacekeepers… Read More