Category: Business

The UN agency issued the call ahead of  International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, which runs from 18-26 October.  Although exposure is entirely preventable, fewer than half of countries had confirmed legally binding controls on paint containing lead, according to the agency’s latest global assessment.  ‘Stealing children’s potential’  The risks to children are particularly dangerous because their developing brains and nervous… Read More

“Alcohol harm isn’t abstract,” said Dr. Carina Ferreira-Borges, the WHO Europe regional adviser on alcohol. “It can be heart and liver disease. It can be a baby exposed to alcohol before birth. It can be anxiety and depression. It can be a woman who develops breast cancer without ever being told alcohol was a risk.”  The launch highlighted the widespread lack… Read More

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking on Wednesday to health leaders and senior officials attending the WHO regional committee meeting underway in Cairo, Egypt.  “Over the past year, Member States have continued to advance the health and wellbeing of their people, often under the most difficult circumstances,” he said in remarks on the annual report for the region, which spans 22… Read More

Taiz, Yemen’s third largest city, has been a major battleground between the Iran-backed Houthis and the internationally recognised Saudi-backed Yemeni government since the start of the war in 2014.  The Houthis have besieged the city since 2015 but tightened their blockade at the start of this month when they took control of the last main road between Taiz and other… Read More

The text was due to be approved by consensus at a high-level meeting on 25 September.  Objections from the United States and a few other States blocked that, pushing the issue back to the assembly. Read the full political declaration here. Chile’s representative summed up one prevailing view, saying that “no country, no matter how big it might be or how… Read More

Renewed clashes between Saudi-backed Yemeni Government forces and Houthi rebels supported by Iran, have intensified in recent weeks.   More than 200,000 people have been displaced, according to latest figures from UN migration agency, IOM, while close to 3,800 have fled to Djibouti across the Red Sea.  WHO said its immediate funding requirements have increased from $9 million to $31 million. … Read More

In 2024, there were around 170 million children and adolescents living with obesity – including 70 million children aged five to nine and some 100 million adolescents up to 19. The UN health agency defines obesity as a “chronic, relapsing disease” triggered by excessive fat deposits which can nonetheless be managed through effective care. What’s at stake  Children and adolescents with… Read More

Speaking in Fiji at an event organized by global charitable foundation Wellcome, ahead of the COP31 climate conference in Antalya, UNFCCC chief Simon Stiell said a deep test of climate action was “far, far simpler” than degrees, targets and finance: “whether we protect life at its most fragile”.  “Rising temperatures mean rising danger in pregnancy,” he told first day of the pre-COP… Read More

According to the UN health agency’s latest Global Health Estimates, life expectancy reached 73.3 years in 2023, just shy of the 73.4 years recorded in 2019. “Living longer is one of the great achievements of public health,” said Dr. Alain Labrique, Director of WHO’s Department of Data, Digital Health, Analytics and AI. The estimates, which cover trends in death and… Read More

“A truck full of non-priority supplies or the right supplies arriving too late, doesn’t save lives. That’s the question that actually matters,” said Dr Reinhilde Van De Weerdt, WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Almost 12 months into a fragile ceasefire agreement between Hamas fighters and Israel marked by ongoing Israeli airstrikes and other military activity, Gaza’s humanitarian… Read More