Tag: Health News

An estimated 820 million people did not have enough to eat in 2018, up from 811 million in the previous year, which is the third year of increase in a row. This underscores the immense challenge of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030, says a new edition of the annual The State of Food Security and… Read More

Many governments are making progress in the fight against tobacco, with 5 billion people today living in countries that have introduced smoking bans, graphic warnings on packaging and other effective tobacco control measures – four times more people than a decade ago. But a new WHO report shows many countries are still not adequately implementing policies, including helping people quit… Read More

Today at the United Nations General Assembly, 12 multilateral agencies launched a joint plan to better support countries over the next 10 years to accelerate progress towards the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Developed over 18 months, Stronger Collaboration, Better Health: Global Action Plan for Healthy Lives and Well-being for All outlines how a dozen multilateral health, development and humanitarian… Read More

The World Health Organization today welcomed a new Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Resolution on achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030. The resolution, adopted at the IPU Assembly in Belgrade, Serbia, comes one month after heads of state agreed a high-level United Nations Political Declaration on UHC in New York. UHC is increasingly regarded as a cornerstone for sustainable global development… Read More

The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announcement recommending a conditional marketing authorization for the rVSV-ZEBOV-GP vaccine, which has been shown to be effective in protecting people from the Ebola virus.  Today’s announcement by EMA, the European agency responsible for the scientific evaluation of medicines developed by pharmaceutical companies, is a key step before the European Commission… Read More

Two attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have killed 4 workers responding to the Ebola outbreak and injured 5 others. The attacks occurred overnight on a shared living camp in Biakato Mines and an Ebola response coordination office in Mangina. “We are heartbroken that people have died in the line of duty as they worked… Read More

Measles strategy works – Now it must expand to more countriesCape Town Measles Declaration pledges to cut measles deaths by half By 2005, almost half a million children will be saved every year if there are expanded efforts to immunize and protect all children against measles, international health experts declared today. At a landmark World Health Organization (WHO)/United Nations Children’s… Read More

Remarks by Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall, World Health Organization Assistant Director-General, Emergency Response Good afternoon.  I hope that your busy week was interrupted, like mine, with a moment of joy on Tuesday. That moment was the celebration of a woman being discharged from an Ebola treatment centre in Beni. Her name is Masika. She was the last person in the… Read More

Today, the World Health Organization announced that a new pathogen, a member of the coronavirus family never before seen in humans, is the cause of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The speed at which this virus was identified is the result of the close international collaboration of 13 laboratories from 10 countries. While many lines of evidence have found strong… Read More

Today, the World Health Organization is removing Taiwan, China, from the list of areas with recent local transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Taiwan is the last area to be removed from the list. It has been 20 days, or two consecutive 10-day incubation periods, since the last case on June 15. Based on country surveillance reports, the human… Read More