The World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at a briefing on Wednesday that although the number of newly confirmed cases of coronavirus reported from China had stabilised over the past week, the outbreak 'could still go in any direction'. He also confirmed that Cambodia has agreed to accept the Westerdam cruise ship, which has been stranded at sea for several days over virus fears
Category Archives: Global health
African countries braced for ‘inevitable’ arrival of coronavirus
Health centres step up preparations as World Health Organization raises fears about ability to cope with major outbreak
African health authorities are stepping up preparedness for coronavirus after the head of the World Health Organzation described the outbreak as a “very grave threat for the rest of the world”.
The number of African countries that can test for the virus tripled to 15 this week, with more expected to have testing labs up and running in the coming days. The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said health centres were on “high alert” for new cases.
Continue reading...Coronavirus a test of global solidarity, says WHO director – video
Tedros Adhanom, head of the World Health Organization, calls the coronavirus outbreak a 'test of political solidarity' against a 'common enemy that does not respect borders or ideologies', as well as a test of financial and scientific solidarity. The epidemic has killed more than 1,000 people and infected more 40,000.
Continue reading...Concerns coronavirus is going undetected in Indonesia
World’s fourth most populous country says it has no confirmed cases despite close links to China
There is growing concern that the new coronavirus may be going undetected in Indonesia, where officials have not confirmed a single case of infection among the 272 million-strong population despite the country’s close links to China.
As of Thursday, Indonesia said it had no confirmed cases of the coronavirus and that 238 people evacuated from Wuhan, the centre of the outbreak, had not shown symptoms, although it said they hadn’t been tested.
Continue reading...‘Hidden’ coronavirus cases could thwart containment efforts, experts warn
Failure to report mild symptoms combined with highly contagious nature of disease raises fears existing figures are ‘tip of the iceberg’
Global health experts have warned that “hidden” infections make containment of the coronavirus unlikely and raised fears that the rapidly rising caseload of 25,000 people could be the “tip of the iceberg”.
“Hidden” cases – where people with mild symptoms do not seek medical help and so remain untested and unrecorded – combined with the highly contagious nature of the disease mean there could be “vastly more cases” than previously thought, according to Tom Frieden, a former director at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Continue reading...The coronavirus lays bare the limits of WHO’s health diplomacy with China
The global body is accused of failing to act fast to halt epidemic but the true cost of doing politics with Beijing is still unknown
On social media this week the insults were flying thick and fast, some tinged with racism, but all with a common theme: how the World Health Organization, and its head, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, was effectively doing the bidding of the Chinese government in the midst of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
It is a charge that has also been expressed in less offensive terms elsewhere in columns and articles, some of which have focused on whether, in praising China’s response to the deadly Wuhan coronavirus outbreak during a visit to Beijing, Tedros allowed himself to become complicit in China’s flawed handling of the outbreak in its early days?
Continue reading...Should the world be worried about the coronavirus in China?
Experts fear latest strain of virus may spread across planet from person to person
It is a novel coronavirus – that is to say, a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals, or possibly seafood. Many of those infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city. New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are examples.
Continue reading...Climate, inequality, hunger: which global problems would you fix first? – interactive quiz
Interactive quiz: With only 10 years left to achieve the UN’s sustainability goals, find out how your priorities compare
Continue reading...Aid workers toil amid crisis and corruption to give Venezuelans the drugs they need
In Venezuela, hospitals lack the basics and medicine shortages are common, forcing humanitarian groups to pick up the slack
Feliciano Reyna masterminds a drug running network that spans Venezuela. His organisation moves substances through ports, trucks them across the country, and deliver them into customers’ hands. But he is not on any DEA watchlist.
“I am the biggest dealer in Venezuela,” says Reyna – though he is quick to qualify the remark – “If we’re talking about legal drugs.”
Continue reading...Surgery by candlelight: hospitals in Nigeria suffer losing power – and staff
As a failing electric grid further burdens the creaking health system, doctors continue to seek opportunities abroad
The waiting rooms at the Ifako Ijaiye hospital in Lagos are overcrowded with patients waiting to see doctors. Often people have to stand outside.
“It is now like this every day. We have to come early and pick numbers before we can meet the doctors. Even though the doctors try to see everybody, it has got worse,” says Oluchi Ezegbo, a market trader from Okearo, in nearby Ogun state.
Continue reading...The success stories of 2019 from across the world
From the first Ebola-free baby to advances in women’s rights, we take our pick of the breakthroughs
There was a glimmer of hope amid the rising death toll in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s largest Ebola outbreak when a baby called Sylvana tested negative for the virus.
Continue reading...Asia’s hardest year for dengue fever – in pictures
More than a million cases were reported in south-east Asia last year with poorer households most at risk
The global toll of dengue fever is becoming well known, with rising temperatures contributing to severe outbreaks that made 2019 the worst year on record for the disease.
In 1970 only nine countries faced severe dengue outbreaks. But the disease, which is spread by mosquitoes that can only survive in warm temperatures, is now seen in more than 100 countries. There are thought to be 390m infections each year
Continue reading...Coke, crisps, convenience: how ads created a global junk food generation
From Bangladesh to Britain, blanket exposure to promotional material for unhealthy foods is encouraging children to eat badly, new research claims
Nepalese schoolgirl Prasiddhika Shrestha is holding up a video camera at her aunt’s house, filming her cousins as they devour crisps, corn puffs, soda and dalmoth, a traditional lentil-based snack.
“What is it that you like eating most?” she asks them. “Lay’s chips and Coke,” says Diwani, who drinks between one and two litres of soft drink every day. Rihana includes a pack of Kurkure corn puffs in her daily diet.
Continue reading...‘We were so close’: how unrest in Congo thwarted the battle against Ebola
World Health Organization rues spike in violence that impeded efforts of health workers when outbreak was almost under control
The men who came to the village of Ntombi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in mid-December aimed to spare no one.
Militants with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of dozens of armed groups operating in DRC’s North Kivu, they hacked to death women and children, killing 22 people in a single incident in one of a series of attacks over the course of a weekend that left 43 dead in total.
Continue reading...‘They travel hours to see a doctor for a minute’: India’s mental health crisis
With fewer than two psychiatrists for every 100,000 people, experts are seeking innovative solutions to address the emergency
On a sunny morning at Calcutta Pavlov Hospital, 600 people wait patiently in the outpatient department. For many, the journey to see a doctor started hours before sunrise, with some even travelling overnight to secure their place in line. Despite waiting for hours, most will spend just 90 seconds with the psychiatrist.
One of the doctors on call, Dr Debananda Saha, expects to treat about 250 patients during his seven-hour shift at the government hospital.
Continue reading...UN #MeToo whistleblower sacked for alleged sexual and financial misconduct
Martina Brostrom, who accused senior UNAids official of sexual harassment, claims her dismissal is an act of ‘retaliation’
A high-profile UN whistleblower, whose claims of sexual assault at the main agency dealing with Aids prompted a long-running scandal, has been sacked along with another colleague for alleged sexual and financial misconduct.
Martina Brostrom publicly accused a senior director at UNAids of forcibly kissing her and trying to drag her out of a Bangkok elevator in 2015. She also said he had sexually harassed her on other occasions.
Continue reading...Spike in Ebola cases alarms health officials in DRC
Many cases blamed on a single individual who appears to have caught virus for second time
Health officials are investigating an alarming spike in Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with many blamed on a single individual who appears to have contracted the disease for a second time this year.
Amid the struggle to bring the 16-month outbreak under control, the World Health Organization noted an almost 300% increase in cases in the last three weeks, with 17 of 27 linked to a single chain of transmission.
Continue reading...Ebola responders face deadly attacks. We must step up security in DRC
The devastating disease can’t be stopped unless more protection is provided for patients and health workers
Entering the city of Goma as night fell, I saw the red lava glowing atop nearby Mount Nyiragongo – an ominous reminder of the insecurity hovering over the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s volatile east.
But a manmade – not natural – terror is keeping health workers in DRC awake tonight.
Continue reading...142,000 died from measles last year, WHO estimates
Number of cases reported so far this year is three times higher than at same stage in 2018
The worldwide surge in deadly measles outbreaks is showing no sign of abating, with nearly 10 million cases and 142,000 deaths last year, according to new estimates, and three times more cases reported so far this year than at the same stage in 2018.
Most of those dying are small children, and thousands more suffer harm including pneumonia and brain damage. New scientific evidence shows survivors are at greater risk soon afterwards because their immune system is impaired.
Continue reading...‘I feel constant pain’: drug resistance adds to misery of Gaza gun victims
The suffering of people wounded in conflict zones is being compounded by what doctors say are ‘horrifying levels’ of antibiotic resistance
When Jihad Nasser arrived at al-Awda trauma clinic in Gaza, he was hoping doctors could finally stop his pain. A gunshot wound in his right leg had not been not healing properly. The news, however, was bad.
The complex bone fracture he had suffered was badly infected with MRSA. Doctors told him it would not respond to treatment and they would need to amputate.
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