Exclusive: NHS England has dramatically increased recruitment of workers from states with critical medical staff shortages
Brexit has left the NHS increasingly dependent on doctors and nurses from poor “red list” countries, from which the World Health Organization says it is wrong to recruit.
The health service in England has hired tens of thousands of health staff from countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe since the UK left the EU single market at the end of 2020.
Continue reading...Cancer charities back call for prominent warning labels while industry body says move ‘not proportionate’
Cans and bottles of alcohol should carry cigarette-style labels warning that drinking increases the risk of cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
It has said governments should insist that “prominent” warning labels become standard in order to alert consumers to the link between alcohol and cancer and tackle the harm caused by heavy drinking.
Continue reading...Experts’ concern grows as communication breaks down among federal agencies responsible for tackling epidemic
The Trump administration has disrupted the US response to bird flu as the outbreak worsens, leading to confusion and concern among federal staff, state officials, veterinarians and health experts, 11 sources told Reuters.
Since Donald Trump took office on 20 January, two federal agencies responsible for monitoring and responding to the epidemic have withheld bird flu reports and canceled congressional briefings and meetings with state health officials, the sources said.
Continue reading...WHO is ‘critical in protecting US business interests’, says CEO of firm that may see lean years if Trump carries out vow
The World Health Organization (WHO) could see lean years ahead if the US withdraws membership under the new Trump administration. Such a withdrawal, promised on the first day of Donald Trump’s new administration, would in effect cut the multilateral agency’s funding by one-fifth.
The severe cut would be uncharted territory for the WHO, potentially curtailing public health works globally, pressuring the organization to attract private funding, and providing an opening for other countries to influence the organization. Other countries are not expected to make up the funding loss.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing says Labour has a duty to fix health ‘double whammy’ by raising aid and funding for UK nursing
The UK cut health aid to some of the world’s vulnerable countries at the same time as recruiting thousands of their nurses, in a “double whammy” for fragile health systems, new analysis has found.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which carried out the research, said Labour had a “duty to fix” aid cuts imposed by the previous government, and to work on increasing the UK’s domestic supply of nurses.
Continue reading...Council tells Israeli ambassador it condemns air raids that have killed Yemeni civilians as well as Houthi attacks
Israel has set out its case to the UN security council for a full assault on Houthi forces in Yemen, claiming the Iranian-backed group now represents a well-armed terrorist army that threatens not just the regional economy but the entire global order.
The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, also called for the Houthis to be designated as a foreign terrorist organisation, a step that may make it more difficult for Iran to provide material support without facing further economic sanctions.
Continue reading...Kamal Adwan in Beit Lahia was partially destroyed and critical patients are at grave risk, the UN body says
The World Health Organization says it is “appalled” by an Israeli raid which it said had shut down and partly destroyed the last major hospital still functioning in northern Gaza.
Israel’s “systematic dismantling of the health system” combined with a siege of the population in the north of the coastal strip over the past 80 days “puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk”, the WHO said.
Continue reading...UN secretary general decries escalatory actions on both sides after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he was just metres from airport strike
The United Nations chief has denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Israel, calling IDF strikes on targets including at the airport in Sana’a “especially alarming” after it came under attack while the head of the World Health Organization was about to board a plane.
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including the international airport in the capital, Sana’a. Houthi media said at least six people were killed.
Continue reading...UN secretary general decries escalatory actions on both sides after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says he was just metres from airport strike
The United Nations chief has denounced the “escalation” in hostilities between Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Israel, calling IDF strikes on targets including at the airport in Sana’a “especially alarming” after it came under attack while the head of the World Health Organization was about to board a plane.
Israel struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen on Thursday, including the international airport in the capital, Sana’a. Houthi media said at least six people were killed.
Continue reading...Regime suspends polio campaign across Afghanistan over security concerns and women’s role in vaccination drive
Afghanistan is at risk of a polio outbreak, health officials have warned, after the Taliban suspended the vaccination campaign over security fears and restrictions on women.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed 18 new cases of polio infection in the country so far this year, a significant increase from the six cases reported in 2023. Local healthcare workers say these numbers could be higher as many cases will not yet have been detected.
Continue reading...Families queue at vaccination centres on first day of complex campaign to inoculate children against emerging threat
A complex, large-scale vaccination campaign to inoculate children against the newly emerged threat of polio in the Gaza Strip has begun successfully despite ongoing fighting in the territory, according to UN officials and local health authorities.
Infectious conditions such as dysentery, pneumonia and severe skin diseases are affecting more than 150,000 people in Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, amid a dire humanitarian crisis and unsanitary conditions caused by Israel’s campaign to annihilate Hamas in the wake of 7 October.
Continue reading...Last week’s planned rollout of doses faces further delays as campaigners complain of greed and inequality
None of the African countries affected by the outbreak of a new variant of mpox have received any of the promised vaccine, pushing back a rollout that had been planned for last week.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been at the centre of an outbreak of the new clade 1b variant, with 18,000 suspected cases and 629 deaths this year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Continue reading...Three-day humanitarian pauses in several areas planned to allow inoculation of more than 640,000 children
The World Health Organization has said it delivered 1.2m doses of polio vaccine to Gaza, with 400,000 more to follow, as part of an emergency campaign after the first case of the childhood disease in the war-hit coastal strip in quarter of a century.
The vaccinations, due to begin this weekend, will be accompanied by three-day pauses in the fighting in several areas of the territory to allow the inoculation of more than 640,000 children.
Continue reading...The continent will belatedly get 10,000 shots amid criticism of delays to the process caused by WHO red tape
Africa’s first batch of mpox vaccines will this week finally reach the continent, weeks after they have been made available in other parts of the world.
The 10,000 shots, donated by the US, will be used to tackle a dangerous new variant of the virus, formerly known as monkeypox, after a 2022 outbreak triggered global alarm.
Continue reading...WHO says infant in stable condition as it prepares to vaccinate more than 640,000 children amid war
A Palestinian baby in Gaza has been partly paralysed from polio in the first case there for 25 years, amid preparations for a difficult and dangerous vaccination campaign in the midst of war.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed that the affected infant had lost movement in his lower left leg, but was in a stable condition.
Continue reading...Health leaders warn that global response to virus is test case for equity and preparation for future pandemics
A failure to show solidarity with African countries at the heart of the mpox outbreak will put the world at risk and harm preparations for future pandemics, health leaders have said.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared an international public health emergency in the face of rising cases that are spreading beyond the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the virus is endemic.
Continue reading...‘Global gag rule’ and funding cuts will be ‘on different scale’ if Republicans win again, family-planning providers say
Providers of women’s healthcare around the world are preparing for potentially disastrous consequences should Donald Trump win the US presidential election in November.
Policies pursued during Trump’s last presidency caused “devastating” harm in a number of countries, said Beth Schlachter, a senior director at MSI Reproductive Choices in the US. It meant “clinics shuttered, health teams closed, women dying … but a second Trump term will be on a different scale”.
Continue reading...Clade I case comes after World Health Organization declares a global public health emergency
Sweden confirmed its first case of the more contagious variant of mpox, a viral infection that spreads through close contact, marking the first time it has been found outside Africa.
The person was infected while in a part of Africa where there was a large outbreak of the disease, Olivia Wigzell, director-general at the Swedish public health agency, told a press conference.
Continue reading...Outbreak resembles early days of HIV, say experts, urging accelerated access to vaccines and testing
An outbreak in Africa of mpox, the disease formerly known as monkeypox, resembles the early days of HIV, scientists have said, as the World Health Organization declared it a public health emergency.
The declaration must accelerate access to testing, vaccines and therapeutic drugs in the affected areas, medical experts urged, and kickstart campaigns to reduce stigma surrounding the virus.
Continue reading...Democratic Republic of the Congo hard-hit by virus, with death toll on continent above 1,450 since 2022
The African Union’s health watchdog has declared a public health emergency over the growing mpox outbreak on the continent, saying the move is a “clarion call for action”.
The outbreak has swept through several African countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the virus formerly called monkeypox was first discovered in humans in 1970.
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