Category Archives: World Health Organization

Lives at risk from surge in measles across Europe, experts warn

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Measles kills 37 in first half of 2019 as number of cases tops figure for whole of last year

The dramatic surge in measles across Europe is putting lives at risk, experts have said, as official figures showed the number of cases in the first half of 2019 outstripped that for the whole of last year.

Data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed nearly 90,000 cases and 37 deaths were reported across 48 of the 53 countries in the WHO European region in the first six months of 2019.

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Microplastics in water not harmful to humans, says WHO report

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Experts find no proof minuscule particles are a threat to health but say more research is needed

Microplastics are increasingly found in drinking water, but there is no evidence so far that this poses a risk to humans, according to a new assessment by the World Health Organization.

However, the United Nations body warned against complacency because more research is needed to fully understand how plastic spreads into the environment and works its way through human bodies.

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Ebola now curable after trials of drugs in DRC, say scientists

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Congo results show good survival rates for patients treated quickly with antibodies

Ebola can no longer be called an incurable disease, scientists have said, after two of four drugs being trialled in the major outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were found to have significantly reduced the death rate.

ZMapp, used during the massive Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, has been dropped along with Remdesivir after two monoclonal antibodies, which block the virus, had substantially more effect, said the World Health Organization and the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which was a co-sponsor of the trial.

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Burundi malaria outbreak at epidemic levels as half of population infected

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World Health Organization records 1,800 malaria deaths since start of year, almost equalling number of lives claimed by Ebola in DRC

A serious outbreak of malaria in Burundi has reached epidemic proportions, killing almost as many people as the Ebola crisis in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The outbreak in the tiny Great Lakes country has infected almost half the total population, killing about 1,800 people since the beginning of the year.

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Ebola: second death confirmed in Goma

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World Health Organization confirms a second person has died of the disease in a major transit hub in Democratic Republic of Congo

A second death linked to the Ebola virus has been confirmed in the densely populated city of Goma, located at the Democratic Republic of Congo’s porous border with Rwanda.

The first case of Ebola in Goma – an evangelical preacher – contributed to the World Health Organization decision to declare the Ebola crisis in DRC an international public health emergency.

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World hunger on the rise as 820m at risk, UN report finds

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Eliminating hunger by 2030 is an immense challenge, say heads of UN agencies

More than 820 million people worldwide are still going hungry, according to a UN report that says reaching the target of zero hunger by 2030 is “an immense challenge”.

The number of people with not enough to eat has risen for the third year in a row as the population increases, after a decade when real progress was made. The underlying trend is stabilisation, when global agencies had hoped it would fall.

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Billions of air pollution particles found in hearts of city dwellers

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Exclusive: Study shows associated damage to critical pumping muscles, even in children

The hearts of young city dwellers contain billions of toxic air pollution particles, research has revealed.

Even in the study’s youngest subject, who was three, damage could be seen in the cells of the organ’s critical pumping muscles that contained the tiny particles. The study suggests these iron-rich particles, produced by vehicles and industry, could be the underlying cause of the long-established statistical link between dirty air and heart disease.

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Conflict and insecurity driving spread of diseases like Ebola, WHO chief warns

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Deadly outbreak is ‘global wake-up call’, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tells Guardian

The head of the World Health Organization has called the world’s second worst Ebola outbreak a “global wake-up call” to the escalating risk of disease outbreaks spreading from conflict areas neglected by the international community.

Only when there was “fear and panic” in the headlines did the international community put money into responding, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The real issue was a lack of day-to-day funding for preparedness to combat serious epidemics before they become regional or international threats, he said.

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WHO calls for more funds to fight DRC Ebola outbreak

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Panel backs off from declaring international emergency despite spread into Uganda

The World Health Organization has backed off from declaring that an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is an international emergency despite it spreading into Uganda.

After long discussions, a WHO committee ruled that although the outbreak was an emergency for DRC, it did not fit the criteria to be declared a public health emergency of international concern.

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Five-year-old boy dies in Uganda as Congo Ebola outbreak spreads

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Ugandan authorities confirm two other patients also undergoing treatment as officials consider declaring global health emergency

A five year-old-boy who became the first confirmed Ebola case outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the current outbreak died in Uganda on Tuesday night.

The child’s three-year-old brother and 50-year-old grandmother are also being treated, according to the Ugandan authorities. They have been isolated at a hospital near the Congo border.

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DRC Ebola cases pass 2,000, prompting call for ‘total reset’

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Violence by armed groups and community mistrust hamper attempts to halt epidemic

More than 2,000 people have been infected with Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the health ministry has said, and aid agencies expressed concern over the accelerating spread of the disease.

So far there have been 1914 confirmed and 94 probable cases of infection with the virus, making the outbreak, which was declared in August last year, the second largest in history. New cases are being reported at a rate of around 10 every day. Some 1,346 people have died

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‘Hygiene is the first priority’: Nepal looks to clean up its act on sepsis

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In a country where dirty water and poor sanitation jeopardise the lives of millions, moves are afoot to improve health facilities

It was midnight when Kalpana and Rohit Agri had to take their three-day-old daughter, Kritima, to Bardiya hospital in western Nepal. She was listless and, despite the antibiotics she’d been prescribed, had developed a high fever. Hearing her struggling to breathe, they woke a neighbour to take them.

Kritima was admitted with life-threatening neonatal sepsis, probably an infection she had picked up in the hospital where she was born.

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‘Simple mistakes have big impact’: the man with a tablet for making aid better

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Struck by failings in the implementation of health projects, a Mozambican entrepreneur has turned to tech for a solution

The limited success of foreign-backed projects to fight diseases in Africa is down to basic misunderstanding about how to communicate even the simplest messages, a Mozambican education entrepreneur has said.

Dayn Amade, founder of Maputo-based technology company Kamaleon, is calling for the World Health Organization and aid groups to reassess how people on the African continent are educated about disease prevention.

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‘The harder you look the more you find’: Nepal’s hidden leprosy | Rebecca Ratcliffe

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Almost two decades ago the World Health Organization declared leprosy eliminated, but millions of cases go undiagnosed

One summer’s morning Paniya Sardar noticed a strange mark on her leg. It was the size of her palm, light in colour and felt numb to touch. She had no idea what had caused it.

The family took Paniya, then 14, to a private clinic near their home on the outskirts of Biratnagar, a city in southern Nepal, where they were sold lotions and pills and told not to worry. Three months later, a deep wound appeared on her foot. “This particular blister was pretty big and wouldn’t heal,” her father, Sita Sardar, says through an interpreter. Six months later, it was still there.

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Measles cases up 300% worldwide in 2019, says WHO

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Data for first three months adds to concerns over impact of anti-vaccination campaigns

Measles cases worldwide rose by 300% during the first three months of 2019 compared with the same period last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said, amid growing concerns over the impact of anti-vaccination campaigns, particularly spread through social media.

Measles, which is highly contagious, can be entirely prevented with a two-dose vaccine, but for some time the WHO has been warning about declining global vaccination rates.

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As Ebola kills in Africa, in the west lies over vaccines beguile the complacent | Mark Honigsbaum

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The epidemic in the DRC has been impossible to contain because of the spread of anti-vax myths

With the possible exception of quinine, for centuries the only treatment for malaria, and antibiotics, vaccines have saved more lives than any other intervention in medical history. Yet, from New York’s Brooklyn to Camden in north London to Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, vaccines are in retreat, shunned by populations who seemingly have little sense of the risks they are running with their own or other people’s lives.

Why this should be so is one of the conundrums of our age. Is it all the fault of social media and anti-vax propaganda that has taken root on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? Or has society grown complacent about the risks that infectious diseases posed to previous generations, when it was common for children to be paralysed by polio or rendered deaf or brain-damaged by measles?

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22 of world’s 30 most polluted cities are in India, Greenpeace says

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Analysis of air pollution data finds that 64% of cities globally exceed WHO guidelines

Twenty-two of the world’s 30 worst cities for air pollution are in India, according to a new report, with Delhi again ranked the world’s most polluted capital.

The Greenpeace and AirVisual analysis of air pollution readings from 3,000 cities around the world found that 64% exceed the World Health Organization’s annual exposure guideline for PM2.5 fine particulate matter – tiny airborne particles, about a 40th of the width of a human hair, that are linked to a wide range of health problems.

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Measles: WHO warns cases have jumped 50%

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Falsehoods spread by ‘anti-vax’ movement in part to blame for ‘backsliding’ in progress against potentially deadly illness, experts warn

The World Health Organization has warned that efforts to halt the spread of measles are “backsliding”, with case numbers worldwide surging around 50% last year.

The UN health agency pointed to preliminary data showing that the disturbing trend of resurgent measles cases was happening at a global level, including in wealthy nations where vaccination coverage has historically been high.

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Children and babies die as temperatures plummet in Syria

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World Health Organization sounds alarm over freezing conditions facing 23,000 people fleeing conflict

At least 29 children and newborn babies have died in freezing temperatures after fleeing conflict in the last Isis controlled villages in eastern Syria.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was extremely concerned about the conditions facing 23,000 people who have taken flight from rural areas of Deir ez-Zor over over the past two months, warning that services are severely overstretched.

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