Page 18 - Who

Essential medicines to get cheaper in India after the release of NLEM

The medicines listed in the NLEM are sold below a price ceiling fixed by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)

WHO releases global guidelines to boost helmet use, curb pedestrian deaths

The World Health Organisation has come up with two guidelines for policymakers on helmet use and pedestrian safety to help curb the global scourge of road traffic deaths and injuries. The guidelines, co-written by experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), on the use of helmets for riders of powered two and three-wheelers and on pedestrian safety, include new evidence and case studies. According to top officials of the World Health Organisation (WHO), road traffic crashes kill over 1.3 million people every year more than two every minute with nine in 10 deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Globally, road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among children and young people aged between 5 and 29 years, WHO officials stated. "These new manuals are crucial tools to help policymakers build the safe mobility systems we need to halve deaths from crashes by 2030," said Dr Nhan Tran, Head of Safety and Mobility at WHO. "With poor infrastructure, ...

1 person dying every 44 seconds due to Covid infection: WHO chief

As the world embarks on living a normal life post the pandemic amid declining cases, the WHO has warned that one person with Covid-19 is still dying every 44 seconds globally

WHO Regional Committee member countries vow to strengthen health systems

The 75th session of the Regional Committee for WHO South-East Asia concluded in Bhutan on Friday with member countries vowing to strengthen health systems, accelerating multisectoral actions and re-energising comprehensive primary health services to build societies that are more inclusive, equitable and resilient against present and future emergencies. Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, said focus must be on identify vulnerable populations and how best their health needs can be addressed. We are at a history-defining juncture. Over the past two and a half years, the region and the world have witnessed immense transformative change, she said. "It is important for us not just to spend more on health, but to spend efficiently and spend equitably. Our focus must be on vulnerable populations, we must identify them and see how best we can address their needs. We cannot leave anyone behind as we seek to drive rapid and sustained progress towards universal ..

WHO launches $1.5 bn drive against bacterial meningitis outbreaks in Africa

The World Health Organisation on Thursday said it is launching a USD 1.5 billion campaign, hopefully including a new vaccine, to eliminate outbreaks of bacterial meningitis across Africa by 2030. Meningitis vaccinations for more than 50 million children in Africa have been delayed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting fears of a resurgence of the deadly disease. In a race against time", WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said that a next generation vaccine against meningitis will be rolled out in 26 African countries most affected by the disease. She said WHO hopes to authorize the vaccine by the first quarter of 2023, which would then enable donors to buy it for Africa. Moeti said the vaccine, has shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective against multiple forms of meningitis. The vaccine could be rolled out next year and administered in widespread drives until 2030, when the WHO hopes to have stopped bacterial meningitis outbreaks in the continent of 54 ...

WHO warns of worsening humanitarian situation in flood-ravaged Pakistan

Countries like China, the United States, France, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and other countries have been sending relief aids, launching a huge airlift operation from Dubai

Covid cases drops by 12% in the world, but pandemic not over: WHO

The number of new coronavirus cases fell everywhere in the world last week by about 12 per cent, according to the World Health Organisation's latest weekly review of the pandemic issued on Wednesday. The UN health agency reported that there were just under 4.2 million new infections last week and about 13,700 deaths -- a 5 per cent drop. This is very encouraging, but there is no guarantee these trends will persist, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press briefing. The most dangerous thing is to assume (that) they will, he said. He added that even though the number of weekly reported deaths have plummeted more than 80 per cent since February, one person still dies with COVID-19 every 44 seconds and that most of those deaths are avoidable. In its pandemic report, WHO said COVID-19 deaths dropped in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East, but increased in Africa, the Americas and the Western Pacific. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, no

Over 99% population breathes air exceeding WHO's PM2.5 guidelines: Report

Over 99 per cent of India's population is breathing air that exceeds the World Health Organisation's health-based guidelines with respect to PM2.5, a report by Greenpeace India said. According to the key findings in the report titled "Different Air Under One Sky", the greatest proportion of people living in India are exposed to PM2.5 concentrations more than five times the WHO annual average guideline. It further said 62 per cent of pregnant women in the country live in the most polluted areas, compared to 56 per cent people in the whole population. As per the report's annual average PM2.5 exposure analysis, the region with the highest exposure to pollution in the country is Delhi-NCR. It listed older adults, infants and pregnant women as the most vulnerable groups who are "exposed to worse air". PM2.5 refers to fine particles which penetrate deep into the body and fuel inflammation in the lungs and respiratory tract, leading to the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory problems,

Flood situation in Pakistan highly likely to boost disease spread: WHO

The catastrophic flood situation in Pakistan will highly likely increase the spread of disease, says the World Health Organization (WHO), as the country continues its battle against the deadly deluges

Covid-19 hospitalisations, deaths may increase with colder weather: WHO

The WHO chief said that the current subvariants of Omicron are more transmissible than their predecessors, and the risk of the emergence of even more transmissible and more dangerous variants remains

WHO pledges to provide $4 mn worth of medical supplies to Sri Lanka

WHO Director-General also said that they have recognised the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka and the impact Covid-19 was having on the health system

Number of newly reported monkeypox cases decreases worldwide: WHO

Worldwide, 5,907 cases were reported during the week, compared to 7,477 the week before

Covid deaths down by 15% worldwide in past week, cases fall by 9%: WHO

The number of coronavirus deaths reported worldwide fell by 15% in the past week while new infections dropped by 9%, the World Health Organisation said Wednesday. In its latest weekly assessment of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were 5.3 million new cases and more than 14,000 deaths reported last week. WHO said the number of new infections declined in every world region except the Western Pacific. Deaths jumped by more than 183% in Africa but fell by nearly a third in Europe and by 15% in the Americas. Still, WHO warned that COVID-19 numbers are likely severely underestimated as many countries have dropped their testing and surveillance protocols to monitor the virus, meaning that there are far fewer cases being detected. WHO said the predominant COVID-19 variant worldwide is omicron subvariant BA.5, which accounts for more than 70% of virus sequences shared with the world's biggest public viral database. Omicron variants account for 99% of all sequences

Chronic Covid patients can trigger more lethal variants: WHO Study

"When a virus copies itself, it doesn't always make perfect copies," said Weissman in a study published in Frontiers in Virology

US reports over 15,000 monkeypox cases, highest in the world: CDC

Over the last week, the US also saw the largest increase in monkeypox infections of any country, according to data from the World Health Organization

Experts question reliance on monkeypox vax with little data, short supply

The Bavarian Nordic shot has not undergone clinical trials to evaluate the vaccine's ability to prevent monkeypox in humans, though initial studies suggest it will provide some protection

Africa CDC says renaming of monkeypox variants by WHO will curb stigma

The head of Africa's public health agency says he's really pleased that the World Health Organisation is renaming the strains of the monkeypox disease to remove references to African regions amid concerns about stigmatisation. The variant of the disease formerly known as the Congo Basin is now called Clade 1 and what was previously known as the West Africa clade is now called Clade 2, the U.N. health agency announced last week, saying it will hold an open forum to rename monkeypox altogether. We are very glad that now we can be able to call them Clade 1 and Clade 2 rather than make reference to these variants using African regions, Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a briefing Thursday. "We are really pleased with that change in naming, which will remove stigma from disease-causing variants. More monkeypox deaths have been reported on the African continent this year than anywhere in the world. A total of 3,232 cases, ...

Ethiopia calls WHO chief Tedros' comments on Tigray 'unethical'

Ethiopia's government is criticising as unethical the statement by the World Health Organisation's director-general that the crisis in the country's Tigray region is the worst disaster on Earth and his assertion that the lack of attention from global leaders may be due to Tigrayans' skin colour. The spokeswoman for Ethiopia's prime minister on Thursday told journalists that the comments by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus were unbecoming of such a high-profile position. Billene Seyoum suggested that Tedros, himself an ethnic Tigrayan, should recuse himself from his post if he wants to talk that way. She spoke a day after the WHO chief in an emotional statement at a press briefing asserted that the 6 million people in Tigray have been under siege for the last 21 months because of the conflict that erupted there in late 2020 between Ethiopian and Tigray forces. I haven't heard in the last few months any head of state talking about the Tigray situation anywhere in the developed ..

'We cannot pretend Covid is not here,' says WHO chief as deaths rise

There has been a 35 per cent rise in COVID-19-related deaths in four weeks across the world

Pets must be isolated from people infected with monkeypox, says WHO

People infected with monkeypox must isolate their pets, said a WHO official, after a report showed the first-ever case of human-to-dog transmission of the virus in France