Page 5 - World Health Organization

Neurological issues leading cause of ill health, disability: Lancet study

Neurological conditions such as epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and dementia are now the leading cause of ill health and disability globally, affecting 3.4 billion people in 2021, according to a major new analysis published in The Lancet Neurology journal. Globally, the number of people living with, or dying from, neurological conditions such as stroke, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and meningitis has risen substantially over the past 30 years. This is due to the growth and ageing of the global population as well as increased exposure to environmental, metabolic, and lifestyle risk factors, the researchers said. The study suggests that worldwide, the overall amount of disability, illness, and premature death -- a measurement known as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) -- caused by neurological conditions increased by 18 per cent over the past 31 years, rising from around 375 million years of healthy life lost in 1990 to 443 million years in 2021. The analysis from the .

Indian sentenced to 20 years jail term over Uzbekistan cough syrup deaths

The Supreme Court of Uzbekistan found Singh Raghvendra Pratap guilty of charges, including tax fraud and forgery, following a six-month long trial in the matter

Zydus Lifesciences gets WHO nod for API used in kala-azar treatment

More than 1 billion people live in areas endemic for leishmaniasis or Kala Azar and are at risk of infection

Jaishankar calls on WHO chief 'Tulsi Bhai', discusses pandemic preparedness

EAM Jaishankar discussed traditional medicine and pandemic preparedness with the WHO chief while calling him 'Tulsi Bhai'

Nearly 10K died from Covid-19 last mth due to gatherings, new variant: WHO

The head of the U.N. health agency said Wednesday holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December, while hospital admissions during the month jumped 42% in nearly 50 countries mostly in Europe and the Americas that shared such trend information. "Although 10,000 deaths a month is far less than the peak of the pandemic, this level of preventable deaths is not acceptable," the World Health Organization director-general told reporters from its headquarters in Geneva. He said it was certain that cases were on the rise in other places that haven't been reporting, calling on governments to keep up surveillance and provide continued access to treatments and vaccines. Tedros said the JN.1 variant was now the most prominent in the world. It is an omicron variant, so current vaccines should still provide some protection. Maria Van ..

Medics, patients flee southern Gaza hospitals as fighting intensifies: WHO

"We are seeing the health system collapse at a very rapid pace," he added, saying that an estimated 600 patients had fled one facility

Covid-19 spike: WHO advises to scale up surveillance, protective measures

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries in South-East Asia to strengthen surveillance in view of the increasing cases of respiratory diseases, including due to COVID-19 and its new sub-variant JN.1, and influenza. The WHO also urged people to take protective measures. "The COVID-19 virus continues to evolve, change, and circulate in all countries globally. While current evidence suggests the additional public health risk posed by JN.1 is low, we must continue to track the evolution of these viruses to tailor our response. "For this, countries must strengthen surveillance and sequencing, and ensure sharing of data," said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director, WHO South-East Asia. WHO has classified JN.1 as a variant of interest following its rapid global spread. In recent weeks, JN.1 was reported in multiple countries, and its prevalence has been rapidly increasing globally. Considering the limited available evidence, the additional public health risk posed b

A year in politics: A recap of all key global events that shaped 2023

From geopolitical conflicts to historic political shifts, 2023 has been a year of significant milestones. Dive into the key political events that left an indelible mark on the world stage

JN.1 Covid variant: States issue advisories, Mandaviya holds review meet

On December 19, WHO classified the JN.1 variant as a 'variant of interest' but maintained that it does not pose much threat to the public

Parl stresses on need to evolve strategies to develop next-gen vaccines

A parliamentary committee has stressed on the urgent need to evolve strategies for development of next-generation vaccines and recommended that the Union Health Ministry encourage vaccine development on newer and more efficient platforms, besides evaluating the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 jabs. More efforts are required in collaboration with other international agencies for development of various neutral vaccines as constant mutation of a virus requires following the mutants and being ready for pandemics-in-waiting, the department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare said in its 150th action taken report. Responding to a recommendation to the ministry to take initiatives to develop a universal Covid vaccine effective against all variants, the committee -- in its report submitted in the Rajya Sabha -- said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has already transferred all the strains of variants of concern of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) to Bhara

WHO classifies 'low' risk JN.1 coronavirus strain as 'variant of interest'

The United Nations agency said current vaccines continue to protect against severe disease and death from JN.1 and other circulating variants of the COVID-19 virus

WHO urges members to continue surveillance amid rising respiratory diseases

In the wake of the surge in respiratory diseases and new JN.1 COVID sub-variant, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the virus is evolving and changing and urged the member states to continue with strong surveillance and sequence sharing.The global body also shared a video of its COVID-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, who explained the reason for the recent surges and what precautions can be taken."Dr @mvankerkhove talks about the current surge in respiratory diseases #COVID19 and JN.1 subvariant. WHO continues to assess the situation. Follow WHO's public health advice to keep your families and friends safe during this holiday season," WHO posted on X (formerly Twitter).Maria Van Kerkhove also took to the social media platform and said that a number of pathogens have led to the rise in respiratory diseases across the world."Respiratory diseases are increasing around the world due to a number of pathogens incl #COVID19, #flu, rhinovirus, mycoplasma pneumonia & ...

Refrain from doing research on e-cigarettes, obtain prior permission: NMC

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has directed doctors affiliated with it to refrain from initiating or participating in any research activities related to e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs) without obtaining the necessary approvals from the Union Health Ministry. The move follows a letter written by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr Atul Goel to the NMC flagging the issue and asking it to issue necessary instructions to the healthcare professionals affiliated with the NMC and the Indian Medical Association (lMA). The NMC, in a public notice on December 15, asked healthcare professionals to comply with Goel's instructions. In a letter dated December 8, Goel had said, "I am writing to address a matter of utmost importance concerning healthcare professional's engagement in research related to electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and heated tobacco products (HTPs)." He highlighted that under the Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes (Production, ...

'Pandemic is still alive; need to extend TRIPS waiver to Covid diagnostics'

Four countries, including India and South Africa, have asked the WTO members to extend patent waiver to Covid-19 diagnostics and therapeutics as the pandemic is still alive and the risk of new variants remains real, an official said. These four member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) raised the demand in an informal meeting of TRIPS (Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Council in Geneva on Wednesday, the official said. In June last year, members of the WTO agreed to grant a temporary patent waiver for the manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccines for five years. It was also agreed to start talks on including therapeutics and diagnostics, as proposed by India and South Africa, under the purview of this waiver. The proponents of the proposal for extension argued that a decision on this was long overdue and should be taken at the General Council (GC) meeting of the WTO in December. This would also complement and support the work of the WHO (World Health ...

No unusual or novel pathogens found in pneumonia outbreak: China tells WHO

Claiming no unusual or novel pathogens other than the seasonal ones were detected, China has sought to play down the global concerns amid surging cases of mycoplasma pneumonia and influenza flu, especially among children, in its southern and northern provinces. Even when China's widely-publicised exchange with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in response to the queries over the reports of surging cases of mycoplasma pneumonia and influenza flu triggered the worldwide alert, including in India, China said the spike in respiratory diseases was due to an immunity gap.' Both WHO and China have received global criticism for their non-transparent data/information sharing about COVID-19 and the world still has apprehensions over the emergence of the deadly virus in the Chinese city of Wuhan in 2019 which later spiralled into a massive pandemic resulting in deaths of and ill-health to millions of people across countries. In response to the media reports in China about a spike in children

Give detailed information on child pneumonia outbreak: WHO to China

Local media has reported a steady rise in infections from a pathogen called mycoplasma among kindergarten and primary school children

WHO calls for urgent ceasefire after attack on Al-Awda Hospital in Gaza

The World Health Organization office in the occupied Palestinian territory took to social media 'X', and stressed the need for humanitarian access and the protection of health care

Measles deaths worldwide jumped 40 per cent last year, say health agencies

Measles deaths globally spiked by more than 40 per cent last year and cases rose after vaccination levels dramatically dropped during the pandemic, leading health agencies said on Thursday. The highly infectious disease triggered epidemics in 37 countries last year, versus 22 countries in 2021. It sickened 9 million children and killed 136,00, mostly in poorer countries, the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new report. The number of measles cases also rose by nearly 20 per cent after immunisation levels dropped to their lowest in 15 years during the pandemic, the agencies said. The increase in measles outbreaks and deaths is staggering, but unfortunately, not unexpected given the declining vaccination rates we've seen in the past few years, said CDC's John Vertefeuille, said in a statement. Two doses of the measles vaccine are highly protective against the disease. Children in developing countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, .

WHO loses communication with Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City amid attacks

Sharing this on X, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that according to the latest reports, the hospital was surrounded by tanks

Equity at the cost of capacity

No reasonable person would look at the state of the health system in India and conclude it has enough doctors