The World Health Organization (WHO) and football’s world governing body, FIFA, agreed on Friday a four-year collaboration to promote healthy lifestyles through football globally. WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and FIFA President Gianni Infantino signed the memorandum of understanding at WHO’s Geneva-based headquarters. “WHO is excited to be working with FIFA. Half the world watched the 2018 World Cup. This means there’s huge potential for us to team up to reach billions of people with information to help them live longer healthier lives,” said Dr Tedros.
Venezuelan migrants will be provided with a regional vaccination card beginning in October, health officials from 10 countries agreed on Monday in an effort to ensure they receive needed vaccines and are not given double doses. More than 4 million Venezuelans have fled an economic and political crisis in their home country that has caused widespread shortages of food and medicine.
Spain's health ministry issued an international alert over the country's biggest-ever listeriosis outbreak on Wednesday as the number of people affected rose to 150, including one fatality.
Obesity is more likely the cause in some types of cancer than smoking, according to the findings of a study released by a cancer research organization on Wednesday. According to Cancer Research UK, four common cancers – bowel, kidney, ovarian and liver – are more likely to have been caused by being overweight than by smoking tobacco.
Billions of people around the world are continuing to suffer from poor access to water, sanitation and hygiene, according to a new report by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Some 2.2 billion people around the world do not have safely managed* drinking water services, 4.2 billion people do not have safely managed sanitation services, and 3 billion lack basic** hand-washing facilities.
On World No Tobacco Day (31 May), the World Health Organization is highlighting the damage tobacco causes to lung health: over 40% of all tobacco-related deaths are from lung diseases like cancer, chronic respiratory diseases and tuberculosis. WHO is calling on countries and partners to increase action to protect people from exposure to tobacco.
The World Health Organization has welcomed the commitment by the International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA) to align with the WHO target to eliminate industrially produced trans fat from the global food supply by 2023.
Norway's newly appointed health minister has caused controversy by saying people should be allowed to eat, smoke and drink as much as they want. Sylvi Listhaug also said smokers were made to feel like pariahs.
American health officials report that more than 700 people have been infected by measles this year, marking a 25-year high for the infectious disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Monday that cases had been recorded in 22 states and were mostly affecting unvaccinated children.
A United States nationwide measles outbreak has led health officials to quarantine dozens of people at two Los Angeles universities, officials said on Thursday. The quarantine affects the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) and comes as the United States battles the highest number of measles cases since the country declared the virus eliminated in 2000.