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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, April 18th 2025 - 03:45 UTC

Tag: World Health Organization (WHO)

  • Saturday, January 30th 2016 - 11:11 UTC

    WHO backs British campaign for a 'sugar tax' on sweet drinks

    The numbers of obese or overweight children worldwide has risen by 10 million since 1990, prompting WHO to call for tight regulations.

    In a new report on rising childhood obesity, the World Health Organization (WHO) has backed the British campaign for a “sugar tax” on sweet drinks. There is “strong evidence” that a sugar tax will work alongside two other measures to tackle childhood obesity: a ban on the sale of unhealthy food by schools, and a crackdown on the marketing of junk food to children, the report states.

  • Friday, January 29th 2016 - 03:45 UTC

    WHO admits as possible four million cases of Zika; emergency meeting Monday

    Marcos Espinal, an infectious disease expert at WHO's Americas office, said: “We can expect 3 to 4 million cases of Zika virus disease.” He gave no time frame.

    The World Health Organization (WHO) expects the Zika virus, which is spreading through the Americas, to affect between three million and four million people, a disease expert said on Thursday. WHO's director-general said the spread of the mosquito-borne disease had gone from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions.

  • Saturday, November 14th 2015 - 12:02 UTC

    World Diabetes Day, 14 November; 350 million people suffer the chronic disease

    Multiple actions can be done to reduce the impact of diabetes, through adopting healthy lifestyles, such as partaking in physical activity and healthy diets

    The World Health Organization is marking World Diabetes Day on 14th November calling for greater action to turn the growing tide of the global diabetes epidemic and has announced that World Health Day, on 7 April will focus on the issue of diabetes.

  • Friday, October 30th 2015 - 08:03 UTC

    WHO clarification: moderate consumption of meat, particularly preserved meat

    Latest IARC review does not ask people to stop eating processed meats but indicates that reducing consumption can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.

    The World Health Organization, WHO, has received a number of queries, expressions of concern and requests for clarification following the publication of a report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) relating to processed meat and colorectal cancer.

  • Thursday, October 29th 2015 - 14:50 UTC

    Tuberculosis mortality nearly halved since 1990

    “The report shows that TB control has had a tremendous impact in terms of lives saved and patients cured,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

    The fight against tuberculosis is paying off, with this year’s death rate nearly half of what it was in 1990. Nevertheless, 1.5 million people died from TB in 2014. Most of these deaths could have been prevented, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2015, which was released on Wednesday in Washington, DC.

  • Tuesday, October 27th 2015 - 09:39 UTC

    Processed meats can cause colorectal cancer in humans, says WHO

    Each 50-gram (1.8-ounce) portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%, the agency estimated.

    Eating processed meats like hot dogs, sausages and bacon can cause colorectal cancer in humans, and red meat is also a likely cause of the disease, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said.

  • Sunday, October 25th 2015 - 10:16 UTC

    Monsanto in the dock? possible mass tort civil action against glyphosate

    The lawsuit in several US states accuses Monsanto of long knowing that the main ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, was hazardous to human health.

    Personal injury law firms around the United States are lining up plaintiffs for what they say could be “mass tort” civil actions against agrochemical giant Monsanto that claim the company’s Roundup herbicide has caused cancer in farm workers and others exposed to the chemical.

  • Friday, July 24th 2015 - 00:23 UTC

    World Health Organization calls for urgent action to curb hepatitis

    WHO is alerting people to the risks of contracting hepatitis from unsafe blood, unsafe injections, and sharing drug-injection equipment.

    On World Hepatitis Day (28 July) the World Health Organization highlights the urgent need for countries to enhance action to prevent viral hepatitis infection and to ensure that people who have been infected are diagnosed and offered treatment. This year, the Organization is focusing particularly on hepatitis B and C, which together cause approximately 80% of all liver cancer deaths and kill close to 1.4 million people every year.

  • Thursday, July 16th 2015 - 08:15 UTC

    Aphids beat latest 'odor' efforts to repel them and protect GM crops

    GM crops are being grown commercially since 1996. Land with GM crops has increased from 1.7m in 1996 to around 175.2m hectares worldwide in 2013.

    In what is described as a major blow to genetic modification of crops, a variety of wheat developed in the UK to repel pests has failed in field trials. The variety engineered to produce an odor that repels aphids, failed in the field test after it was successfully tested in the lab, proving a wide gap between lab and commercial application of the process.

  • Wednesday, July 8th 2015 - 01:05 UTC

    WHO: Stepped up government tax action needed to curb tobacco epidemic

    “Raising taxes on tobacco products is one of the most effective ways to reduce consumption of products that kill”, Dr Margaret Chan said.

    Too few governments levy appropriate levels of tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. They therefore miss out on a proven, low-cost measure to curb demand for tobacco, save lives and generate funds for stronger health services, according to the World Health Organization’s Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic-2015.