Tag: World Health Organization (WHO)

• Friday, October 24th 2014 - 20:17 UTC

  France reports four cases of chikungunya locally acquired infections

  

  On 21 October 2014, WHO was notified by the National IHR Focal Point for France of 4 cases of chikungunya locally-acquired infection in Montpellier, France. The cases were confirmed by tests conducted by the French National Reference Laboratory for arboviruses on 20 October 2014. This is the first time that locally-acquired transmission of chikungunya has been detected in France since 2010.

• Monday, October 20th 2014 - 07:30 UTC

  WHO admits full-scale battle with tobacco industry, which appeals to 'devious channels'

  

  The sixth session of the Conference of the parties (COP6) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) concluded in Moscow. Several landmark decisions were adopted in the course of the six-day session, regarded as one of the most successful in the WHO FCTC’s history.

• Friday, September 26th 2014 - 05:38 UTC

  Cut on the salt, Monday 29 September is World Heart Day, recommends WHO

  

  On World Heart Day, held 29 September, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on countries to take action on the overuse of salt by implementing WHO’s sodium reduction recommendations to cut the number of people experiencing heart disease and stroke, and, in turn, save lives.

• Monday, September 22nd 2014 - 05:12 UTC

  Experts fear the Ebola virus could mutate to become an airborne disease

  

  As the Ebola outbreak continues to spiral out of control, with the number of cases rising faster than the ability to contain them, some scientists are concerned that the virus could mutate to become an airborne disease, greatly increasing its potential for contagion.

• Tuesday, September 2nd 2014 - 22:49 UTC

  Ebola outbreak in Congo is the indigenous 'Zaire strain' and not connected to West Africa

  

  Results from virus sequencing of samples from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been analyzed and they belong to the so called Zaire strain, in a lineage most closely related to a virus from the 1995 Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, DRC.

• Wednesday, August 13th 2014 - 06:29 UTC

  First European Ebola infected dies; WHO approves unproven drugs for people at risk

  

  Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, 75, the first European infected by a strain of Ebola that has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa, has died in hospital in Madrid, a spokeswoman for the city's health authorities said.

• Saturday, August 9th 2014 - 06:38 UTC

  Ebola outbreak becomes a “public health emergency of international concern”

  

  World Health Organization declared on Friday that the Ebola outbreak spreading across West Africa has become a “public health emergency of international concern”. WHO also revealed that Ebola took an additional 29 lives between Tuesday and Wednesday alone.

• Tuesday, August 5th 2014 - 06:58 UTC

  World Bank pledges 200 million dollars to combat the West Africa Ebola epidemic

  

  With the latest death toll from the West Africa Ebola epidemic now at 887, the World Bank Group pledged on Monday as much as 200 million dollars in emergency funding to help Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone contain the spread of Ebola infections, help their communities cope with the economic impact of the crisis, and improve public health systems throughout West Africa.

• Saturday, July 12th 2014 - 10:40 UTC

  UN members pledge to combat avoidable non-communicable diseases and preventable deaths

  

  UN Member States have reaffirmed their commitment to take bold measures to reduce the avoidable burden of non-communicable diseases. These ailments, including heart disease and stroke, cancer, diabetes and lung disease kill 38 million people every year, many of them before they reach the age of 70.

• Monday, July 7th 2014 - 22:49 UTC

  FAO/WHO elaborating new guidelines for identifying food-borne parasites

  

  A “Top Ten” list identifying the food-borne parasites of greatest global concern has been released by FAO, and new guidelines are being developed to control them. The parasites affect the health of millions of people every year, infecting muscle tissues and organs, causing epilepsy, anaphylactic shock, amoebic dysentery and other problems. Some can live on in our bodies for decades.