At 2.3 billion, the number of people worldwide covered by at least one life-saving measure to limit tobacco use has more than doubled in the last five years, according to the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2013. The number of people covered by bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, the focus of this year’s report, increased by almost 400 million people residing mainly in low- and middle-income countries.
The UN food standards body Codex Alimentarius has agreed on new standards to protect the health of consumers worldwide. These include standards on fruit, vegetables, fish and fishery products and animal feed.
Eleven people have died from the H1N1 influenza virus in northern Chile in an outbreak that the health minister raised the possibility of decreeing a health alert to restrict people's mobility.
Calling tobacco use the deadliest global pandemic ever, Uruguay’s former President Tabaré Vázquez urged decision makers to step up efforts to curb smoking in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Chinese scientists have confirmed for the first time that a new strain of bird flu that has killed 23 people in China has been transmitted to humans from chickens. In a study published online in the Lancet medical journal, the scientists echoed previous statements from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese officials that there is as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of this virus.
A new bird flu strain that has killed 22 people in China is one of the most lethal of its kind and transmits more easily to humans than another strain that has killed hundreds since 2003, a World Health Organization (WHO) expert said on Wednesday.
As China’s Health and Family Planning Commission notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of an additional four cases of human infection with influenza A(H7N9), scientists revealed that the genetic sequence data on the deadly strain of bird flu previously unknown in people show the virus has already acquired some mutations that might make it more likely to cause a human pandemic.
The World Health Organization and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria said on Monday that strains of tuberculosis with resistance to multiple drugs could spread widely and highlight an annual need of at least 1.6 billion dollars in international funding for treatment and prevention of the disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board, currently holding its 132nd session in Geneva, has appointed Dr Carissa Etienne as the new Regional Director for WHO's Americas Region (WHO/AMRO), following her nomination by the Regional Committee for the Americas in September 2012.