health Archives - Page 2 of 6

Syria: UN health agency launches $56.4 million appeal to meet critical needs

·December 24, 2024·1 min read

In addition, the developments since late November, culminating with the overthrow of the Assad regime added new dimensions to the crisis, including population displacements as well as return of Syrian refugees from neighbouring countries. Since November 2024, over 882,000 Syrians have been displaced amid surging violence, further straining the country’s...

Avian flu reported in 108 countries across five continents, says UN health agency

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·December 18, 2024·1 min read

In an update on the mutating virus – known as H5N1 – Dr. Madhur Dhingra from the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, said that it had “spilled over into wildlife”. More than 500 bird species have been infected along with at least 70 mammalian species, including the endangered California condor...

Underinvestment threatens universal health coverage goals

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·December 13, 2024·1 min read

The report, titled Global Spending on Health: Emerging from the Pandemic, shows a reduction in per capita government health expenditures in 2022 across all income groups, following a surge during the early COVID-19 pandemic years. This concerning trend undermines progress toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC), a goal enshrined in the...

$1.4 billion needed for sexual and reproductive health services in crisis-hit countries

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·December 5, 2024·1 min read

The funding will be used to deliver life-saving reproductive health services and vital gender-based violence prevention programmes to more than 45 million people. The appeal comes as an estimated 11 million pregnant women will require urgent support in 2025. Record displacement and devastation UNFPA recalled that global crises displaced a record...

Afghanistan: Surge in synthetic drugs could threaten public health

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·November 29, 2024·1 min read

The Mapping of Facilities for Treatment of Substance Use Disorders in Afghanistan report, conducted in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), is the first comprehensive survey of the country’s treatment capacity. While services are operational in 32 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, systemic barriers – especially for women – severely...

Lebanon crisis: Health workers and facilities ‘targeted or hit’

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·October 10, 2024·2 min read

The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reported that ambulances and relief centres had been “targeted or hit in Lebanon, causing further casualties”, adding that the UN health agency WHO and health partners have continued to deliver life-saving surgical supplies to frontline health workers. International humanitarian law provides special protection for...

End ‘collective amnesia’ over COVID-19, says UN health agency WHO

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·October 9, 2024·2 min read

Coronaviruses like COVID, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) “must be taken seriously” as they are particularly dangerous for at-risk groups including the elderly, pregnant women and people suffering from existing or chronic illness, WHO Europe insisted, as it launched a region-wide protection campaign. “Collective amnesia on COVID-19 has set...

WHO highlights mental health crisis facing Israel’s frontline workers a year after 7 October attack

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·October 7, 2024·3 min read

Responders including ambulance drivers, health workers and forensic teams who identified many of the dead, all witnessed “carnage and horror” which resulted in lasting trauma. An organization named Mashiv Ha’Ruach, which means “Bringing back the spirit”, provided mental health and psychosocial support through workshop retreats supported by WHO/Europe. These sessions...

Health teams brave war conditions in Sudan to save newborn babies

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·September 15, 2024·4 min read

Under shelling and gunfire, Esraa cradled her newborn son. As the war in Sudan broke out in April 2023, she was trying to reach a health clinic for treatment for her baby, who had been struggling with infections and breathing difficulties. But with the roads blocked by fighting, the young...

Gaza health workers pushed to the limit amid airstrike ‘carnage’

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·December 26, 2023·3 min read

World Health Organization (WHO) Emergency Medical Teams coordinator Sean Casey said that “100-plus patients” had been brought into Al-Aqsa Hospital on Monday in the space of 30 minutes, following reported blasts, including near Al-Maghazi refugee camp. All of them needed urgent treatment for serious wounds, the WHO official told UN...

Dengue spike fuels concerns of public health threat in previously untouched countries: WHO

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·December 23, 2023·2 min read

The warning came as WHO reported more than five million dengue infections and 5,000 deaths from the disease worldwide this year. Briefing journalists at the UN in Geneva, Dr. Diana Rojas Alvarez, WHO Team Lead on Arboviruses, said that the threat required “the maximal attention and response from all levels”...

World News in Brief: Russia’s LGBT ban condemned, unprecedented Africa malnutrition crisis, health after childbirth

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·December 7, 2023·3 min read

This, in effect, bans all public LGBT activities and organisations within the country. The nine UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts said the ruling “significantly distances” Russia from its obligations under international law to promote and protect human rights for all. The experts sent an official letter to the Russian Government...