Tag: WHO

WHO emergency committee decides on monkeypox outbreak: Over 3,200 confirmed cases reported worldwide

  by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — A World Health Organization committee of experts met Thursday to decide whether the monkeypox outbreak constitutes a global health emergency. The outcome of the in-private meeting will be issued on Friday at the earliest, the WHO said. A surge of monkeypox cases has been detected since May outside of the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic. Most of […]

Monkeypox outbreak tops 1,000 cases, WHO warns of ‘real’ risk

The risk of monkeypox becoming established in non-endemic nations is real, the WHO warned Wednesday, with more than a thousand cases now confirmed in such countries. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN health agency was not recommending mass vaccination against the virus, and added that no deaths had been reported so far from the outbreaks. “The risk of monkeypox becoming established in non-endemic countries is real,” Tedros told a press conference. […]

WHO: 780 monkeypox outbreak cases

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization said Sunday that 780 laboratory-confirmed monkeypox cases had been reported to it from 27 non-endemic countries, while maintaining that the global risk level was moderate. The WHO said the 780 figure, for cases from May 13 to Thursday, was probably an underestimate due to limited epidemiological and laboratory information. “It is highly likely that other countries will identify cases and there will be further spread of the […]

More than 700 monkeypox cases globally, 21 in US: CDC

  WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday it was aware of more than 700 global cases of monkeypox, including 21 in the United States, with investigations now suggesting it is spreading inside the country. Sixteen of the first 17 cases were among people who identify as men who have sex with men, according to a new CDC report, and 14 were thought to be travel […]

Monkeypox cases could be ‘peak of iceberg’: WHO

  GENEVA, Switzzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization cautioned Friday that some 200 monkeypox cases found in recent weeks outside of countries where the virus usually circulates could be just the beginning. “We don’t know if we are just seeing the peak of the iceberg,” Sylvie Briand, WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention chief, acknowledged in a briefing to countries on the “unusual” spread of the virus. Since Britain first reported a confirmed […]

WHO says monkeypox outbreak can still be contained

https://youtu.be/fGsCY5xwt2U   The monkeypox outbreak that has been reported in 16 countries and several regions of the world can still be contained and the overall risk of transmission is low, the UN health agency said on Tuesday (24 May). “What we know from this virus and these modes of transmission, this outbreak can still be contained, it is the objective of the World Health Organization and Member States to contain this outbreak and to stop […]

WHO meet refuses to admit Taiwan amid China pressure

  GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization’s annual assembly refused Monday to discuss admitting Taiwan to the meeting, under pressure from China and despite impassioned pleas from several countries. Taiwan has been blocked from attending the assembly in recent years by China, which considers the island a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland. There have been growing calls to allow Taiwan in as an observer, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted […]

Switzerland reports first monkeypox case

  GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Swiss health officials on Saturday reported the country’s first case of monkeypox in a person living in the canton of Bern but who was exposed while abroad. Bern’s health authority said the patient had been treated as a walk-in case and was now isolating at home. Everyone who had come into contact with him had been informed, it added in a statement. “As far as we know, the person concerned […]

228 probable unexplained cases of child hepatitis: WHO

  GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — At least 228 probable cases of hepatitis of unknown origin in children have now been reported to the World Health Organization from 20 countries, the UN health agency said Tuesday, May 3. “As of May 1, at least 228 probable cases were reported to WHO from 20 countries, with over 50 additional cases under investigation,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva. Most of the cases are from Europe […]

WHO ‘strongly recommends’ Pfizer’s Covid pill

by Christophe Vogt © Agence France-Presse   GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization said Friday it “strongly recommended” Pfizer’s Covid-19 antiviral pill Paxlovid for patients with milder forms of the disease who were still at a high risk of hospitalization. However the UN agency warned it was “extremely concerned” that the inequality in access seen with Covid vaccines would again leave low- and middle-income countries “pushed to the end of the queue”. US […]

WHO experts insist Covid still a global emergency

  by Robin Millard © Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO’s emergency committee on Covid-19 on Wednesday unanimously affirmed that the virus remains a major public health danger and insisted that countries must stop dropping their guard. With many nations relaxing public health and social measures, and drastically reducing testing for the virus, the World Health Organization’s group of experts said the pandemic was far from being at an end. “Now is not […]

20 countries still below 10% Covid jab rate: WHO experts

by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Twenty mostly African countries have still not vaccinated even 10 percent of their population against Covid-19, the World Health Organization’s vaccine advisers lamented Monday. The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) said the speed of the Covid jab rollout had been “unprecedented”. However, 20 countries — down from 34 in January — had still not managed a 10-percent immunisation rate, Kate O’Brien, the WHO’s vaccines chief, […]