by Nina LARSON Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – The Covid pandemic has taken a dire toll on mental health, the WHO said Wednesday, indicating that cases of anxiety and depression had swelled by over 25 percent globally. In a fresh scientific brief, the World Health Organization also found that the Covid-19 crisis had in many cases significantly impeded access to mental health services and raised concerns about increases in suicidal behaviour. The brief, which […]
Tag: World Health Organization (WHO)
People skills at heart of DR Congo’s long fight against Ebola
by Samir TOUNSI Agence France-Presse BUTEMBO, DR Congo (AFP) – Evelyne was one of the first victims of the Ebola epidemic which broke out in eastern DR Congo last August, the second deadliest in its known history. Against the odds, the nurse not only survived the hemorrhagic virus, whose outbreak has claimed nearly 700 lives, but has also returned to the fray. After receiving a vaccination, Evelyne is now tending Ebola-affected children — part of a […]
Nine of 194 countries keeping pledge to eradicate hepatitis: summit
by Paula RAMON Agence France-Presse SAO PAULO, Brazil (AFP) – Only nine of 194 countries which pledged last year to eradicate hepatitis by 2030 are working towards that goal, according to figures revealed Wednesday at the second World Hepatitis Summit in Brazil. Egypt, Georgia, Germany, Iceland, Japan, The Netherlands, Australia, Qatar and Brazil are the only countries taking steps to overcome the disease, a liver inflammation which kills 1.3 million people every year. The three-day summit […]
Malaysia hit by first rabies deaths in almost 20 years
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (AFP) — Two Malaysian children have died after contracting rabies, the country’s first such deaths in almost two decades, as authorities battle a rare outbreak of the disease, officials said Wednesday. A six-year-old girl and her four-year-old brother died Tuesday after becoming infected with the disease in a rural area on the Malaysian part of Borneo island. They were among three people confirmed to have been infected with rabies, which in most cases is transmitted […]
Climate change health impacts loom large
by Marlowe HOOD PARIS, France (AFP) — The world should brace for potentially devastating impacts on human health due to climate change, top policy makers and officials from around the globe meeting in Paris said Thursday. Some of these consequences may be avoided if humanity radically curbs its use of fossil fuels in coming decades, but many are already being felt, they said at the opening of a two-day conference run by the World Health […]
Beijing’s smoke busters point the way for national ban
by Becky Davis BEIJING, China (AFP) — Wielding an “inspector” badge, volunteer Liu Li follows his nose as he sniffs out violators of China’s toughest-ever tobacco control law, enacted a year ago on Wednesday, as Beijing fights to keep its air smoke free. China has more smokers than any other country, but Liu’s efforts partly explain the relative success of the capital’s ban on smoking in public spaces. “We’re very sensitive. We can tell from […]
Yellow fever outbreak ‘serious’ but not global health emergency: WHO
by Nina LARSON GENEVA , Switzerland (AFP) — A deadly yellow fever outbreak in Angola and Congo is of great concern but does not amount to a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said Thursday. The UN health body said an emergency meeting of experts had determined that “the urban yellow fever outbreaks in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a serious public health event which warrants intensified national action and […]





