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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: World Health Organization

World Health Organization stories: 55 news summaries

21 - 40 of 55 Stories | << Prev 1 2 3 Next >>

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 Too Late to Contain Flu: WHO 


Apr 28, 09 4:44 AM CDT
(Newser) - Officials from the World Health Organization warn it’s too late to contain the swine flu and say governments should instead now focus on protecting their populations as best as possible, the BBC reports. The WHO bumped up its alert level from three to four—two levels shy of global... More »

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public health • quarantine • World Health Organization • contagious • pandemic • swine flu • WHO

 Mexico Prepares 
 to Shut Down Capital 

Schools closed as Mexico scrambles to contain outbreak blamed for 149 deaths

Apr 28, 09 3:23 AM CDT
(Newser) - Mexican authorities scrambling to contain the swine flu outbreak have closed schools and universities across the country and are considering a total shutdown of the capital, reports the Financial Times. Some businesses have remained open in Mexico City, but people are avoiding bars and restaurants, and the public transport system... More »

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Mexico City • quarantine • World Health Organization • influenza • pandemic • swine flu • WHO

(Newser) - With up to 41 people sickened by swine flu in five states and 149 dead in Mexico, the Obama administration is treating the outbreak like a full pandemic, the AP reports. Officials warned Americans against traveling to Mexico—where more than 1,600 have been infected—and sent flu-fighting medications... More »

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World Health Organization • influenza • pandemic • swine flu

(Newser) - The US is now confirming 40 cases of swine flu, while the death toll in Mexico is thought to have risen to 149, the Wall Street Journal reports. Of more than a thousand suspected cases in Mexico, only 26 have been confirmed, along with six in Canada and one in... More »

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United Nations • Spain • Mexico • public health • global health • World Health Organization • outbreak • pandemic • swine flu

(Newser) - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has prepared a seed stock of vaccine for the swine flu that has killed dozens in Mexico and infected a handful of Americans, Time reports. The CDC has not begun mass production of the vaccine, opting instead to see if the outbreak... More »

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention • United States • vaccine • virus • World Health Organization • infectious diseases • pandemic • swine flu • WHO

(Newser) - The World Health Organization believes the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and the southwestern United States could grow into a pandemic, the Washington Post reports. “It has pandemic potential,” said WHO’s director-general. “It is infecting people.” Margaret Chan cautioned that the WHO is... More »

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Southwest • Mexico • virus • World Health Organization • pandemic • swine flu • Margaret Chan

 HIV Soars in People Over 50 


Mar 4, 09 4:06 PM CST
(Newser) - The number of people over the age of 50 with HIV is growing swiftly worldwide, AFP reports. In America, the percentage of those infected with the virus in that age group rose from 20% to 25% between 2003 and 2006, says a WHO report. In Brazil, the over-50 infection rate... More »

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AIDS • HIV • safe sex • World Health Organization • older men • medical study • older women • infection rate

 Sunlight Offers 
 Ray of Hope in 
 Preventing MS 

Vitamin D deficiency triggers disease

Feb 5, 09 5:42 AM CST
(Newser) - Deadly multiple sclerosis, which slowly destroys the central nervous system, may be  prevented with healthy exposure to the sun or Vitamin D supplements, according to a new study. Fresh research at Oxford University shows a vitamin D deficiency triggers a gene variant that increases the risk of developing MS by... More »

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Scotland • multiple sclerosis • MS • World Health Organization • vitamin D • Orkney • Shetland

(Newser) - Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic has now infected more than 60,000 people, a number the World Health Organization had previously pegged as the “worst case scenario,” the BBC reports. More than 3,000 have died from the disease since its August outbreak, and with Zimbabwe’s water, sanitation,... More »

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United Nations • Zimbabwe • World Health Organization • cholera

 Surgery Checklist Saves Lives 
 ... and Maybe $25B 

Strategy employed by flight crews means 33% fewer complications for hospitals

Jan 15, 09 10:25 AM CST
(Newser) - It sounds like a no-brainer, but surgical teams who use a simple checklist similar to those employed by flight crews reduced deaths and complications by a stunning 33%, according to an international study. If every US hospital used the checklist, health care costs for treating avoidable complications could be cut... More »

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New England Journal of Medicine • World Health Organization • Harvard School of Public Health • surgeons • surgical errors • University of Washington Medical Center • surgical checklist

Cholera Caused By 'Genocidal' Brits: Mugabe

UK unleashed it in
'racist terrorist attack,' minister claims

Dec 13, 08 10:40 AM CST
(Newser) - The cholera outbreak that’s killed some 792 Zimbabweans is actually a “genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British,” at least in the mind of Robert Mugabe's information minister. He called the disease a “serious biological chemical weapon,” unleashed by England in “... More »

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Zimbabwe • Robert Mugabe • United Kingdom • World Health Organization • Cholera

(Newser) - Cancer will surpass heart disease as the world’s preeminent killer by 2010, Reuters reports. A WHO study concluded that cancer cases will double between 2000 and 2020, and almost triple by 2030, largely because of increased tobacco use in developing countries. In men, who are more likely to contract... More »

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cancer • United Nations • breast cancer • lung cancer • heart disease • smoking • World Health Organization • Third World • medical study

 Watershed Vaccine 
 May End Malaria Toll 

If trials work as expected, shots could save millions of children

Dec 9, 08 1:45 AM CST
(Newser) - Scientists have developed a promising vaccine against malaria, a devastating disease that kills a milion people a year, most of them young children. Trials of the breakthrough vaccine enter the final phase next year and it could be widely available by 2012, reports the Los Angeles Times. Successful trials have... More »

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Kenya • medical breakthrough • malaria • Ethiopia • GlaxoSmithKline • Tanzania • vaccine • mosquito • Zambia • World Health Organization • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation • Rwanda • RTS,S • PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative

Tobacco Crackdown Aims to Douse Smuggling Efforts

Making supply chain more transparent among goals of international talks

Oct 29, 08 3:52 PM CDT
(Newser) - Negotiators from over 150 countries are working with the World Health Organization to shape a proposal intended to combat the global trade in illegal cigarettes, Portfolio reports. Anti-tobacco advocates say current measures are insufficient to stem the illicit production or smuggling that accounts for 11% of worldwide tobacco sales, and... More »

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cigarettes • tobacco • counterfeit • smuggler • World Health Organization • cigarette • counterfeiters • bar codes

 E-Cigs Not Safe: WHO 

Devices sold as smoking treatment

Sep 20, 08 7:14 AM CDT
(Newser) - Electronic cigarettes are untested and possibly unsafe, the WHO said today. The device—a mock cigarette that releases a fine mist of nicotine, sans fire—has been sold over the internet as a smoking cessation aid, Reuters reports. The problem is that it could release, besides nicotine, “many other... More »

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smoking • World Health Organization • regulation • smoking cessation • cigarette • electronic cigarette

 Brits Warn of
 Devastating Pandemic 

World ill-prepared for massive outbreak

Jul 21, 08 9:26 AM CDT
(Newser) - The world is in danger of losing up to 50 million people to an "inevitable" flu pandemic, and global response agencies aren't ready for such a test, the British government warns. A report rates early-warning systems as "poorly coordinated" and calls for an overhaul of the World Health... More »

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epidemic • virus • World Health Organization • avian flu • flu • pandemic

Cheap Malaria Drug Holds Promise for Millions

It's based on 2000-year-old herbal remedy

Jun 4, 08 3:15 AM CDT
(Newser) - The lives of millions of children  may be saved by a new technique for producing a malaria drug at a 10th of the cost of current treatments, making it accessible the world's most impoverished people, reports the Independent.  The technique involves inserting a dozen synthetic genes into yeast cells,... More »

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malaria • genetic modification • artemisinin • UC Berkeley • mosquito • World Health Organization • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation • genetic engineering • Chinese medicine • synthetic biology • bioreactor • Artemesia annua • wormwood • Royal Society • Jay Keasling

Chronic Disease Top Cause of Death Worldwide

Lifestyle-related ailments overtake illness as No. 1 killer

May 20, 08 3:22 PM CDT
(Newser) - Chronic ailments such as heart disease have become the top causes of death around the world, Reuters reports. Infectious disease, such as tuberculosis and AIDS, has traditionally been the planet's number-one killer. But new World Health Organization stats show noncommunicable conditions, many of which are associated with a Western lifestyle,... More »

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disease • death • heart attack • stroke • World Health Organization • chronic disease

 Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting 

Experts fear spread of disease, entrenched in avian population, to humans

May 6, 08 3:55 PM CDT
(Newser) - The danger of a worldwide bird flu epidemic is growing as the virus becomes established in the avian population, Reuters reports. World Health Organization experts today urged all nations to prepare in case the H5N1 virus mutates into a form easily transferable between humans. In birds, the strain has spread... More »

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birds • epidemic • World Health Organization • avian flu • H5N1 • influenza • pandemic

Deadly China Virus Not Seen as Olympic Threat

But cases are expected to rise with warm weather

May 5, 08 7:10 AM CDT
(Newser) - The outbreak of a deadly virus in China hasn’t peaked yet—but it won’t affect the Beijing Games, a World Health Organization rep said. “I don't see it at all as a threat to the Olympics or any upcoming events,” he noted. Enterovirus 71 has killed... More »

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China • disease • 2008 Beijing Olympics • virus • World Health Organization • outbreak • Enterovirus 71

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