WHO

20 May 2013 -- WHO's Health Assembly, the world's largest health policy-making body, opened its Sixty-sixth Session today in Geneva with around 3000 participants from around the world.

17 May 2013 -- The yellow fever ‘booster’ vaccination given ten years after the initial vaccination is not necessary, according to WHO.

15 May 2013 -- The world has made dramatic progress in improving health in the poorest countries and narrowing the gaps between countries with the best and worst health status in the past two decades, according to the World Health Statistics 2013.

13 May 2013 – Some 2.4 billion people – one-third of the world’s population – will remain without access to improved sanitation in 2015, according to a joint WHO/UNICEF report issued today.

12 May 2013- The emergence of this new coronavirus is globally recognized as an important and major challenge for all of the countries which have been affected as well as the rest of the world.

3 May 2013 -- On Hand Hygiene Day (5 May), WHO is encouraging patients and their family members to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene. Every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by health care-associated infections. These lead to significant physical and psychological suffering and sometimes death of patients, and financial losses for health systems. More than half of these infections could be prevented by caregivers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care.

2 May 2013 -- More than 270 000 pedestrians lose their lives on the world’s roads each year accounting for 22% of the total 1.24 million road traffic deaths. WHO is calling on governments to take concrete actions to improve the safety of pedestrians.

25 April 2013 – Today, at the Global Vaccine Summit, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) presented a comprehensive six-year plan, the first plan to eradicate all types of polio disease – both wild poliovirus and vaccine-derived cases – simultaneously. Global leaders and individual philanthropists signaled their confidence in the plan by pledging close to three-quarters of the plan’s projected US$ 5.5 billion cost over six years.

24 April 2013 -- On World Malaria Day, 25 April, WHO recognizes significant accomplishments in preventing and controlling malaria, including in high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa, but highlights the threat of antimalarial drug resistance in south-east Asia’s Greater Mekong subregion, where an emergency response is now being launched.

18 April 2013 -- An estimated 22 million children in developing countries are still not protected from dangerous diseases with basic vaccines. For World Immunization Week, which starts on 20 April, experts state that better supply and logistics systems are essential to reach all children.

15 April 2013 -- Statement on the humanitarian crisis and the insufficient sense of urgency among the governments and parties that could put a stop to the cruelty and carnage in the Syrian Arab Republic.

12 April 2013 -- A new Global Action Plan launched today by the WHO and UNICEF has the potential to save up to 2 million children every year from deaths caused by pneumonia and diarrhoea, some of the leading killers of children under five globally.

3 April 2013 -- To mark World Health Day on 7 April, WHO is calling for intensified efforts to prevent and control hypertension, also known as high blood pressure. Worldwide, high blood pressure is estimated to affect more than one in three adults aged 25 and over, or about one billion people.

18 March 2013 -- WHO and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria said today that strains of tuberculosis with resistance to multiple drugs could spread widely and highlight an annual need of at least US$ 1.6 billion in international funding for treatment and prevention of the disease.

14 March 2013 -- A new WHO report on road safety calls for more comprehensive legislation addressing the five key road safety risk factors to reduce fatalities and injuries. The Global status report on road safety 2013: supporting a decade of action, launched today, states that only 28 countries, covering 7% of the world’s population, have comprehensive road safety laws on drinking and driving, speeding, and failing to use motorcycle helmets, seat-belts, and child restraints.

7 March 2013 --Between 2011 and 2020, more than 140 million girls will become child brides, according to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). If current levels of child marriages hold, 14.2 million girls annually or 39 000 daily will marry too young.

1 March 2013 -- WHO welcomes the announcement of Mr Ray Chambers as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Malaria and for the Financing of the Health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

28 February 2013 -- A comprehensive assessment by international experts on the health risks associated with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) disaster in Japan has concluded that, for the general population inside and outside of Japan, the predicted risks are low and no observable increases in cancer rates above baseline rates are anticipated.

27 February 2013 – More than 360 million people in the world have disabling hearing loss, according to new global estimates on prevalence released by WHO, for International Ear Care Day (3 March).

19 February 2013 -- Top officials from health and finance ministries from 27 countries joined other high-level health and development stakeholders at a two-day meeting this week in Geneva to discuss ways that countries are progressing towards universal health coverage.