UN agencies have warned repeatedly that northern Gaza is on the verge of famine and called it a man-made crisis because aid lorries are backed up on the Egypt-Gaza border awaiting long checks by Israeli officials. Israel has denied responsibility.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the military's "plans for action in Rafah", according to a statement Friday, which gave no details or a timeline. The United Nations and the United States have also repeatedly warned against such a military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Geneva, Switzerland - A major new study released by The Lancet Neurology shows that, in 2021, more than 3 billion people worldwide were living with a neurological condition. The World Health Organization (WHO) contributed to the analysis of the Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor Study (GBD) 2021 data. Neurological...

Paris, France - Conditions affecting the nervous system -- such as strokes, migraines and dementia -- have surged past heart disease to become the leading cause of ill health worldwide, a major new analysis said on Friday. More than 3.4 billion people -- 43 percent of the global population -- experienced...

Geneva, Switzerland - The World Health Organization voiced alarm on Tuesday at the rapid spread of measles, with more than 306,000 cases reported worldwide last year -- a 79-percent increase from 2022. "We in the measles world are extremely concerned," said Natasha Crowcroft, a WHO technical adviser on measles and rubella....

Geneva, Switzerland - The World Health Organization said on Tuesday it had transferred 32 patients out of the besieged Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza but feared for the patients and medics still inside. WHO staff said the scenes around the hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis were "indescribable", while...

In a telephone call that saw Macron toughen his tone, the French leader expressed France's "firm opposition" to an Israeli offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, saying it "could only lead to a humanitarian disaster of a new magnitude" and create a new risk of regional escalation, according...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Acting WHO Representative in Sudan Peter Graaff has said that the humanitarian and health crisis in the African country is alarming. The conflict that started 10 months ago has spread to new areas, resulting in widespread displacement of civilians, some of whom have been forced to move...

Geneva, Switzerland - The number of new cancer cases will rise to more than 35 million in 2050 -- 77 percent higher than the figure in 2022, the World Health Organization's cancer agency warned Thursday. The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) cited tobacco, alcohol, obesity and air pollution...

Geneva, Switzerland - The World Health Organization said on Monday that nearly half the world's population was now covered by solid rules limiting trans fat in foods and urged lagging countries to catch up. The WHO appealed in 2018 for industrially produced fatty acids in foods to be eliminated worldwide by...

"WHO refutes Israel's accusation at the executive board meeting yesterday that WHO is in 'collusion' with Hamas and is 'turning a blind eye' to the suffering of hostages being held in Gaza," WHO chief Tedros said on X. "Such false claims are harmful and can endanger our staff who are...

Bringing food and supplies to the besieged population of Gaza, which is increasingly at risk of famine, also depends on the opening of new entry routes into the territory, the World Food Program (WFP), UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a joint statement.

GAZA, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - Bombed-out neighborhoods, mass graves dug in the sand, spreading hunger and disease -- as the bloodiest ever Gaza war nears 100 days, besieged Palestinians have endured ever new horrors. More than three months of relentless Israeli bombardment since the October 7 Hamas attack have taken a...

"Delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza continues to face nearly insurmountable challenges," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference. "Intense bombardment, restrictions on movement, fuel shortages, and interrupted communications make it impossible for WHO and our partners to reach those in need."

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Monday night, Netanyahu vowed to stay the course. "Hamas must be destroyed, Gaza must be demilitarized, and Palestinian society must be deradicalized. These are the three prerequisites for peace between Israel and its Palestinian neighbors in Gaza," Netanyahu said.

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - One of the last remaining hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip stopped operating on Tuesday after being stormed by the Israeli army, its director said. Fadel Naim told AFP Israeli troops had attacked the Al-Ahli hospital and arrested doctors, medical staff and patients, destroying part of...

The announcement came more than two months into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza as international aid organizations have warned about the dire conditions in the crowded Palestinian territory. The ministry did not specify which vaccinations had run out, and its claim could not be independently verified.

The chief of WHO said the convoy was stopped twice at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint on the way to northern Gaza and on the way back, adding that some Palestinian Red Crescent staff were detained both times and questioned for several hours.

DUBAI, UAE - According to World Health Organization data, 99 percent of the world’s population lives in places where air pollution levels exceed WHO guideline limits. Exposure to air pollution increases the risk of respiratory diseases, stroke, heart attacks, diabetes and links to dementia. Children are also highly susceptible to...

Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO's representative in the occupied Palestinian territories, said that since the start of the war, there had been 120,000 acute respiratory infections; close to 26,000 people with scabies and lice; 86,000 cases of diarrhea, including 44,000 among children aged under five, which he said was 20 to...

Copenhagen, Denmark - Misuse of antibiotics is denting their efficacy and spawning resistant bacteria which could be responsible for 10 million deaths worldwide by 2050, the World Health Organization warned on Thursday. WHO's European chapter conducted a study which showed that antibiotics were prescribed for things like common cold (24 percent...

Berlin, Germany - Germany's BioNTech and US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on Thursday announced "positive" results from initial trials of their combined mRNA vaccine against Covid-19 and influenza. Phase one and two trials of the vaccine had produced "robust immune responses" against both illnesses and showed a "safety profile consistent with the...

If aid is not allowed into the besieged territory, doctors will have to "prepare death certificates for their patients," WHO regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed al-Mandhari told AFP. Monday marked 10 days of relentless Israeli air strikes on targets in the Palestinian enclave, in retaliation for an October...

Geneva, Switzerland - The World Health Organization said on Saturday enough basic health supplies to serve 300,000 people in the Gaza Strip have been flown to an Egyptian airport near the Palestinian enclave. The supplies were ready to go in once humanitarian access could be established through the Rafah crossing from...

Last month's flood was the latest catastrophe to strike the oil-rich North African country that has been wracked by war and lawlessness since a NATO-backed uprising in 2011 ousted and killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi. The psychological impact of the disaster will also be felt for a long time among...

"An estimated 43,059 individuals have been displaced by the floods in northeastern Libya," the IOM said, adding that a "lack of water supply is reportedly driving many displaced out of Derna" to other areas.

“As we prepare for the groundbreaking Health Day at COP28, we are resolute in our determination to address the challenges posed to health by climate change and encourage ambitious investment in the health sector. Our goal is to build resilient, equitable health systems,” adds the COP28 President-Designate.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The head of the World Health Organization told the Financial Times he was ready to send a new mission of experts to China to investigate the origins of Covid-19.   "We're pressing China to give full access, and we are asking countries to raise it during their bilateral...

The death toll from freak floods in eastern Libya is expected to soar dramatically, with 10,000 people reported missing, the Red Cross warned. Officials in Libya have said at least 150 people were killed in the sudden flooding on Sunday afternoon after storm Daniel swept the Mediterranean, lashing Bulgaria, Greece...

GANDHINAGAR, INDIA - The World Health Organization (WHO) and the G20 India presidency announced a new Global Initiative on Digital Health (GIDH) on Saturday at the Health Minister’s Meeting of the G20 Summit hosted by the Government of India. The new GIDH initiative will operate as a WHO-managed network and...

"WHO is working to build the evidence and data to inform policies, standards and regulations for the safe, cost-effective and equitable use of traditional medicine", WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said as he opened the summit.

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80 percent in the last month, the World Health Organization said, days after designating a new "variant of interest". The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but warned the virus will continue to...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The extreme heat in the northern hemisphere is putting an increasing strain on healthcare systems, hitting those least able to cope the hardest, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. The WHO said the heat often worsens pre-existing conditions, saying it was particularly concerned about those with cardiovascular...

"The recent operation in the occupied West Bank and car ramming attack in Tel Aviv worryingly underscore an all too familiar pattern of events: that violence only begets more violence," Volker Turk said in a statement. Turk said Israeli forces in the West Bank needed to abide by international human...

Copenhagen, Denmark - The World Health Organization's European office on Tuesday warned the risk of Covid-19 has not gone away, saying it was still responsible for nearly 1,000 deaths a week in the region. The global health body on May 5 announced that the Covid-19 pandemic was no longer deemed a...

The debut comes as an array of agencies and organizations grow disenchanted with Elon Musk-owned Twitter in the face of fees, performance problems, and dramatically scaled-back content moderation. Meta described Channels as "a simple, reliable, and private way to receive important updates from people and organizations, right within WhatsApp."

The World Health Organization launched a global network to help swiftly detect the threat from infectious diseases, like COVID-19, and share the information to prevent their spread. The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN) will provide a platform for connecting countries and regions, improving systems for collecting and analyzing samples, the...

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, however, warns that "the worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that Covid-19 is nothing to worry...

With projectiles crashing into residential buildings, supplies running short and daily life increasingly untenable for civilians, foreign nations have scrambled to evacuate their nationals by air, road and sea. But millions of Sudanese are still trapped in the country, where aid workers are among the dead and the UN said...

KHARTOUM, SUDAN -  A first Red Cross plane laden with humanitarian aid on Sunday landed in Sudan, where deadly clashes between rival generals' forces have entered their third week. "The eight tonnes of humanitarian cargo includes surgical material to support Sudanese hospitals and volunteers from the Sudan Red Crescent Society," the...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - The World Health Organization (WHO) affirmed it is likely to support Iraq in the localization of its pharmaceutical industry, local media reports say.WHO official Ahmed Zueiten, said, “I spoke with Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani about the partnership between Iraq and global health.” He said, "The organization...

CAIRO/AMMAN, EGYPT/JORDAN -   Measles and polio vaccination campaign will be launched on Saturday across northwest Syria to protect some 800,000 children under five years from the two potentially deadly but preventable diseases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement. The vaccination drive, supported by WHO, the Vaccine Alliance...

In the aftermath of the quake, activists and emergency teams in the rebel-held northwest decried the UN's slow response, contrasting it with the planeloads of humanitarian aid that have been delivered to government-controlled airports.

The World Health Organization on Sunday appealed for $392 million ahead of a UN-led donor conference in Geneva to avert the "potential collapse" of the health sector in war-torn Yemen. The call came with the Arabian Peninsula country in the throes of one of the world's worst humanitarian tragedies after...

NEW YORK, US - Governments agreed on a way forward to update disease outbreak regulations ahead of meetings to draft new global guidelines for tackling pandemics, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. According to United Nations News Center, the two processes are complementary. They are guided by the need of...

The EU measure will last for six months and was taken "in view of the gravity of the humanitarian crisis in Syria exacerbated by the earthquake". The massive 7.8-magnitude quake on February 6 has killed more than 42,000 people in Turkey and more than 3,600 in Syria.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with the Syrian president in Damascus on Sunday afternoon to discuss the response to the devastating earthquake which has killed more than 33,000 people across Syria and Turkey. "The compounding crises of conflict, Covid, cholera, economic decline and now the earthquake have...

In terms of monitoring how the virus is evolving, surveillance and genetic sequencing has dropped sharply, making it harder to track the myriad variants and detect new ones in good time.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission agreed on reinforcing a decade-long collaboration to accelerate the achievement of universal health coverage. The letter of intent foresees an additional contribution from the European Union (EU) of US$131 million for the continuation of WHO's assistance to its...

Medibank, Australia's largest private health insurer, confirmed this week that hackers had accessed the information of 9.7 million current and former clients, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The hackers on Thursday uploaded a second batch of files to a dark web forum, with more sensitive details about hundreds of Medibank...