(Updated) On Tuesday, a 65-year-old French man died from a SARS-like infection, called novel coronavirus (nCoV). He was the …
WHO
Ebola Outbreak in Uganda: President Warns Against Physical Contact
This month, 14 Ugandans have died from an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Kibaale district in the western part of the country.
15 million
Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea Spreading Worldwide, WHO Warns
Officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) are urging governments and doctors to increase surveillance of potentially untreatable strains of drug-resistant gonorrhea and are calling for more vigilance on the proper …
WHO: Measles Deaths Are Declining Globally
In the U.S., 2011 was the worst measles year in 15 years, but worldwide, deaths from the disease have plummeted over the past 10 years.
WHO Says Cell Phone Radiation Is “Possibly Carcinogenic.” Now What?
Using a mobile phone may increase your risk for certain kinds of brain cancers. That was the scientific conclusion relayed today by a working group of 31 scientists from 14 countries meeting at the World Health Organization’s …
Happy Clean Your Hands Day!
You should listen to your mother: always wash your hands. That’s especially true if you work in health care, where poor hand hygiene can be matter of life and death.
Global Microbe Detectives Are Getting Better at Tracking Disease Outbreaks
I was lucky — or unlucky — enough to have a front-row seat for one of the most surprising and frightening infectious disease outbreaks in recent history.
The swine flu pandemic is over
So sayeth the World Health Organization (WHO)—and they should know, since they were the ones who declared a full, phase six-level pandemic a little more than a year ago. Now it’s done—this morning WHO head Dr. Margaret Chan announced that the group’s emergency committee of top flu experts had convinced her that the pandemic had …
Are we failing to stop the next flu pandemic?
The H1N1 flu pandemic last year came out of nowhere. Well, not exactly — H1N1 first emerged in human beings in Mexico. But that wasn’t where most influenza experts were looking. The focus had been on southeast Asia, where the H5N1 avian flu had been infecting — and killing — human beings for the past few years. Most flu pandemics …
BMJ: WHO swine flu advisers had drug company ties
Almost exactly one year ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the swine flu outbreak had reached global pandemic proportions. The announcement, made on June 11, 2009, spurred governments to order huge stocks of vaccines and prompted broad public health initiatives around the globe. And while we can all be grateful that
…
