News for Africa Doc

12 November 2008 -- WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan has called on all governments and political leaders to maintain their efforts to strengthen and improve the performance of their health systems and to protect the health of their peoples.

6 November 2008 -- WHO welcomes the consensus decision of the United Nations General Assembly to ban smoking and tobacco sales at UN headquarters in New York.

4 November 2008 -- Increasing quantities of medical supplies are being provided by foreign governments to save lives in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, but WHO is calling for more support to meet urgent health needs.

31 October 2008 -- WHO and Italy are sending 10 tonnes of medical supplies to help the tens of thousands of people affected by the ongoing insecurity in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Intensive efforts are needed to prevent the spread of communicable diseases among the fleeing population and to treat the physical trauma caused by the violence.

29 October 2008 -- The World Health Organization (WHO) is responding to eastern Yemen's devastating floods by sending medicines and other urgent supplies to treat over 50 000 patients for a range of conditions, including illnesses linked to contaminated water and insect-borne diseases such as malaria.

27 October 2008 -- WHO today published a new assessment of the global burden of disease, a study that provides with a comprehensive picture of the global and regional state of health.

14 October 2008 -- There are striking inequities within and between countries in health outcomes, in access to care, and in what people have to pay for care, says the World Health Report 2008 launched today. To steer health systems towards better performance and greater equity, the report calls for a revival of the primary health care approach launched 30 years ago.

9 October 2008 -- More than 75% of people suffering from mental disorders in the developing world receive no treatment or care. A new WHO programme launched today, on World Mental Health Day 2008 highlights the huge treatment gap for a number of mental, neurological and substance use disorders.

8 October 2008 – A meeting of experts convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Madrid agreed today to a research agenda to develop an evidence-based framework for action on the human health implications of climate change.

2 October 2008 -- WHO invites all parties with an interest in reducing the harmful use of alcohol to share their views in a web-based public hearing being organized between 3 and 31 October.

26 September 2008 – WHO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization are urging affected countries to ensure safe feeding of millions of infants following the ongoing melamine-contaminated milk crisis in China.

25 September 2008 -- Today, as world leaders gather for the High-Level Event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we jointly pledge to intensify our support to countries to achieve Millennium Development Goal 5: “To improve maternal health” – the MDG showing the least progress.

19 September 2008 -- Contrary to what some marketers of the electronic cigarette imply in their advertisements, the World Health Organization does not consider it to be a legitimate therapy for smokers trying to quit.

18 September 2008 -– The global burden of malaria remains enormous, but access to malaria control interventions increased sharply between 2004 and 2006, says a new report released today.

12 September 2008 -- WHO and its partners urgently need US$ 4.2 million to provide health care for the 800 000 people - including children and pregnant women - affected by successive tropical storms in Haiti.

9 September 2008 -- Some 423 000 people in Pakistan need urgent health care after being affected by recent conflict and flooding. WHO and partners are requesting US$ 9.76 million to undertake life-saving health responses to this humanitarian crisis.

4 September 2008 -- Health ministers from the African meningitis belt today committed themselves to introduce a highly promising candidate meningitis vaccine. The vaccine is designed to prevent periodic epidemics of the deadly disease in these countries.

29 August 2008 -- Health and environment ministers in Africa have resolved to build a strategic alliance to reduce environmental threats to human health and well-being.

28 August 2008 -- A girl in Lesotho is likely to live 42 years less than another in Japan. In Sweden, the risk of a woman dying during pregnancy and childbirth is 1 in 17 400; in Afghanistan the odds are 1 in 8. These "social determinants of health" have been the focus of a three-year investigation by an eminent group of policy makers, academics, former heads of state and former ministers of health which has presented its findings to the WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan.

27 August 2008 -- For public health, the complexity of cancer control has increased enormously following the shift of the disease burden from wealthy to less affluent countries. Cancer causes around 7.9 million deaths worldwide each year.