World Health Organization

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With 41 Sick, US Moves 'As If' Flu Is 'Full Pandemic'

(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...

US Swine Flu Cases Hit 40; Mexican Death Toll 149

(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...

CDC Prepares Swine Flu Vaccine

(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 reaches...

WHO Chief Sees 'Pandemic Potential'

(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 still...

HIV Soars in People Over 50
 HIV Soars in People Over 50 
Mar 4, 2009 4:06 PM CST

HIV Soars in People Over 50

(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...

Sunlight Offers Ray of Hope in Preventing MS

Vitamin D deficiency triggers disease

(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...

Zimbabwe Cholera Outbreak Now Infects 60K

(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,...

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

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

(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...

Cholera Caused By 'Genocidal' Brits: Mugabe

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

(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 “...

Cancer Will Be World's No. 1 Killer in 2010

(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...

Watershed Vaccine May End Malaria Toll

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

(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...

Tobacco Crackdown Aims to Douse Smuggling Efforts

Making supply chain more transparent among goals of international talks

(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...

E-Cigs Not Safe: WHO
 E-Cigs Not Safe: WHO 
Sep 20, 2008 7:14 AM CDT

E-Cigs Not Safe: WHO

Devices sold as smoking treatment

(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...

Brits Warn of Devastating Pandemic

World ill-prepared for massive outbreak

(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...

Cheap Malaria Drug Holds Promise for Millions

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

(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,...

Chronic Disease Top Cause of Death Worldwide

Lifestyle-related ailments overtake illness as No. 1 killer

(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,...

Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting
 Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting 
May 6, 2008 3:55 PM CDT

Pandemic Risk Real, Mounting

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

(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...

Deadly China Virus Not Seen as Olympic Threat

But cases are expected to rise with warm weather

(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...

Flu Closes Hong Kong Schools
 Flu Closes Hong Kong Schools 
Mar 13, 2008 8:51 AM CDT

Flu Closes Hong Kong Schools

'Precautionary measure' sends half a million kids home for two weeks

(Newser) - Over half a million children in Hong Kong are starting their Easter holiday early today after a flu outbreak led the government to order schools to close, AP reports. All kindergartens and primary schools in the densely populated territory will be shut down for two full weeks. Three children have...

Super-TB Cases Hit Record High
Super-TB Cases Hit Record High
Feb 27, 2008 1:43 PM CST

Super-TB Cases Hit Record High

WHO calls for urgent action

(Newser) - Drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are at the highest levels disease experts have ever seen, warns the World Health Organization. A survey of 81 countries found that levels of multi-drug resistant TB and even hardier, almost untreatable TB were much higher than expected, reports the BBC. Urgent action is needed to...

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