Latest World Health Organization News
'Appalling': Southern Africa counts toll of Cyclone Freddy
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — The death toll from Tropical Cyclone Freddy, which ravaged Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique over the past two months, now stands at more than 600 people, the World Health Organization said Thursday. Aid agencies are scrambling to meet the soaring...
Report: 43,000 estimated dead in Somalia drought last year
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A new report says an estimated 43,000 people died amid Somalia's longest drought on record last year and half of them likely were children under 5 years old. It is the first official death toll announced in the drought withering large parts of the Horn of...
House votes to declassify info about origins of COVID-19
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted unanimously Friday to declassify U.S. intelligence information about the origins of COVID-19, a sweeping show of bipartisan support near the third anniversary of the start of the deadly pandemic. The 419-0 vote was final congressional approval of...
Pandemic 3 years later: Has the COVID-19 virus won?
On the third anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, the virus is still spreading and the death toll is nearing 7 million worldwide. Yet most people have resumed their normal lives, thanks to a wall of immunity built from infections and vaccines. The virus appears here to stay, along...
WHO fires director in Asia accused of racist misconduct
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization has fired its top official in the Western Pacific after the Associated Press reported last year that dozens of staff members accused him of racist, abusive and unethical behavior that may have compromised the U.N. health agency’s response to the...
Iran leader: Those who poisoned schoolgirls deserve death
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's supreme leader said Monday that if a series of suspected poisonings at girls' schools is proven to be deliberate the culprits should be sentenced to death for committing an “unforgivable crime.” It was the first time Supreme Leader...
'An absurdity': Experts slam WHO excusal of sex misconduct
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Two experts appointed by the World Health Organization to investigate allegations that some of its staffers sexually abused women during an Ebola outbreak in Congo dismissed the U.N. agency’s own efforts to excuse its handling of such misconduct as “an absurdity” on...
Experts say bird flu threat small despite Cambodian fatality
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A top World Health Organization official, reacting to the death of an 11-year-old girl in Cambodia infected by bird flu, said Friday the recent global spread of the virus and human infections are “worrying.” Dr. Sylvie Briand, the WHO’s director...
Bird flu kills 11-year-old girl in Cambodia, officials say
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — An 11-year-old girl in Cambodia has died from bird flu in the country's first known human H5N1 infection since 2014, health officials said. Bird flu, also known as avian influenza, normally spreads in poultry and wasn’t deemed a threat to people until...
33 million kids vaccinated against polio in southern Africa
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — More than 33 million children in several southern African countries have been vaccinated against polio, part of ongoing efforts to eradicate the infectious paralytic disease that has been largely contained in much of the world, the World Health Organization announced on...
