The World Health Organisation declared the last mpox global emergency over in May 2023. And just over a year later, here we are again. Since the start of 2024, a deadlier, more transmissible strain of the virus has killed over 600 people. New cases have recently appeared in Europe and Asia. In August, the WHO declared a new mpox global health emergency. The WHO Mpox report dated September 3, 2024, provides global data up to July 31, 2024. A total of 102,997 laboratory-confirmed cases and 186 probable cases, including 223 deaths, have been reported to the WHO.

Also Read | How This Mpox Outbreak Is Different, According To Experts

Now the Mpox, a highly contagiously deadly disease that causes rashes and flu-like symptoms, has been detected in an Iowa prison. It is not known how many confirmed cases there are at Fort Dodge Correctional Facility, but prison staff told the local press that they were controlling the situation.

“We’re actively managing the situation with robust health measures,” Iowa Department of Corrections Chief of Staff Paul Cornelius said in a statement to the Des Moines Register, initially reported by KCCI-TV.

How does monkeypox spread?

Mpox is not airborne like influenza or COVID-19, said Atul Goel. It is primarily transmitted by unprotected close physical contact with an infected person. Apart from sexual transmission, it can also spread through contact with infected material, such as the patient’s blisters and scabs; therefore, maintaining hygiene is crucial. Finally, carers must use personal protective measures to avoid contracting and transmitting the infection.

There is no link between mobile phone use and increased brain cancer risk, according to a new World Health Organization-commissioned review of the available published evidence worldwide.

Despite the huge rise in the use of wireless technology, there has not been a corresponding rise in the incidence of brain cancers, the review, published on Tuesday, found. That applies even to people who make long phone calls or those who have used mobile phones for more than a decade.

The final analysis included 63 studies from 1994-2022, assessed by 11 investigators from 10 countries, including the Australian government’s radiation protection authority.

The work assessed the effects of radiofrequency, used in mobile phones as well as TV, baby monitors and radar, co-author Mark Elwood, professor of cancer epidemiology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, said.

“None of the major questions studied showed increased risks,” he said. The review looked at cancers of the brain in adults and children, as well as cancer of the pituitary gland, salivary glands and leukemias, and risks linked to mobile phone use, base stations, or transmitters, as well as occupational exposure. Other cancer types will be reported separately.

The review follows other similar work. The WHO and other international health bodies have said previously there is no definitive evidence of adverse health effects from the radiation used by mobile phones, but called for more research. It is currently classified as “possibly carcinogenic”, or class 2B, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a category used when the agency cannot rule out a potential link.

The agency’s advisory group has called for the classification to be re-evaluated as soon as possible given the new data since its last assessment in 2011.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Unlike high-income countries, where road safety measures often focus on car occupants, low and middle-income countries need to prioritise the safety of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and riders of two and three-wheelers who are disproportionately at higher risk.
| Photo Credit: ANI

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on countries in the southeast Asia region to accelerate measures to reduce road traffic deaths, a leading cause of mortality among people aged between 15 and 29.

“Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, two- and three-wheelers constitute 66% of all reported road traffic deaths in our region,” said Saima Wazed, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia, in her address at the 15th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion (Safety 2024), which began here on Monday.

The region accounted for 3,30,223 of the 1.19 million estimated global road traffic deaths in 2021, accounting for 28% of the global burden.

A release issued by the group added that with 70% of the global population projected to live in urban areas by 2030, demand for public transport will surge. It said that the region, amid rapid urbanisation, faces shared challenges including a high prevalence of motorised two- and three-wheelers, inadequate traffic injury data, poor pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure, and limited emergency services.

For road safety, it has recommended a holistic, multi-sectoral approach, requiring collaboration with local governments, urban planners, traffic policing, law enforcement among others.

Launching the ‘WHO South-East Asia Regional Status Report on Road Safety: Towards Safer and Sustainable Mobility’ at the World Conference, Ms. Wazed said, “This report outlines road traffic injury patterns in our countries and highlights best practices and country-specific interventions. It is both timely and essential for assessing our current position, and for guiding necessary actions to achieve global targets.”

A health official said a polio vaccination campaign began in Gaza on Saturday (August 31, 2024), while an aid worker said a large-scale rollout would begin on Sunday (September 1, 2024), coinciding with a “humanitarian pause” agreed by Israel and Hamas.

The vaccination drive was announced after Gaza recorded its first polio case in a quarter of a century earlier this month.

Local health officials along with the UN and NGOs “are starting today the polio vaccination campaign”, Moussa Abed, director of primary health care at the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, told AFP on Saturday (August 31, 2024).

An unspecified number of children received the first dose of the vaccination, which involves two doses and is administered orally, at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Among them was Amal Shaheen’s three-year-old daughter, who was already in the hospital being treated for pneumonia .“We have been in the hospital for 17 days… I spend all my days worrying about her,” Mr. Shaheen said.

“Today she was vaccinated against polio to protect her, like all the children in the hospital have been vaccinated.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday (August 29, 2024) that Israel had agreed to a series of three-day “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza to facilitate vaccinations, though officials had earlier said the campaign was expected to start on Sunday (September 1, 2024).

‘Not a ceasefire’

An international aid worker told AFP that Palestinian authorities had organised a launch event on Saturday (August 31, 2024) and that the vaccination campaign was still expected to begin in full on Sunday (September 1, 2024).

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body which oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, said on Saturday (August 31, 2024) that vaccines would be given daily from 6:00 a.m. (0300 GMT) until 2:00 p.m. for three days in central Gaza, three days in southern Gaza and three days in northern Gaza. 

“At the end of each regional vaccination campaign, a situational assessment will be conducted for the area,” it said. 

The Palestinian health ministry distributed a slightly different schedule, with the vaccine programme lasting four days in each location. 

The ministry identified 67 vaccination centres — mostly hospitals, smaller health centres and schools — in central Gaza, 59 in southern Gaza and 33 in northern Gaza. 

Poliovirus is highly infectious and most often spread through sewage and contaminated water — an increasingly common problem in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war drags on.

The media office of the Hamas-run government in Gaza said on Saturday (August 31, 2024) that the vaccination campaign required an “immediate ceasefire”. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said measures to facilitate polio vaccination in Gaza are “not a ceasefire”.

The campaign aims to cover more than 640,000 children under 10 years old.

Michael Ryan, WHO deputy director-general, told the UN Security Council this week that 1.26 million doses of the oral vaccine had been delivered in Gaza, with another 400,000 still to arrive

The Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry said earlier this month that tests in Jordan had confirmed polio in an unvaccinated 10-month-old baby from central Gaza.

Poliovirus is highly infectious and most often spread through sewage and contaminated water — an increasingly common problem in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war drags on.

The disease mainly affects children under the age of five. It can cause deformities and paralysis and is potentially fatal

‘100% safe’

Bakr Deeb said on Saturday (August 31, 2024) that he brought his three children — all under 10 — to a vaccination point on Saturday (August 31, 2024) despite some initial doubts about its safety.

“I was hesitant at first and very afraid of the safety of this vaccination,” he said.

“After the assurances of its safety, and with all the families going to the vaccination points, I decided to go with my children as well, to protect them.”

Mr. Abed, the health official, stressed on Saturday (August 31, 2024) that the vaccine was “100% safe”. 

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 which resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 40,691 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. The UN rights office says most of the dead are women and children.

Incessant Israeli bombardment has also caused a major humanitarian crisis and devastated the health system.

A man in Spain died after contracting a lethal ‘bleeding eyes’ disease called Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), a deadly viral disease with a fatality rate of up to 40%. According to Metro, the 74-year-old died on Saturday after being hospitalised near Madrid.

The man, whose identity has not been revealed, was admitted to Rey Juan Carlos University Hospital in Mostoles, Spain, after being bitten by a tick in Toledo, approximately 100 miles southwest of Madrid. After he was diagnosed with the rare Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) virus, he was transferred to a high-dependency isolation unit at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid to prevent transmission. Initially, his condition was deemed stable, but he subsequently deteriorated after developing all symptoms associated with CCHF.

Tragically, he died from the virus on Saturday, marking the first CCHF-related death in Spain since May 2020. Health authorities are likely to be on high alert to prevent further cases and contain the spread of this dangerous virus.

About Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

CCHF, described as ‘Ebola-like’ due to its similar hemorrhagic symptoms, is a disease caused by a tickborne virus. It has been categorised as a “priority disease” on a list by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and currently has no vaccine available. It is also one of nine pathogens deemed most likely to trigger a pandemic. CCHF is endemic in all of Africa, the Balkans, the Middle East and in Asia. 

CCHF is transmitted through tick bites or contact with bodily fluids of infected animals or humans. Ticks can also transmit various other diseases, including Lyme disease, and the Powassan virus. The initial symptoms of CCHF include fever, muscle aches, abdominal pain, sore throat, and vomiting. It can also cause mood swings, confusion, and sleepiness, and trigger bleeds, usually from the nose or broken capillaries on the eyes and skin.

As per WHO, general supportive care with treatment of symptoms is the main approach to managing CCHF in people. The antiviral drug ribavirin has been used to treat the infection with apparent benefit. To prevent tick-borne diseases, people are advised to wear protective clothing, use insect repellents, and check for ticks after spending time outdoors. 

Geneva:

Covid-19 is still killing around 1,700 people a week around the world, the World Health Organization said Thursday, as it urged at-risk populations to keep up with their vaccinations against the disease.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sounded a warning on declining vaccine coverage.

Despite the continued death count, “data show that vaccine coverage has declined among health workers and people over 60, which are two of the most at-risk groups,” the UN health agency’s chief told a press conference.

“WHO recommends that people in the highest-risk groups receive a Covid-19 vaccine within 12 months of their last dose.”

More than seven million Covid deaths have been reported to the WHO, though the true count of the pandemic is thought to be far higher.

Covid-19 also shredded economies and crippled health systems.

Tedros declared an end to Covid-19 as an international public health emergency in May 2023, more than three years on from when the virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019.

The WHO has urged governments to maintain virus surveillance and sequencing, and to ensure access to affordable and reliable tests, treatments and vaccines.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Nearly 33,000 deaths in 10 cities in India every year can be attributed to air pollution levels that are below India’s national clean air threshold. The report has been published in Lancet Planetary Health.

India’s clean air norms are presently well above the World Health Organisation guideline of 15 micrograms in every cubic meter of air. The report makes the point that India must drastically reduce its clean air norms to at least match WHO guidelines to protect citizens from the dangers of polluted air.

The authors used data on PM2.5 exposure in the 10 cities and the daily counts of mortality between 2008 and 2019.

Even levels of air pollution below current Indian air quality standards lead to increased daily mortality rates in the country, the study found.

“Across 10 cities in the country – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla, and Varanasi, around 33,000 deaths per year can be attributed to air pollution levels that are above the WHO guidelines.

“A significant number of deaths were observed even in cities not considered to have high air pollution, such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chennai,” it said, adding, “India’s national air quality standards should be made more stringent, and efforts to control air pollution redoubled.”

Between 2008 and 2019, 7.2% of all deaths (approximately 33,000 each year) across all 10 of these cities could be linked to short-term PM2.5 exposure that was higher than the WHO guideline value of 15 micrograms in every cubic meter of air, the study found.

“Every 10 micrograms in every cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with a 1.42% increase in daily deaths. This estimate nearly doubled to 3.57% when we used a causal modelling approach that isolates the impact of local sources of air pollution,” the release said.

Delhi recorded the highest number of air pollution-related deaths in the study period – a staggering 11.5% i.e. 12,000 deaths each year. “The deaths were attributable to short-term PM.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value,” the study showed.

“Every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM.s exposure was associated with a 0.31% increase in daily deaths.”

Varanasi logged the second highest number of deaths during the period – 10.2% or around 830 deaths a year, attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value. Every 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air increase in short-term PM.s exposure was associated with a 1.17% increase in daily deaths, the study showed.

Around 2,100 died in Bengaluru, 2,900 in Chennai, 4,700 in Kolkata, and around 5,100 each year in Mumbai each year due to the rising air pollution during the study period. The deaths were all attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value.

The lowest air pollution levels were recorded in Shimla. However, air pollution was still a risk in the hill city with 3.7% of all deaths – 59 per year – attributable to short-term PM2.5 exposure higher than the WHO guideline value. “The results from Shimla add credence to global evidence that there is no safe level of air pollution exposure,” the study highlighted.

It is the first multi-city study that assessed the relationship between short-term air pollution exposure and deaths in India, with the cities included spanning a wide range of air pollution concentrations and situated in different agro-climatological zones, a press release said.

The study was conducted by researchers from Sustainable Futures Collaborative, Ashoka University, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, Harvard and Boston Universities, and other places.

There was a steep increase in the risk of deaths at lower concentrations of PM2.5 and tapering off at higher concentrations, with significant effects observed below the current National Ambient Air Quality Standard of 60 micrograms per cubic meter of air for a 24-hour exposure, it said.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) logo is seen near its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, February 2, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Health officials from the 194 member states of the World Health Organization (WHO) hope next week to complete more than two years of negotiations on new rules for responding to pandemics when they gather in Geneva.

Negotiations go to the wire on Friday for two complementary deals set to be formalised at the May 27-June 1 meeting: an update to existing health rules on outbreaks and a new legally-binding treaty to shore up the world’s defences against future pathogens after the COVID-19 pandemic killed millions of people.

Some observers say this World Health Assembly, set to be attended by some 100 ministers, is the single most important moment for the WHO since its 1948 creation and will define the legacy of Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, mid-way through his second term.

What is the so-called pandemic treaty?

The WHO already has binding rules known as the International Health Regulations (2005) which set out countries’ obligations where public health events have the potential to cross national borders. These include advising the WHO immediately of a health emergency and measures on trade and travel.

Adopted after the 2002/3 SARS outbreak, these regulations are still seen as functional for regional epidemics such as Ebola but inadequate for a global pandemic.

Much of the impetus for a treaty comes from a desire to address the COVID-era shortcomings of the current system, chiefly avoiding a repeat of the “vaccine apartheid” denounced repeatedly by Tedros, and ensuring faster, more transparent information sharing and cooperation.

One of the most important and fiercely debated sections of the treaty, Article 12, envisages reserving around 20% of tests, treatments and vaccines for the WHO to distribute to poorer countries during emergencies although the exact portion is still contested, negotiators say.

It would be only the second such health accord after the 2003 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, a treaty which aims to reduce smoking via taxation and rules on labelling and advertising.

How will global health rules change?

Updates to the IHR rules include a new alerts system for communicating different risk assessments for future outbreaks, following criticism that cumbersome existing rules slowed the global response to the COVID-19 emergency.

Currently, the WHO has only one level of emergency – a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) – whereas the new system envisages an intermediary stage called an “early action alert”.

Negotiators are also considering a “pandemic emergency” for the most serious public health threats, addressing a gap in its current system which does not use the term pandemic at all.

Other revisions include attempts to bolster states’ obligations, in one case strengthening language on their duties to inform the WHO on public health events from “may” to “should”.

How do countries view the pact?

Negotiations have been characterised by major rifts between wealthy and poorer countries’ positions that have confounded mediators’ attempts to bridge them.

The treaty talks missed a key deadline of May 10 and all but collapsed, prompting Tedros to convene an emergency meeting last week to boost morale, sources involved in the talks said.

Besides the sharing of drugs and vaccines, one of the most contested aspects is financing, including whether to set up a dedicated fund or draw on existing resources, such as the World Bank’s $1 billion pandemic fund.

Negotiations have sometimes dragged on late into the night, getting stuck on technicalities.

Another factor constraining negotiators has been political pressure over the treaty, particularly by right-wing groups and politicians who say it threatens sovereignty, which the WHO strongly denies.

What happens next?

The new IHR rules and the pandemic accord are designed to complement each other and views vary over whether one could exist without the other. Sources say the IHR talks are more advanced and more likely to pass.

However, two Western diplomats expressed fears that those seeking big concessions on the pandemic treaty will hold the IHR talks “hostage”.

Unlike the treaty, which would require ratification to take effect, possibly taking years, the IHR changes take effect automatically after 12 months unless countries opt out.

Assuming the talks do not collapse, further negotiations will almost certainly be required to define exactly what benefits would be triggered by the new rules, negotiators say. 

Saima Wazed and Dr. Shambhu Acharya seen together at a meet in New Delhi.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wazed, was on Wednesday nominated as the next Regional Director for the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia region.

She defeated Shambu Acharya, a public health veteran from Nepal, in a vote held here during the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region. 

Bangladesh, Bhutan, DPR (North) Korea, India, Indonesia, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste — 10 of the 11 member countries — took part in the vote. Myanmar did not send a delegation to the meeting. 

The nomination will be submitted to the WHO Executive Board during its 154th session, which is scheduled to take place on January 22-27 in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO regional office said in an official communication.

The newly appointed Regional Director will take over from the present incumbent, Poonam Khetrapal Singh, on February 1.

Ms. Wazed, in a statement, said the WHO South-East Asia Region was home to over two billion people — more than a quarter of the people of the planet — and that the region represented a diversity with often differences existing within the boundaries of single member states themselves. She said that her priority areas of work would include universal health coverage (UHC), emergency response and pandemic preparedness, collaboration and partnerships (regional and multi-sectoral), and mental health.

“We will work to promote community-based mental healthcare services in member countries, encourage prevention and promotion in mental health while expanding efforts to include mental health in the public health agenda,” Ms. Wazed said.

Reacting to the result, Swarup Sarkar, former Director of WHO SEARO, said the election demonstrated the collective resolve of member states to move forward with the vision set out by Ms. Wazed.

“As a former WHO staff, I would look forward to a stronger, responsive, and responsible WHO working at the global, regional and country levels, on the principle of one WHO and more participation of civil society at all stages of WHO work,” he said.

Geneva, Switzerland:

The World Health Organization said Saturday that forcing thousands of hospital patients to evacuate to already overflowing hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip could be “tantamount to a death sentence”.

Israel has warned Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground offensive against Hamas, one week after the deadliest attack in Israel’s history.

“WHO strongly condemns Israel’s repeated orders for the evacuation of 22 hospitals treating more than 2,000 inpatients in northern Gaza,” the UN health agency said in a statement.

“The forced evacuation of patients and health workers will further worsen the current humanitarian and public health catastrophe.”

Moving 2,000 patients to southern Gaza, “where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number patients, could be tantamount to a death sentence,” the WHO said.

The organisation said the lives of many critically ill and fragile patients now “hang in the balance”. It referred to people in intensive care or relying on life support, newborns in incubators, patients undergoing haemodialysis and women with pregnancy complications.

They and others “all face imminent deterioration of their condition or death if they are forced to move and are cut off from life-saving medical attention while being evacuated”, the WHO said.

Israel pummelled northern Gaza with fresh air strikes on Saturday before an expected ground offensive against Hamas commanders.

A week of Israeli salvos was sparked by the Islamist fighters’ dawn raid, which saw them break through the heavily fortified border and gun down, stab and burn to death more than 1,300 people.

In Gaza, health officials said more than 2,200 people had been killed. As on the Israeli side, most of them were civilians.

The WHO said health workers in northern Gaza were now facing an “agonising choice” between abandoning critically ill patients, putting their own lives at risk by remaining on site, or endangering their patients’ lives while trying to transport them to southern hospitals “that have no capacity to receive them.

“Overwhelmingly, care givers have chosen to stay behind and honour their oaths as health professionals to ‘do no harm’,” the WHO said.

“Health workers should never have to make such impossible choices.”

 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)