World Health Organization

On 15 January 2021, a shipment of 1.1 million COVID-19 vaccines to Rwanda included the billionth dose supplied via COVAX. Together with our partners, COVAX is leading the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation in history, with deliveries to 144 countries to date. But the work that has gone into this milestone is only a […]

December 17, 2021 – What do we know about Omicron variant so far? WHO’s Dr Maria Van Kerkhove updates on the transmissibility, severity, symptoms and ways to protect yourself in Science in 5. Vismita Gupta-Smith We’re doing an update on Omicron in Science in 5 today. Hello, I’m Vismita Gupta-Smith and we are talking to […]

DUBAI/GENEVA/WASHINGTON DC — 12 December 2021 — New evidence compiled by the World Health Organization and the World Bank shows that the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to halt two decades of global progress towards Universal Health Coverage. The organizations also reveal that more than half a billion people are being pushed into extreme poverty because […]

On 26 November 2021,WHO designated the variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern, named Omicron, on the advice of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution (TAG-VE).  This decision was based on the evidence presented to the TAG-VE that Omicron has several mutations that may have an impact on how it behaves, for example, on how […]

November 26, 2021 – The Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) is an independent group of experts that periodically monitors and evaluates the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and assesses if specific mutations and combinations of mutations alter the behaviour of the virus. The TAG-VE was convened on 26 November 2021 to assess the SARS-CoV-2 variant: B.1.1.529.  The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to WHO from South Africa on 24 November 2021. The […]

ATLANTA/GENEVA, 10 November 2021 — While reported measles cases have fallen compared to previous years, progress toward measles elimination continues to decline and the risk of outbreaks is mounting, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  During 2020, more than 22 million infants […]

November 9, 2021 – Over 5,000,000 have died from COVID-19. Each of these people – parents, children, aunts, uncles, friends – has a story. We do need to reflect on this milestone and work as hard as possible to make sure that this number does not keep increasing – Dr Maria Van Kerkhove – COVID-19 […]

KABUL/AMMAN/KATHMANDU, 18 October 2021 – WHO and UNICEF welcome the decision by the Taliban leadership supporting the resumption of house-to-house polio vaccination across Afghanistan. The vaccination campaign, which begins on November 8, will be the first in over three years to reach all children in Afghanistan, including more than 3.3 million children in some parts […]

GENEVA, 13th October 2021 — Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus honoured the late Henrietta Lacks with a WHO Director-General’s award, recognizing the world-changing legacy of this Black American woman who died of cervical cancer, 70 years ago, on 4 October, 1951.   While she sought treatment, researchers took biopsies from Mrs Lacks’ body without her knowledge […]

The World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending widespread use of the world’s first malaria vaccine, in what the UN health agency’s chief described on Wednesday as “an historic day” for the decades-long battle against the deadly disease.  The vaccine is geared towards children, in sub-Saharan Africa and other regions with moderate to high transmission.   The recommendation to begin using the RTS,S vaccine, is based an ongoing […]

Rome, July 12, 2021 – There was a dramatic worsening of world hunger in 2020, the United Nations said today – much of it likely related to the fallout of COVID-19. While the pandemic’s impact has yet to be fully mapped[1], a multi-agency report estimates that around a tenth of the global population – up to 811 […]

Brazzaville, 27 May 2021 – Africa needs at least 20 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the next six weeks to get second doses to all who received a first dose within the 8—12-week interval between doses recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).  A single dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine gives around 70% protection […]

The UN health agency has added its weight to calls for regular humanitarian access to Gaza, where two dozen medical facilities have now come under attack through Israeli air strikes, along with healthcare personnel. In a World Health Organization (WHO) press conference on Thursday, senior officials highlighted the “almost total destruction” of the central COVID-19 testing lab […]

GENEVA/PARIS/ROME 20 May 2021 – International organizations have come together to launch a new One Health High-Level Expert Panel to improve understanding of how diseases with the potential to trigger pandemics, emerge and spread. The panel will advise four international organizations – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the World Organisation for Animal […]

April 13, 2021 – World Health Organization (WHO), World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have issued interim guidance on reducing public health risks associated with the sale of live wild mammals in traditional food markets around the world. Among other measures, the guidance calls on countries to suspend the […]

GENEVA/NEW YORK, March 9, 2021 – Violence against women remains devastatingly pervasive and starts alarmingly young, shows new data from WHO and partners. Across their lifetime, 1 in 3 women, around 736 million, are subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner – a number that has […]

March 2, 2021 – The anti-inflammatory drug hydroxychloroquine should not be used to prevent infection in people who do not have covid-19, say a WHO Guideline Development Group (GDG) panel of international experts in The BMJ today. Their strong recommendation is based on high certainty evidence from six randomised controlled trials involving over 6,000 participants with and […]

Geneva/Oslo January 22, 2021 – COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, today announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, which has already received WHO emergency use listing. Rollout […]