Health

The second round of a World Health Organization “pulse survey“ reveals that over one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, substantial disruptions persist, with about 90% of countries still reporting one or more disruptions to essential health services, marking no substantial global change since the first survey conducted in the summer of 2020.Within countries, however, the magnitude and extent of disruptions has generally decreased. In 2020, countries reported that, on average, about half of essential health services were disrupted. In the first 3 months of 2021, however, they reported progress, with just...

In 2019, the top 10 causes of death accounted for 55% of the 55.4 million deaths worldwide.The top global causes of death, in order of total number of lives lost, are associated with three broad topics: cardiovascular (ischaemic heart disease, stroke), respiratory (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower respiratory infections) and neonatal conditions – which include birth asphyxia and birth trauma, neonatal sepsis and infections, and preterm birth complications.Causes of death can be grouped into three categories: communicable (infectious and parasitic diseases and maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions), noncommunicable (chronic) and injuries. At...

Since the beginning of the outbreak, health care providers have been shown more support, solidarity and gratitude than they ever have. Yet, attacks on health care have continuously been reported and now also include incidents linked to the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. This unprecedented public health emergency has demonstrated that health facilities, medical transport, patients as well as health care workers and their families can – and do – become targets everywhere. This alarming trend reinforces the need for improved measures to protect health care from acts of violence....

 31 Dec 2019Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei Province. A novel coronavirus was eventually identified.1 January 2020WHO had set up the IMST (Incident Management Support Team) across the three levels of the organization: headquarters, regional headquarters and country level, putting the organization on an emergency footing for dealing with the outbreak.4  January 2020WHO reported on social media that there was a cluster of pneumonia cases – with no deaths – in Wuhan, Hubei province. 5 January 2020WHO published our first Disease Outbreak News on...