insert_link Health / Medical World No Tobacco Day Highlights Need to Shield Youth from Tobacco Industry World No Tobacco Day is celebrated today under the theme 'Protecting children from tobacco industry interference,' which emphasizes shielding youth from tobacco industry influence. This day, initiated by the World Health Organization in 1987, aims to raise awareness of tobacco's health risks and advocate for anti-smoking policies. todayMay 31, 2024 46
insert_link Africa Why Nigerian companies topped Africa’s fastest growing list in a difficult year By Conrad Onyango, bird story agency In early 2023, when Nigeria began rolling out its newly designed currency notes, the country was hit by a cash crisis. The reason? Nigeria’s apex bank had put a cap on the maximum amount of hard cash that individuals and corporations could withdraw as part of wider efforts to tame money laundering. While this scarcity of hard cash worsened […] todayMay 21, 2024 11
insert_link Environment Charting a New Global Course for Dealing With Illicit Drug Use International Overdose Awareness Day 2022 in Barcelona. The annual UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs session agreed to make a major policy shift on drug use, moving from a criminalization approach toward harm-reduction measures. TELUOBIR/CREATIVE COMMONS This year’s meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna marked a significant shift in policy when it agreed to focus on drug use as a public health issue that required an […] todayMay 21, 2024 34
insert_link Africa Snakebites can destroy skin, muscle, and even bone – exciting progress on drugs to treat them By Steven R. Hall, Lancaster University and Nicholas Casewell, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine The World Health Organization estimates that 1.8 million to 2.7 million people are envenomed by snakes annually, resulting in upwards of 138,000 deaths. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, snakebite annually kills between 20,000 and 32,000 people, though a 2022 paper suggests this is likely a gross underestimate. Africa is home to […] todayMay 21, 2024 13
insert_link Health / Medical 154 million lives saved in 50 years: 5 charts on the global success of vaccines By Meru Sheel, University of Sydney and Alexandra Hogan, UNSW Sydney We know vaccines have been a miracle for public health. Now, new research led by the World Health Organization has found vaccines have saved an estimated 154 million lives in the past 50 years from 14 different diseases. Most of these have been children under five, and around two-thirds children under one year old. In 1974 […] todayMay 14, 2024 30
insert_link Africa Two new malaria vaccines are being rolled out across Africa: how they work and what they promise By Jaishree Raman, National Institute for Communicable Diseases Malaria incidents are on the rise. There were 249 million cases of this parasitic disease in 2022, five million more than in 2021. Africa suffers more than any other region from malaria, with 94% of cases and 95% of deaths worldwide. This year two revolutionary malaria vaccines are being rolled out across the continent. Nadine Dreyer asks Jaishree Raman […] todayApril 23, 2024 43
insert_link Africa Nearly 136 million people in Africa live with hearing difficulties: tackling the crisis with a smartphone and an app By De Wet Swanepoel, University of Pretoria In rural Kenya, 64-year-old John Kamau’s world of silence is about to change. For decades, isolated by hearing loss from the community’s vibrant life and his grandchildren’s conversations, he sees hope when a community health worker visits with a smartphone in hand. This isn’t just any visit; it’s the gateway to Kamau’s reconnection with the world, facilitated by breakthrough digital […] todayApril 18, 2024 19
insert_link Health / Medical New TB skin test could offer cheaper and easier way to detect the disease By Yvette Naudé, University of Pretoria Detecting tuberculosis early could play a significant role in eradicating the world’s most deadly infectious disease. The World Health Organization says 1.5 million people die from this devastating disease each year. People infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the TB bacteria that attack the lungs, often do not know that they have it until their symptoms become severe. Two out of every […] todayMarch 28, 2024 39
insert_link Africa The Toxic Air We Breathe: Greenpeace Maps Africa’s Air Pollution Hotspots Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa have emerged as Africa’s most polluted countries in terms of air pollution disease burden, with profound health consequences for Africa’s people and exacerbated impacts on climate change, a report prepared by Greenpeace Africa and Greenpeace MENA can now reveal. Titled "Major Air Polluters in Africa Unmasked," the report investigates the biggest human sources of air pollution across Africa, focusing on major industrial and economic […] todayMarch 28, 2024 42