As world leaders prepared to gather at the United Nations General Assembly, African public health experts called on Thursday for action to speed up delivery of Covid-19 vaccines to their continent, where according to the World Health Organization, only 3.6 percent of people have been fully inoculated against the diseaseContinue Reading
While the spread of new coronavirus cases is steady or slowing in many parts of the world, it is accelerating in the Western Hemisphere, where new case reports rose by 20 percent in the past week, the World Health Organization warned on Wednesday. North America, where new case reports areContinue Reading
GENEVA — The World Health Organization’s top official in Europe called on Wednesday for urgent action by the authorities and civic groups to control fast-rising cases of monkeypox that he said posed a real risk to public health. Europe has emerged as the epicenter of an outbreak of monkeypox, withContinue Reading
Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday pushed back against the idea that the monkeypox virus can spread through the air, saying the virus is usually transmitted through direct physical contact with sores or contaminated materials from a patient. The virus may also be transmitted byContinue Reading
The World Health Organization expects the number of Covid-19 deaths in its Africa region to fall sharply this year, compared with 2021, the agency said on Thursday. The prediction was a hopeful one for the world’s least vaccinated continent, though it reflected a vast undercounting of past coronavirus infections andContinue Reading
President Biden raised the alarm on Sunday about monkeypox, a viral infection fast spreading around the world, and warned that the disease, which can be spread as easily as through handling a contaminated object, is something “that everybody should be concerned about.” Monkeypox, rarely seen outside Africa, has been foundContinue Reading
The rare monkeypox virus, usually confined mostly to Central and West Africa, has spread in unusual ways this year, and among populations that have not been vulnerable in the past. But while the transmissions have created some alarm among officials and infectious disease experts, and while a Covid-weary world isContinue Reading
Governments around the world are no better prepared today to address a new global disease threat than they were just before the coronavirus outbreak began in late 2019, a World Health Organization panel concluded in a report released on Wednesday. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response has soughtContinue Reading
Public health officials in Africa raised concern on Thursday that a dip in surveillance and testing for the coronavirus, as well as the loosening of public health measures, would make it harder to detect and respond to new waves as cases rise in parts of the continent. The surge hasContinue Reading
The summit is a follow-up to one Mr. Biden convened in September; he will use the gathering to ask wealthy nations to step up their financial contributions for vaccines, tests and treatments. Specifically, he will call on developed nations to donate $2 billion to purchase Covid treatments and $1 billionContinue Reading