GENEVA — World Health Organization Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gave a grim assessment of the many health challenges and threats people around the world have faced this year. Topping the list was the COVID-19 pandemic that has sickened and killed millions of people for a third year. He noted a global outbreak of monkeypox, now known as mpox, an Ebola

Shortly after FAO’s Director-General QU Dongyu took office in August 2019, the world was shaken by an unprecedented shock – the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking stock at the recent Joint Meeting of the 134th Session of the Programme Committee and the 194th Session of the Finance Committee, QU spoke about the progress the Organization had made in improving its efficiency and

MOGADISHU— The Government of Germany and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have together increased humanitarian assistance through cash transfers to mitigate the impact of drought on the food security and livelihoods of affected rural communities in Mogadishu, Somalia. Hunger is increasing and intensifying in Mogadishu with about 6.7 million people, including over 300,000 of those

A new, long-lasting drug could be a game-changer for preventing HIV infections, experts say. Advocates are hopeful that those who need it most in low- and middle-income countries will not have to wait for it as long as they have for previous HIV drugs. But questions remain about access and price. The drug is called cabotegravir and is delivered as

The UN chief is marking World AIDS Day on Thursday with a call to action to end the inequalities which are blocking progress towards stopping the pandemic, and eradicating the virus. “The world has promised to end AIDS by 2030”, said Secretary-General António Guterres in his official message, but “we are off track.” “Today, we risk millions more new infections

GENEVA— Following a series of consultations with global experts, WHO will begin using a new preferred term “mpox” as a synonym for monkeypox. Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while “monkeypox” is phased out. When the outbreak of monkeypox expanded earlier this year, racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings and in some communities was observed

Monkeypox will now be known as mpox, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, in the wake of reports of racist and stigmatizing language surrounding the name of the disease. The decision follows a series of consultations with global experts. Both terms will be used simultaneously for a year before the monkeypox name is phased out. “This serves to

UNITED NATIONS— The United Nations (UN) on Saturday strongly condemned an attack on an airfield in southeastern Central African Republic (CAR) which left a Moroccan peacekeeper dead. The attack against UN peacekeepers at the Obo airfield on Thursday happened during a UN-led operation to secure the perimeter of the airfield to allow planes to land. In his statement released via

It was 26 November 2021 that WHO declared that the world was facing a new variant of concern: Omicron. It would go on to change the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging evidence was quickly shared by scientists from Botswana, Hong Kong and South Africa and discussed in a special meeting of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group for Virus Evolution (TAG-VE).

ADDIS ABABA – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has delivered over 2,400 metric tons of food, medical, nutrition and other lifesaving supplies to Ethiopia’s Tigray region following the signing of a peace agreement earlier this month and the reopening of all four road corridors. However, deliveries of assistance within Tigray are not matching the needs and WFP and