Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The German Government will double its funding to UNAIDS in 2017-2018, to 5 million per year, Gerd Müller, the German Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, assured on Tuesday at the 40th Meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, being held in Geneva, Switzerland. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - A three-day meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, the 40th in the series, began on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, according to the UNAIDS media channel. Full text...

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) - More than 5.6 million children are at increased risk of contracting waterborne diseases, such as cholera and diarrhoeal infections, as the rainy season begins in conflict-affected areas of countries around Lake Chad, UNICEF warned on Friday. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) – For the first time, Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) is convening a meeting of global leaders and thinkers to explore Africa’s healthcare priorities and challenges and find new ways to achieve better health for all. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) has underscored national actions to limit the use of artificial tanning devices (sunbeds) in a bid to reduce the associated health risks, such as melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) – Recognising the universal appeal of yoga, the United Nations has marked the 2017 edition of the International Day of Yoga, which aims to integrate the benefits of healthy lives and wellbeing – essential aspects of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) Nigeria's Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, has called on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) to channel their efforts towards the reduction in the burden of communicable diseases such as Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in the region. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Around 1 in 6 older people experiences some form of abuse, a figure higher than previously estimated and predicted to rise as populations age worldwide, the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Wednesday. Full text...

Gaborone, Botswana (PANA) - Botswana’s first privately-owned drug rehabilitation centre is set to open at the end of June. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – Citing decades of neglect in mental health care, a United Nations human rights expert has denounced “biomedical gatekeepers” who perpetuate stigma and urged States and psychiatrists to act with courage to reform a “crisis-hit system built on outdated attitudes”. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - New advice on which antibiotics to use for common infections and which to preserve for the most serious circumstances is among the additions to the "World Health Organisation (WHO) Model list of essential medicines for 2017." Full text...

Port Louis, Mauritius (PANA) – Tobacco causes a thousand deaths annually in Mauritius though the prevalence of smoking in the Indian Ocean island nation has dropped from 21% in 2009 to 19%, Mauritian Health Minister Anwar Husnoo said on Monday. Full text...

Freetown, Sierra Leone (PANA) - The West African state of Sierra Leone has kicked off bed net distributions to help protect its population against malaria, which remains one of the country’s most deadly diseases. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenyan medical institutions have been urged to advertise their services to stop Kenyans from seeking health services abroad, in most cases because they do not know that such services are available locally. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenyan medical institutions have been urged to advertise their services to save the money spent by those seeking medical services abroad, yet the specialised treatments are available locally. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - To contain the latest outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has provided technical support to 145 volunteers of the Congolese Red Cross and community health workers to deliver lifesaving information to local populations in remote areas along the Central African Republic border. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Action to stamp out tobacco use can help countries prevent millions of people falling ill and dying from tobacco-related disease, combat poverty and, according to a first-ever World Health Organisation (WHO) report, reduce large-scale environmental degradation. Full text...

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) - The United State of America has announced a grant of US$526 million to Tanzania as assistance for combating HIV/AIDS for the period of 2017/2018, according to a statement issued in Dar es Salaam on Saturday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - At its 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, delegates on Thursday paid tribute to ongoing efforts to end polio transmission in the last three endemic countries - Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – The newly-elected head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, outlined his priorities for journalists at the agency’s headquarters on Wednesday in Geneva, where he stressed the need for Member States to provide healthcare for all and to implement international health regulations. Full text...

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) - The Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC), Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat has congratulated Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia on his election as the first ever Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) from the African region. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Director for Africa has announced four new flagship programmess for the region over the next two years, including a major push on adolescent health and the creation of regional emergency hubs. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) – Obstetric fistula has largely been eliminated in developed countries, but more than two million women and girls still live with the condition, the head of the United Nations women's health agency said on Tuesday, calling for investment and support to eliminate the debilitating and stigmatizing condition. Full text...

Geneva, Ethiopia (PANA) - Members States of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday elected Ethiopian Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the new Director-General of the UN health agency. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – The world is at a watershed moment that could lead to greater dignity for everyone throughout their lives, but only if Governments invest in the integral relationship between human rights and health specifically for women, children and adolescents, a UN-backed group of politicians and health and human rights experts has said. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - In her valedictory speech, the outgoing chief of the United Nations health agency on Monday highlighted the relevance of the World Health Organization (WHO), and offered its decision-making body parting advice that included protecting scientific evidence, pushing for innovation and thinking of people in every decision that is taken. Full text...

Brazzaville, Congo (PANA) - Increasing tobacco taxes to reduce demand for tobacco could generate revenue for African governments to finance universal health coverage, health promotion as well as other development programmes, according to the World Health Organization's regional director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti. Full text...

Baidoa, Somalia (PANA) – The nutritional feeding centre for malnourished children supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Baidoa, Somalia, has more than twice as many young patients this year as one year ago, underscoring the large food needs in the country. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – A race against the clock has begun to contain an outbreak of Ebola in a remote northern area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) – An increasing amount of deaths have recorded causes, but more than half still have incomplete or incorrect information, the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Some of the world’s largest funders of medical research and international non-governmental organizations on Thursday agreed on new standards that will require all clinical trials they fund or support to be registered and the results disclosed publicly. Full text...

Abuja, Nigeria (PANA) – A 10-man emergency team, comprising frontline medical workers, has been set up by Nigeria's Ministry of Health and is on standby for deployment to any part of the country in case an outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease is reported. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - Kenya's Health Ministry issued an Ebola Alert on Tuesday following an outbreak of the disease in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), saying the risk of importation remained high due to the use of Kenya as an air transit hub to DRC. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - More than 3,000 adolescents die every day, totalling 1.2 million deaths a year, from largely preventable causes, according to a new report from UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and partners. Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) – The United Nations health agency is deploying technical experts to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) amid an outbreak of Ebola virus near its northern border with the Central Africa Republic, the agency’s regional director for Africa confirmed. Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) The UN World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, on Saturday visited Kinshasa, DR Congo, to discuss with national authorities and partners ways to mount a rapid, effective and coherent response in order to stop the ongoing Ebola outbreak that has claimed 3 lives so far. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The latest outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) reported in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is in a remote and hard to reach area and appears to be geographically relatively limited, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday. Full text...

Kinshasa, DR Congo (PANA) - An outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD was reported Friday when Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Public Health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the occurrence in Likati health district of the northern Aketi, Bas-Uélé province, more than 1,300 km from the capital, Kinshasa. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The UN health agency says it is concerned about the chronic shortage of funding for life-saving work in Somalia in response to the ongoing drought that has plunged the country further towards famine, disease, and health insecurity. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) – In an effort to escalate the global fight against mosquito-borne diseases, the United Nations environment agency together with partners has launched a new collaborative platform that seeks to track and control the vector responsible for close to 2.7 million deaths annually. Full text...

Juba, South Sudan (PANA) – United Nations humanitarian workers are responding to a growing cholera outbreak in Ayod, the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan, one of multiple counties throughout the country where the disease has spread since June 2016. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - A dengue fever outbreak has been reported in the Kenyan city of Mombasa, and the capital, Nairobi, has been put on high alert, the local media reported on Wednesday, quoting local health authorities. Full text...

Nairobi, Kenya (PANA) - The U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, has suspended approximately US$ 21 million in assistance to Kenya's Health ministry, the Embassy said in a statement Tuesday. Full text...

New York, US (PANA) – The United Nations population agency on Friday urged governments and development partners to expand midwifery programmes and promote an environment where midwives can effectively serve the needs of women and their families. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - Somalia is suffering from the largest cholera outbreak in the past five years and the number of people killed is expected to double by the end of June, the United Nations health agency. Full text...

Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, and the Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan are in Conakry, Guinea, to participate in the high-level meeting on Ebola Vaccines for Guinea and the World. Full text...

Cairo, Egypt (PANA) – World Hand Hygiene Day will be marked on Friday, highlighting the importance of hand hygiene in health care. Full text...

Baidoa, Somalia PANA) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Federal Ministry of Health of Somalia have launched the first round of a preventative oral cholera vaccination campaign (OCV) in Baidoa at the Baidoa Regional Hospital, targeting 224 000 persons aged 1 year and older. Full text...

Geneva, Switzerland (PANA) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) will this year launch a pilot project for prequalifying biosimilar medicines, a step towards making some of the most expensive treatments for cancer more widely available in low- and middle-income countries. Full text...

Mogadishu, Somalia (PANA) - Some 1.4 million children in Somalia are projected to be acutely malnourished this year, an increase of 50 per cent over last year, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced on Tuesday. Full text...