WHO
WHO: Monkeypox cases drop 21%, reversing month-long increase
The number of monkeypox cases reported globally dropped by 21% in the last week, reversing a month-long trend of rising infections and a possible signal the outbreak in Europe may be starting to decline, according to a World Health Organization report issued Thursday.
The U.N. health agency reported 5,907 new weekly cases and said two countries, Iran and Indonesia, reported their first cases. To date, more than 45,000 cases have been reported in 98 countries since late April.
Cases in the Americas accounted for 60% of cases in the past month, WHO said, while cases in Europe comprised about 38%. It said infections in the Americas showed “a continuing steep rise.”
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday the continent had 219 new cases reported in the past week, a jump of 54%. Most were in Nigeria and Congo, the agency said.
Also read: Public health emergency declared over monkeypox in WA county
In early July, just weeks before the agency declared the international spread of the disease to be a global emergency, WHO’s Europe director said countries in the region were responsible for 90% of all laboratory confirmed cases of monkeypox.
British health authorities said last week after seeing a decline in the number of new cases getting reported daily that there were “early signs” the country’s monkeypox outbreak was slowing.
The U.K.’s Health Security Agency downgraded the country’s monkeypox outbreak last month, saying there was no evidence the once rare disease was spreading beyond men who were gay, bisexual or had sex with other men.
Since monkeypox outbreaks in Europe and North America were identified in May, WHO and other health agencies have noted that its spread was almost exclusively in men who have sex with men.
Also read: Monkeypox cases cross 35,000: WHO
Monkeypox has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades and experts suspect the outbreaks in Europe and North America were triggered after the disease started spreading via sex at two raves in Spain and Belgium.
WHO’s latest report said 98% of cases are in men and of those who reported sexual orientation, 96% are in men who have sex with men.
“Of all reported types of transmission, a sexual encounter was reported most commonly,” WHO said. “The majority of cases were likely exposed in a party with sexual contacts,” the agency said.
Among the monkeypox cases in which the HIV status of patients was known, 45% were infected with HIV.
WHO has recommended that men at high risk of the disease temporarily consider reducing their number of sex partners or refrain from group or anonymous sex.
Monkeypox typically requires skin-to-skin or skin-to-mouth contact with an infected patient’s lesions to spread. People can also become infected through contact with the clothing or bedsheets of someone who has monkeypox lesions.
With globally limited vaccine supplies, authorities in the U.S., Europe and the U.K. have all begun rationing doses to stretch supplies by up to five times.
WHO has advised countries that have vaccines to prioritize immunization for those at high risk of the disease, including gay and bisexual men with multiple sex partners, and for health workers, laboratory staff and outbreak responders.
While Africa has reported the most suspected deaths from monkeypox, the continent has no vaccine supplies apart from a very small stock being tested in a research study in Congo.
“As we know, the situation with monkeypox vaccine access is very topical, but there are not enough doses of vaccines," Nigeria Center for Disease Control Director-General Ifedayo Adetifa said this week. Potentially, a lot more more doses will become available, but because of challenges with manufacturing factories and unexpected uptick in monkeypox cases, the vaccine may actually not be available until 2023.”
WHO: World coronavirus cases fall 24%; deaths rise in Asia
New coronavirus cases reported globally dropped nearly a quarter in the last week while deaths fell 6% but were still higher in parts of Asia, according to a report Thursday on the pandemic by the World Health Organization.
The U.N. health agency said there were 5.4 million new COVID-19 cases reported last week, a decline of 24% from the previous week. Infections fell everywhere in the world, including by nearly 40% in Africa and Europe and by a third in the Middle East. COVID deaths rose in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia by 31% and 12% respectively, but fell or remained stable everywhere else.
At a press briefing Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said reported coronavirus deaths over the past month have surged 35%, and noted there had been 15,000 deaths in the past week.
“15,000 deaths a week is completely unacceptable, when we have all the tools to prevent infections and save lives,” Tedros said. He said the number of virus sequences shared every week has plummeted 90%, making it extremely difficult for scientists to monitor how COVID-19 might be mutating.
Read: Covid-19 vaccine consignment for kids arrive in Dhaka
“But none of us is helpless,” Tedros said. “Please get vaccinated if you are not, and if you need a booster, get one.”
On Thursday, WHO’s vaccine advisory group recommended for the first time that people most vulnerable to COVID-19, including older people, those with underlying health conditions and health workers, get a second booster shot. Numerous other health agencies and countries made the same recommendation months ago.
The expert group also said it had evaluated data from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for younger people and said children and teenagers were in the lowest priority group for vaccination, since they are far less likely to get severe disease.
Joachim Hombach, who sits on WHO’s vaccine expert group, said it was also uncertain whether the experts would endorse widespread boosters for the general population or new combination vaccines that target the omicron variant.
“We need to see what the data will tell us and we need to see actually (what) will be the advantage of these vaccines that comprise an (omicron) strain,” he said.
Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, the expert group’s chair, said that unless vaccines were proven to stop transmission, their widespread use would be “a waste of the vaccine and a waste of time.”
Earlier this week, British authorities authorized an updated version of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that targets omicron and the U.K. government announced it would be offered to people over 50 beginning next month.
Over 14,000 children die in Bangladesh due to drowning every year
Marking the World Drowning Prevention Day, WHO and UNICEF on Monday called on the governments, development partners, communities and individuals each to do their part to raise awareness and work to prevent the untimely deaths of thousands of children across the country.
Each year, over 14,000 children in Bangladesh die due to drowning.
Although largely unrecognized, drowning is the second leading cause of death for children under the age of five in the country, making it a major public health problem.
“It is heart-breaking that so many lives are lost each year in this country. We know that these deaths are preventable. We urge individuals, communities and the government to join us in raising awareness and doing all we can to ensure every child’s right to survive and thrive,” said Sheldon Yett, UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh.
Globally, drowning claims the lives of over 230,000 people every year.
Nine in ten drowning cases occur in low- and middle-income countries, with children under the age of five being at the highest risk.
Read: Drowning kills 2.5 million people in last decade: WHO
In Bangladesh, where large areas of land remain submerged due to yearly floods, the absence of awareness and swimming skills can prove to be life-threatening.
Children in rural areas who grow up near bodies of water are also exposed to the risk of drowning daily.
Drowning is a significant public health concern and the third leading cause of unintentional death worldwide. Drowning is one of the leading causes of death among children in Bangladesh.
WHO recommends strategies and interventions to prevent drowning and continues to promote a multisectoral approach. By enhancing multisectoral collaboration, promoting strong leadership on drowning prevention, and implementing necessary actions, we can prevent the tragedy of drowning and achieve a safer, healthier future for all,” said Dr. Bardan Jung Rana, WHO Representative to Bangladesh.
Evidence shows that drowning is preventable through low-cost solutions. Increased awareness among families and communities, providing safety and swimming skills for children and adolescents, ensuring childcare facilities for pre-school children, and national policies and investments for prevention can make a significant difference.
In 2021, the United Nations General Assembly declared July 25 as World Drowning Prevention Day to acknowledge drowning as a leading cause of death around the world and highlight that every drowning death is preventable.
WHO and UNICEF have been working with Government and non-government partners around the country to increase awareness on drowning prevention and provide children and adolescents with safe swimming skills.
WHO updates Covid strategy to vaccinate all health workers, vulnerable groups
Although the Covid vaccination rollout is the "biggest and fastest in history," many people most at risk are still not protected against the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday, announcing an updated inoculation strategy.
The plan prioritises vaccinating 100 percent of healthcare workers and vulnerable groups, including older people and those with underlying conditions, in line with efforts to vaccinate 70 percent of the global population.
More than 12 billion Covid vaccine doses have been administered worldwide to date, resulting in countries reaching 60 percent of their populations on average.
Yet only 28 percent of older people and 37 percent of healthcare workers in low-income countries have received their primary course of vaccines, and most have not had booster doses.
"Even where 70 percent vaccination coverage is achieved, if significant numbers of health workers, older people and other at-risk groups remain unvaccinated, deaths will continue, health systems will remain under pressure and the global recovery will be at risk," UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Read: Animal-to-human diseases rise in Africa: WHO
"Vaccinating all those most at risk is the single best way to save lives, protect health systems and keep societies and economies open."
The updated strategy focuses on the need to measure progress in vaccinating these priority groups and developing targeted approaches to reach them, which also includes gaining greater access to more displaced people through humanitarian response.
Accelerating the development of improved vaccines, and ensuring equitable access to substantially reduce virus transmission, is a top priority.
While current vaccines were designed to prevent serious illness and death, and have saved millions of lives, they have not substantially reduced transmission, the WHO said.
With Covid still circulating widely, and new and dangerous variants emerging, the UN agency stressed that it is fundamental to continue investing in research and development towards more effective and easier ways to administer vaccines, such as via nasal spray products
Animal-to-human diseases rise in Africa: WHO
Diseases transmitted from animals to people in Africa jumped 63 percent in the last decade, compared with the previous 10 years, according to a recent World Health Organization (WHO) analysis.
More than 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases are caused by pathogens shared with wild or domestic animals, WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said Thursday.
"They account for a substantial burden of disease, resulting in about a billion sick people, and millions of deaths globally every year."
Also read: COVID-19 pandemic fuels largest continued backslide in vaccinations in 3 decades :WHO, UNICEF
The analysis finds that since 2001, 1,843 substantiated public health events were recorded in Africa – 30 percent of which were zoonotic outbreaks, as animal-to-human diseases are known.
While the numbers increased over the past two decades, 2019 and 2020 saw a particular spike, with zoonotic pathogens accounting for half of all public health events.
Also, Ebola and similar fevers triggering blood loss from damaged vessels (haemorrhagic) constitute nearly 70 percent of these outbreaks, including monkeypox, dengue fever, anthrax and plague.
Although there has been an increase in monkeypox since April, compared to the same period in 2021, the numbers are still lower than the 2020 peak, when the region recorded its highest monthly cases.
Following a sudden drop in 2021, 203 confirmed cases of monkeypox have been recorded in the region since the beginning of the year, as the zoonotic disease has spread worldwide into many countries where it has not been endemic.
Available data for 175 of the cases this year in Africa, indicate that just over half the patients when averaged out, were 17-year-old men.
Africa cannot be allowed to become a hotspot for emerging infectious diseases, Dr Matshidiso said.
Rising urbanisation, which has encroached on natural habitats, is likely responsible for this increase in the animal-to-human disease spike, along with a growing demand for food, which has led to the faster road, rail and air links from remote to built-up areas.
Also read: WHO: COVID-19 cases rise for the 5th week, deaths stable
The West African Ebola outbreaks are evidence of the devastating number of cases, and deaths, that can result when zoonotic diseases arrive in our cities, Matshidiso noted.
Turning to Covid-19, she said while cases on the continent decreased marginally last week, the overall plateau continues, due to rapidly increasing numbers in North Africa, for the eighth consecutive week.
"The surge is being driven primarily by the escalating situation in Morocco and Tunisia, which spurred a 17 percent increase in new cases in North Africa, compared to last week's statistics," Matshidiso said.
At the same time, improved rapid detection and response capacities have enabled Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, to reverse a recent surge in new cases – a turn that is expected to follow across North African countries with the same medical capabilities.
The curve has already begun trending downwards in Morocco, Matshidiso added.
Although the current pandemic phase may be characterised by relatively low incidence and risk for hospitalisation and death, the Omicron variant remains highly transmissible, and the pandemic is far from over.
The potential for surges highlights that "countries cannot afford to ease up" on vaccinating their populations against Covid-19, especially their health care workers, the elderly and those with comorbidities," the WHO official said.
WHO: COVID-19 cases rise for the 5th week, deaths stable
The number of new coronavirus cases reported worldwide rose for the fifth week in a row while the number of deaths remained relatively stable, the World Health Organization reported Thursday.
In the U.N. health agency’s weekly review of the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO said there were 5.7 million new infections confirmed last week, marking a 6% increase. There were 9.800 deaths, roughly similar to the previous week’s figure.
Earlier this week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the pandemic still qualifies as a global emergency and he was “concerned” about the recent spike.
“The virus is running freely, and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden,” he said during a Tuesday press briefing. “New waves of the virus demonstrate again that COVID-19 is nowhere near over.”
Read: US regulators OK new COVID-19 shot option from Novavax
In the last two weeks, cases of COVID-19 reported to WHO surged 30%, driven largely by the hugely infectious omicron relatives, BA.4 and BA.5. The two omicron subvariants have shown a worrisome ability to re-infect people previously vaccinated or who have recovered from COVID.
According to WHO, the biggest increases in COVID-19 cases were seen in the Western Pacific and the Middle East, where they jumped by more than a quarter. Deaths spiked by 78% in the Middle East and by 23% in Southeast Asia, while dropping elsewhere or remaining stable.
WHO said that relaxed COVID-19 surveillance and testing programs in numerous countries have complicated efforts to track the virus and to catch any potentially dangerous new variants.
In the U.S., the new omicron variants have pushed up hospitalizations and deaths in recent weeks, prompting some cities and states to rethink their approaches. White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha, during a Wednesday TV appearance, called for booster shots and renewed vigilance against the virus.
The White House response team has also urged all adults 50 and older to urgently get a booster if they haven’t yet this year — and dissuaded people from waiting for the next generation of shots expected in the fall.
Monkeypox cases triple in Europe, WHO says, Africa concerned
The World Health Organization’s Europe chief warned Friday that monkeypox cases in the region have tripled in the last two weeks and urged countries to do more to ensure the previously rare disease does not become entrenched on the continent.
And African health authorities said they are treating the expanding monkeypox outbreak as an emergency, calling on rich countries to share limited supplies of vaccines to avoid equity problems seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHO Europe chief Dr. Hans Kluge said in a statement that increased efforts were needed despite the U.N. health agency’s decision last week that the escalating outbreak did not yet warrant being declared a global health emergency.
“Urgent and coordinated action is imperative if we are to turn a corner in the race to reverse the ongoing spread of this disease,” Kluge said.
To date, more than 5,000 monkeypox cases have been reported from 51 countries worldwide that don’t normally report the disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kluge said the number of infections in Europe represents about 90% of the global total, with 31 countries in the WHO’s European region having identified cases.
Kluge said data reported to the WHO show that 99% of cases have been in men — the majority in men that have sex with men. But he said there were now “small numbers” of cases among household contacts, including children. Most people reported symptoms including a rash, fever, fatigue, muscle pain, vomiting and chills.
Scientists warn anyone who is in close physical contact with someone who has monkeypox or their clothing or bedsheets is at risk of infection. Vulnerable populations like children and pregnant women are thought more likely to suffer severe disease.
About 10% of patients were hospitalized for treatment or to be isolated, and one person was admitted to an intensive care unit. No deaths have been reported.
Kluge said the problem of stigmatization in some countries might make some people wary of seeking health care and said the WHO was working with partners including organizers of gay pride events.
In the U.K., which has the biggest monkeypox outbreak beyond Africa, officials have noted the disease is spreading in “defined sexual networks of gay, bisexual, or men who have sex with men.” British health authorities said there were no signs suggesting sustained transmission beyond those populations.
A leading WHO adviser said in May that the spike in cases in Europe was likely tied to sexual activity by men at two rave parties in Spain and Belgium.
Ahead of gay pride events in the U.K. this weekend, London’s top public health doctor asked people with symptoms of monkeypox, like swollen glands or blisters, to stay home.
Nevertheless in Africa the WHO says that according to detailed data from Ghana monkeypox cases were almost evenly split between men and women, and no spread has been detected among men who have sex with men.
WHO Europe director Kluge also said the procurement of vaccines “must apply the principles of equity.”
The main vaccine being used against monkeypox was originally developed for smallpox and the European Medicines Agency said this week it was beginning to evaluate whether it should be authorized for monkeypox. The WHO has said supplies of the vaccine, made by Bavarian Nordic, are extremely limited.
Countries including the U.K. and Germany have already begun vaccinating people at high risk of monkeypox; the U.K. recently widened its immunization program to mostly gay and bisexual men who have multiple sexual partners and are thought to be most vulnerable.
Read: No monkeypox case detected yet in Bangladesh: Health Ministry
Until May, monkeypox had never been known to cause large outbreaks beyond parts of central and west Africa, where it’s been sickening people for decades, is endemic in several countries and mostly causes limited outbreaks when it jumps to people from infected wild animals.
To date, there have been about 1,800 suspected monkeypox cases in Africa, including more than 70 deaths, but only 109 have been lab-confirmed. The lack of laboratory diagnosis and weak surveillance means many cases are going undetected.
“This particular outbreak for us means an emergency,” said Ahmed Ogwell, the acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control.
The WHO says monkeypox has spread to African countries where it hasn’t previously been seen, including South Africa, Ghana and Morocco. But more than 90% of the continent’s infections are in Congo and Nigeria, according to WHO Africa director, Dr. Moeti Matshidiso.
Vaccines have never been used to stop monkeypox outbreaks in Africa; officials have relied mostly on contact tracing and isolation.
The WHO noted that similar to the scramble last year for COVID-19 vaccines, countries with supplies of vaccines for monkeypox are not yet sharing them with Africa.
“We do not have any donations that have been offered to (poorer) countries,” said Fiona Braka, who heads the WHO emergency response team in Africa. “We know that those countries that have some stocks, they are mainly reserving them for their own populations.”
Matshidiso said the WHO was in talks with manufacturers and countries with stockpiles to see if they might be shared.
“We would like to see the global spotlight on monkeypox act as a catalyst to beat this disease once and for all in Africa,” she said Thursday.
WHO: COVID-19 cases rising nearly everywhere in the world
The number of new coronavirus cases rose by 18% in the last week, with more than 4.1 million cases reported globally, according to the World Health Organization.
The U.N. health agency said in its latest weekly report on the pandemic that the worldwide number of deaths remained relatively similar to the week before, at about 8,500. COVID-related deaths increased in three regions: the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas.
The biggest weekly rise in new COVID-19 cases was seen in the Middle East, where they increased by 47%, according to the report released late Wednesday. Infections rose by about 32% in Europe and Southeast Asia, and by about 14% in the Americas, WHO said.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said cases were on the rise in 110 countries, mostly driven by the omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.
“This pandemic is changing, but it’s not over,” Tedros said this week during a press briefing. He said the ability to track COVID-19′s genetic evolution was “under threat” as countries relaxed surveillance and genetic sequencing efforts, warning that would make it more difficult to catch emerging and potentially dangerous new variants.
He called for countries to immunize their most vulnerable populations, including health workers and people over 60, saying that hundreds of millions remain unvaccinated and at risk of severe disease and death.
Also Read: Bangladesh reports 4 more Covid deaths with 2,183 cases
Tedros said that while more than 1.2 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally, the average immunization rate in poor countries is about 13%.
“If rich countries are vaccinating children from as young as 6 months old and planning to do further rounds of vaccination, it is incomprehensible to suggest that lower-income countries should not vaccinate and boost their most at risk (people),” he said.
According to figures compiled by Oxfam and the People’s Vaccine Alliance, fewer than half of the 2.1 billion vaccines promised to poorer countries by the Group of Seven large economies have been delivered.
Earlier this month, the United States authorized COVID-19 vaccines for infants and preschoolers, rolling out a national immunization plan targeting 18 million of the youngest children. American regulators also recommended that some adults get updated boosters in the fall that match the latest coronavirus variants.
Monkeypox not global public health emergency right now: WHO
Monkeypox is not yet a global health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) said recently, though intense response efforts are needed to control the further spread of the rare viral disease.
The announcement came Saturday – two days after WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus convened an emergency committee on the disease, under the International Health Regulations (IHR), to address the rising caseload.
"The WHO Director-General concurs with the advice offered by the IHR Emergency Committee regarding the multi-country monkeypox outbreak, and, at present, does not determine that the event constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)," the UN agency said.
The PHEIC declaration is the highest level of global alert, which currently applies only to the Covid-19 pandemic and polio.
Monkeypox occurs primarily in tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa, though it is occasionally exported to other regions.
Since May, more than 3,000 cases have emerged in 47 countries, many of which never previously reported the disease.
The highest numbers are currently in Europe, and most cases are among men who have sex with men.
There have been few hospitalisations to date and one death.
"The Committee unanimously acknowledged the emergency nature of the outbreak and that controlling further spread requires intense response efforts," the WHO said.
Members also recommended that the situation should be closely monitored and reviewed after a few weeks.
"What makes the current outbreak especially concerning is rapid, continuing spread into new countries and regions and the risk of further, sustained transmission into vulnerable populations including people that are immunocompromised, pregnant women and children," Tedros said.
He underscored the need for both collective attention and coordinated action through public health measures including surveillance, contact tracing, isolation and care of patients, and ensuring vaccines, treatments and other tools are available to at-risk populations and shared fairly.
Also read: Monkeypox: Global situation cannot be ignored amid uncertainty, says WHO chief
1 billion people have mental disorders: WHO
Nearly one billion people, including around one in seven teenagers, worldwide suffer from some form of mental disorder, according to the UN.
To make matters worse, in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, rates of common conditions such as depression and anxiety went up by more than 25 percent, the UN health agency said Friday.
In its largest review of mental health since the turn of the century, the World Health Organization urged more countries to get to grips with worsening conditions.
It offered examples of good practices that should be implemented as quickly as possible, in recognition of the important role that mental health plays in positive and sustainable development, at all levels.
Even before Covid hit, only a small fraction of people in need of help had access to effective, affordable and quality mental health treatment, the WHO said, citing the latest available global data from 2019.
More than 70 percent of those suffering from psychosis worldwide do not get the help they need, the UN agency said.
Read: Mental Health: Types of Mental Illness and supporting someone with a mental health problem
The gap between rich and poor nations highlights unequal access to healthcare, as seven in 10 people with psychosis receive treatment in high-income countries, compared to only 12 percent in low-income countries.
The situation is more dramatic for cases of depression, the WHO said, pointing to gaps in assistance across all countries – including high-income ones – where only one-third of people who suffer from depression receive formal mental health care.
And although high-income countries offer "minimally adequate" treatment for depression in 23 percent of cases, this drops to just three percent in low and lower-middle-income countries.