DTE Coverage: World Health Assembly 2024

What were the main highlights from the event held from May 27-June 1, 2024?

World Health Assembly passes historic resolution on climate change & health, urging countries to take action

The resolution marks the WHO’s commitment to encourage support for implementing policies and strategies to mitigate the effects of climate …

World Health Assembly: Countries approve draft to improve organ transplantation availability, including cells, tissues

Despite the progress made over the past two decades, access to transplantation is not equitable among member countries, resolution notes

World Health Assembly approves resolution that calls for mental health support to be included in emergency responses

Authors of the draft expressed concern at the continued discrimination and stigma suffered by victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters

Agreement on sharing pathogen access unlikely at World Health Assembly, may delay pandemic treaty

Even after two years of negotiations, countries have not reached a consensus on the finer details of the pandemic agreement

COVID-19 pandemic erased decade of gains in life expectancy, NCDs deaths on the rise: World Health Statistics Report

New Pandemic Agreement important not only to strengthen global health security, but to protect long-term investments in health and promote equity …

Food labels misleading, India’s new dietary guidelines warn

Advisory cautions against 'sugar-free' foods, protein powder; urges consumers to read detailed information on packaging

Activists call out FSSAI for increasing permissible level of pesticides in Indian herbs, spices

Data for changing the permissible limit should have been provided, they say

Nestle adds almost 3 grams of sugar in every serving of baby food Cerelac sold in India

WHO guidelines against adding honey or sugar in food for infants violated only in Asian, African and Latin American countries, finds …

Whooping cough cases outbreak reported around the world

China, Australia, Spain among countries with high number of patients with the respiratory infection

India had over 11% of global hepatitis burden in 2022, with 35.3 million cases

WHO’s Global Hepatitis Report shows deaths due to hepatitis increased since 2019 

Global life expectancy increased by 6.2 years in the past three decades: Lancet study

COVID-19, however, was a dampener in many countries  

WHO launches ‘CoViNet’ — a global laboratory to monitor emerging coronaviruses

Builds on COVID-19 reference laboratory network established during early days of pandemic to confirm disease

Occupational heat exposure doubles risk of miscarriages or stillbirths

Most heat-exposed workers had urogenital symptoms, which might be associated with pregnancy-related complications

Unhealthy levels of arsenic in water could exacerbate health concerns when used to boil rice

Rice, staple of over half of humanity, already has more arsenic than other grains; washing or boiling it with arsenic-contaminated water poses …

Measles accounted for most excess deaths as a result of COVID-19 related vaccine disruptions

Excess deaths due to vaccine breaks amounted to 967,000 deaths, catch-up shots could avert 79% of them, finds Lancet study

स्वास्थ्य क्षेत्र में गहरी है लैंगिक असमानता की जड़ें, महिलाओं को पुरुषों की तुलना में मिल रहा 24 फीसदी कम वेतन

वैश्विक स्वास्थ्य देखभाल के क्षेत्र में महिलाओं की हिस�…

Lancet study finds 7 out of 10 dialysis patients in India survive beyond six months, rural mortality 32% higher

New study establishes national benchmark for dialysis success rate for the first time

Fair sex, unfair pay: Women in healthcare paid 24% less than men, highlights WHO report

Gender pay gap despite women comprising 67% of global health & social care workforce, specialties still dominated by men

Almost 5 million children died before their fifth birthday in 2022, finds UN report

A neonatal death happened every 14 seconds, one under five death every 6 seconds

Major droughts make women 35 per cent more likely to be underweight: New study

Teenage pregnancy & intimate partner violence also grew after drought episodes

Bharat Biotech’s vaccine, Covaxin not as effective as Serum Institutes of India’s Covishield

Study led by National Centre for Biological Sciences intended to shape future vaccine strategies by offering insights into the immunity acquired …

44 million women, 26 million men in India were obese in 2022: The Lancet

Obesity rates in country increased to 9.8% in 2022 from 1.2% in 1990 for women and to 5.4% for men from 0.5% 32 years ago

Cancer treatment can cause metastasis; a new nutraceutical drug can contain it: Research

R-Cu made from grape extract, resveratrol, and copper, deactivates chromatin particles, reduces toxicity of chemotherapy drugs

Unhealthy numbers

India saw the world’s third highest number of new cancer cases and the second highest mortality rate attributed to the disease in 2022. The …