The head of the World Health Organisation hit back at critics who have accused it of over-reaction to the swine flu crisis, warning it may return "with a vengeance" in the months ahead.
The manufacturing capacity for the influenza vaccines is inadequate for a world of 6.8 billion people, nearly all of whom are susceptible to infection by the new H1N1 virus, a top official of the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.
The World Health Organisation is urging people around the world to brace themselves for a second wave of the swine flu pandemic as the heavily populated northern hemisphere edges towards the cooler season when flu thrives. WHO Director General Margaret Chan warned on Friday that there had been instances of second and third waves when pandemics had struck earlier."We cannot say for certain whether the worst is over or the worst is yet to come," Chan said.
World Health Organisation head Margaret Chan has warned a forum in Mexico that the swine flu virus worldwide is now unstoppable."As we see today, with well over 100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable," the BBC quoted Dr Chan as saying in her opening remarks. She stressed that the overwhelming majority of patients experienced mild symptoms and made a full recovery within a week.
The risk of Zika virus infections at the Olympic Games is both low and manageable, the chief of the World Health Organisation said on Friday, a week before the event kicks off in Rio de Janeiro. Nearly half a million people are expected to visit for the Games, many from the United States. Worries about security, the Zika virus and an economic crisis could deter travelers, with just under a third of event tickets as yet unsold. Brazil has been hardest hit by the disease outbreak, and many physicians, competitors and potential visitors have expressed fears the Olympics could serve as a catalyst to spread the virus globally.
World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan said on Tuesday Brazil is doing a good job tackling the Zika virus and ensuring that the Olympic games it will host in August will be safe for athletes and visitors. Chan said Brazil's government is doing all it can to mobilize Brazilian society in fighting the "formidable" Aedes mosquito that transmits the virus that has spread rapidly through the Americas since last year. "I want to reassure you that the government is working very closely with the international Olympic movement, with the local organizing committee, supported by the WHO, to make sure we have a very good work plan to target the mosquito, and to make sure that people who will come here either as visitors or athletes will get the maximum protection they need," Chan said. "I am confident the government can do it," she told reporters after meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
The World Health Organisation on Tuesday declared an international emergency over the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which is linked to birth defects in the Americas, saying it is an 'extraordinary event'.
The UN Security Council has declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a threat to peace and security, with UN chief Ban Ki-moon deciding to deploy an "unprecedented" emergency health mission to combat the outbreak that has impacted the lives of millions.
India alone accounts for more than one-fifth of deaths worldwide of children under the age of five, according to a new UN report released today, which said nearly 6.6 million kids died globally, last year, before reaching their fifth birthday.
With more than one million people affected by the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the World Health Organisation has warned that there is "no early end in sight" to the severe health crisis and called for "extraordinary measures" to stop the transmission of the disease.
More than 100 medical experts, academia and scientists on Friday have called for the Rio Olympic Games to be postponed or moved because of fears that the event could speed up the spread of the Zika virus around the world. Their assessment counters the view of some leading experts of infectious disease who say that as long as the necessary precautions are taken there is no reason to cancel the Games. On Thursday, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declared there was no public health reason to cancel or delay this summer's Games. In a public letter posted online, the group of 150 leading public health experts, many of them bioethicists, said the risk of infection from the Zika virus is too high. The letter was sent to Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, and urged that the Games, due to be held in Rio de Janeiro in August, be moved to another location or delayed.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has welcomed measures being taken to tackle the mosquito-borne Zika virus and believes the spread of the virus across South America will not adversely affect the Rio de Janeiro Games in August.
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