Climate change threatening monuments and sites: UNESCO 

Climate change is among the greatest threats to the world’s monuments and sites, with one in three natural sites and one in six cultural heritage sites at risk from wildfires, floods, storms, and other impacts.

That’s the message from the UN educational and cultural agency, UNESCO, on Monday, the International Day for Monuments and Sites.

Foreshadowing some of the potential degradation and losses, the agency warned that some 60 per cent of World Heritage forest sites are facing pressures from climate change.

UNESCO is working with countries and communities to help them prepare for and recover from climate-related impacts and disasters, underlining the critical need for stronger collaboration and enhanced monitoring. 

Ethiopia: WHO supports second round of polio campaign using new vaccine 

Over 100 staff and consultants from the World Health Organization (WHO) were deployed in Ethiopia as part of the second round of a vaccination campaign to protect millions of young children from polio amid an outbreak of the disease.

The three-day campaign kicked off on Friday and marked the second phase of inoculations with the new type 2 novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2), following an initial round last October.

WHO has described the vaccine as “a critical new tool” in the fight against circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus. 
The Africa region was certified wild polio-free two years ago, but vaccine derived poliovirus continues to circulate in under-served communities.

The campaign targeted more than 16 million children under five in all regions of Ethiopia except the capital, Addis Ababa, and the Afar and Tigray regions in the north. 

It will be carried out in these locations at different later dates. 

New WHO traditional medicine centre in India 

In more news from WHO: 

The agency’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, will be in India this week for the groundbreaking ceremony for the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine.

The Centre aims to harness the power of science to strengthen the evidence base for traditional medicine, which includes ancient practices such as acupuncture, ayurvedic medicine and herbal mixtures, used by millions across the globe. 
While in southeast Asia, Tedros will also travel to Nepal, which has launched the first typhoid immunization campaign in the region for children aged 15 months to 15 years. 
His visit falls ahead of World Immunization Week, observed annually during the last week of April, and he will stop at one of the typhoid vaccination sites. 
Tedros is also expected to visit the COVID genome sequencing facility established last year in Nepal with WHO support, in addition to meeting with Government leaders. 
Dianne Penn, UN News.