World Health Organization (WHO)

A woman in Gujarat, India, is educated on the benefits of handwashing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
© UNICEF/Vinay Panjwani

COVID-19 pandemic ‘not even close to being over’, WHO chief warns

29 June 2020
Health

Nearly six months after the new coronavirus first emerged, the COVID-19 pandemic is “not even close to being over”, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Monday.

A women wearing a face mask.
Unsplash/Michael Amadeus

UN health agency to gauge global threat, as China confirms coronavirus transmission between humans

21 January 2020
Health

Following an announcement by China’s national health body that a new virus first identified there, can be transmitted from person to person, the World Health Organization (WHO) is to hold a meeting on Wednesday to decide if it should be declared a global health emergency.

A health worker administers a vaccination against cholera on a young boy in Yemen.
© UNICEF/Saleh Bahless

‘No shortcuts to a healthier world’: WHO chief sets out health priorities for the decade

13 January 2020
Health

The head of the UN health agency, WHO, has set out his urgent global health challenges for the next ten years – designated the “Decade of Action” by the UN General Assembly” – and underscored the importance of investing in public health, in a statement released on Monday.

The MERS coronavirus, digitally imaged.
US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

UN health agency urges China to continue search for source of new virus, as Thailand case emerges

13 January 2020
Health

It is “essential” for China to continue investigating the source of a previously unknown strain of coronavirus, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Monday, following confirmation that an infected patient is being treated in Thailand.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit Albania, centered 30 km west of Tirana. The most affected areas are the coastal city of Durres and the town of Thumane.
IFRC/Albanian Red Cross

WHO working to save lives following powerful earthquake in Albania

27 November 2019
Health

Staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) are assisting authorities in Albania following an earthquake which killed at least 25 people and left more than 650 injured.

A young woman plays a video game on her phone.
UN News/Elizabeth Scaffidi

For video game addiction, now read official ‘gaming disorder’: World Health Organization

18 June 2018
Health

The UN health agency has for the first time, tagged compulsive video gaming as a mental health condition in its updated classification manual, released on Monday.

Secretary-General António Guterres (left) and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim (right), in Washington, D.C., at the signing a Strategic Partnership Framework (SPF), on joint commitment to cooperate in helping countries implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
World Bank/Grant Ellis

New health board aims to break ‘cycle of panic and neglect’ on pandemics

24 May 2018
Economic Development

A group of international experts has been tasked with helping the planet to better prepare for outbreaks, pandemics and other emergencies that have an impact on health.