All posts tagged: World Health Organization

Nigel Farage warns World Health Organization pandemic treaty will mean ‘sovereignty loss’ | Politics | News

Nigel Farage warns World Health Organization pandemic treaty will mean ‘sovereignty loss’ | Politics | News

Published by skeptic

Nigel Farage has warned that Britain faces a huge looming “loss of national sovereignty” that virtually no one is talking about. The former UK Independence Party and Brexit Party leader used his GB News show to alert viewers to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) upcoming pandemic treaty. Countries are expected to sign up to it at a conference at the end of May to prepare for “Disease X” – the name for a future pandemic that could be even more deadly than coronavirus. The WHO said it was a matter of when, not if, Disease X breaks and that the treaty was needed to ensure the world would be prepared for the next pandemic. “The pandemic agreement can bring all the experience, all the challenges that we have faced and all the solutions into one,” WHO boss Tedros Ghebreyesu said earlier this year. “That agreement can help us to prepare for the future in a better way.” But Mr Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK, warned that the treaty would give the WHO “the …

Why has bird flu in the US spread to cows and what’s the risk for humans? | Health News

Why has bird flu in the US spread to cows and what’s the risk for humans? | Health News

Published by Sam

The bird flu virus, which was first reported in US poultry farms in 14 states in early 2022, has spread to cows and two humans in the first-ever cases of bird flu in humans in the United States. The same subtype of bird flu is also spreading in other countries, in what experts are calling a “global pandemic for animals”. US public health officials have been monitoring dairy cow herds, as well as beef and milk products around the country since the first outbreak in cows was reported in March. So far, the US is the only country to have reported bird flu in cattle, but there are fears that it could pose a serious threat to humans, too. In April, a Texas farm worker contracted the virus in what is believed to be the first-ever transmission of the virus from a mammal – in this case, cattle – to a human. Thankfully, he suffered only mild conjunctivitis – an infection in the eye – and has since made a full recovery. The US’s first-ever …

WHO Says Bird Flu Risk Currently Low, Asks Countries to Remain Vigilant

WHO Says Bird Flu Risk Currently Low, Asks Countries to Remain Vigilant

Published by skeptic

(Reuters) -The current overall public health risk posed by the H5N1 bird flu virus is low, the World Health Organization said on Friday, but urged countries to stay alert for cases of animal-to-human transmission. The UN-agency said countries should implement infection control measures and procedures to reduce human exposure to birds and mammals potentially infected with bird flu or other animal influenza viruses. The WHO said it strongly advises that people consume only pasteurized milk, in which bacteria and viruses have been killed, and avoid consuming raw milk. “The virus has been detected in milk and its potential role in transmission is being investigated,” the agency added. One in five commercial milk samples tested in a nationwide survey contained particles of the H5N1 virus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said late on Thursday, suggesting the outbreak is more widespread in the country than previously thought. U.S. officials have strengthened measures to contain the first known outbreak of the H5N1 virus in dairy cows, which has now spread to 33 herds in eight states. (Reporting …

Meet the sex educators challenging what we think we know about sex and Islam

Meet the sex educators challenging what we think we know about sex and Islam

Published by Sam

(RNS) — Every Friday, Dr. Sadaf Lodhi releases a new episode of “The Muslim Sex Podcast,” in which she discusses everything from painful sex to how orgasm happens to the effects of purity culture on intimacy. In each hourlong show, Lodhi dispels stigmas attached to sex while giving listeners keys to understanding their bodies better.  Lodhi, an OB/GYN and a sex coach in New York, launched the podcast three years ago to make sex education more accessible for all, but in particular for Pakistani American Muslims like her. At the start of every episode, she warns, “It is called ‘The Muslim Sex Podcast’ because I happen to be a Muslim woman who talks about sex.” But the title also tips listeners that the podcast means to change minds about Islam and sex. There is a widespread assumption that Islam is a puritanical faith, a notion that Muslim sex educators like Lodhi are trying to combat. The misapprehension, they say, comes from the fact that in many Muslim countries there has been little separation between faith …

WHO worker and Iranian adviser among several killed in Syria air strikes | Syria’s War News

WHO worker and Iranian adviser among several killed in Syria air strikes | Syria’s War News

Published by Sam

The Syrian Observatory said the villa targeted ‘served as a communications centre’ in the area. At least eight people have been killed in air strikes in eastern Syria, according to a war monitor and Syrian state media, including a World Health Organization worker and an Iranian military adviser. It was not immediately clear who was behind the air strikes on Tuesday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor affiliated with Syria’s opposition, said at least 15 people were killed, including an adviser with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), two of his bodyguards, nine Iraqi fighters from an Iran-backed group and two Syrians working with the Iranians. Syrian state media said at least seven soldiers, including a member of the IRGC, and one civilian were killed. At least 19 other soldiers and 13 civilians were wounded in the strikes that targeted residential areas and military sites in Deir ez-Zor province and caused significant damage to public and private properties, Syrian state media said. Emad Shehab, an engineer in the provincial capital, also …

WHO Urges Immediate Action Amid Cholera Vaccine Shortage

WHO Urges Immediate Action Amid Cholera Vaccine Shortage

Published by skeptic

The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for immediate action to combat a worldwide spike in cholera cases amid a global vaccine shortage. “Immediate action is needed to stem an unprecedented multiyear upsurge in cholera cases worldwide,” WHO’s International Coordinating Group on Vaccine Provision said in a statement. “The severe gap in the number of available vaccine doses, compared with the level of current need, puts unprecedented pressure on the global stockpile of vaccines.” The group manages the global cholera vaccine stockpile. It predicts vaccine shortages to continue for at least two years. Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease caused by ingesting contaminated food or water. If untreated, cholera can kill within hours. The WHO reports that, worldwide, as many as 143,000 people die each year because of cholera. The main cause of cholera is a lack of clean water, soap and adequate sanitation. Proposed actions to mitigate the spread of cholera include investing in safe water access and increasing sanitation and hygiene measures. Improving testing to detect outbreaks more quickly and supporting overall accessible …

The Return of Measles – The Atlantic

The Return of Measles – The Atlantic

Published by skeptic

Measles seems poised to make a comeback in America. Two adults and two children staying at a migrant shelter in Chicago have gotten sick with the disease. A sick kid in Sacramento, California, may have exposed hundreds of people to the virus at the hospital. Three other people were diagnosed in Michigan, along with seven from the same elementary school in Florida. As of Thursday, 17 states have reported cases to the CDC since the start of the year. (For comparison, that total was 19, plus the District of Columbia, for all of 2023, and just 6 for 2022.) “We’ve got this pile of firewood,” Matthew Ferrari, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Penn State, told me, “and the more outbreaks that keep happening, the more matches we’re throwing at it.” Who’s holding the matchbook? There’s an easy answer to who’s at fault. One of the nation’s political parties, and not the other, turned against vaccines to some extent during the pandemic, leading to voter disparities in death rates. One party, …

Suspected Islamic Jihad Militant Killed in Jenin Drone Strike

Suspected Islamic Jihad Militant Killed in Jenin Drone Strike

Published by skeptic

The Israeli military said Friday it carried out a drone strike in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin late Thursday, killing a suspected militant from the Islamic Jihad group. A military statement said Yasser Hanoun was on his way to carry out a shooting attack. It gave no further details. Hanoun had been implicated in past shooting attacks by Islamic Jihad, the military said. The West Bank has seen an increase in violence since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Israel says new attempts are under way to reach a cease-fire with Hamas to temporarily halt fighting in Gaza and secure the release of the 100 or so hostages still being held by the militants. Those attempts include sending negotiators on Friday to truce talks in Paris, Israeli media reported. The head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service will lead the group. Earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Mideast envoy Brett McGurk on Thursday that the government “will expand the authority given to our hostage negotiators.” His comments came after Benny Gantz, …

The Apple Watch May Have a Calorie Problem

The Apple Watch May Have a Calorie Problem

Published by skeptic

A little monster lives on my wrist, and every day, I wake up prepared to do battle with it. Most days, I lose. That gremlin is an Apple Watch, which, like all fitness trackers, is designed to nudge users toward healthy behaviors. Apple uses three digital rings to measure a person’s daily activity in different ways. Each one has a bright color and a simple name. The blue “Stand” ring prompts you to, well, stand more. (Reasonable!) The green “Exercise” ring prompts you to spend more minutes exercising. (Fair enough!) Then there’s the red ring, the “Move” ring. It is the biggest and most prominent in Apple’s design, and it tracks calories burned through movement. It is my nemesis. When you place an Apple Watch—or any fitness tracker—on your wrist, you are opting in to a reorientation of your daily life. Your goal now is to fill these rings, “closing” them by completing the given task, or to hit a certain number of steps. When I got the Apple Watch for Christmas, I input my …