Allyson Felix, Pau Gasol, PV Sindhu and Yusra Mardini amongst Olympians inviting people to join the movement starting 23 June.
Lausanne, 13 June 2023: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has today announced a new global initiative to inspire and enable the world to move more every day. Led by Olympians and created in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), Let’s Move will begin on Olympic Day, 23 June, with an invitation to make time every day for movement for better health.
The world is moving faster than ever, but people are moving less. Research has found that one in four adults and over 80 per cent of young people do not meet the recommended minimum activity levels needed for optimum health (WHO, 2022). Not having enough time in the day is one of the most common reasons given for not being able to reach this goal. At the same time, starting with just 30 minutes of movement a day has significant health benefits for hearts, bodies and minds.
Regular physical activity can help prevent or manage certain diseases, like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancers. It also helps to prevent hypertension, and it reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety. Being active also ensures healthy growth and development in young people and staying healthy in later life.
On 23 June, the Olympic Movement will encourage and support people around the world to make this time in their daily lives to move in any way, anywhere. This includes a digital invitation from Olympians Allyson Felix, Pau Gasol, PV Sindhu, Yusra Mardini– to name a few of the athletes involved – to schedule 30 minutes to move this day with them and to join the Let’s Move Olympic Day digital workout from anywhere in the world, with the ambition of turning this into a daily habit.
IOC President Thomas Bach said, “On Olympic Day, we celebrate the Olympic Movement’s mission to make the world a better place through sport. When we do sport, it keeps our mind and body strong and healthy. When we do sport, it inspires us to always give it our best and it makes us dream, it spreads joy and it brings us together. This year, together with the WHO, we are highlighting the positive impacts sport has on both physical and mental health. We want to inspire the world to move more every day. Sport and physical activity are the low-cost, high-impact tool for healthy bodies and healthy minds and resilient communities.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said, “The Olympic Movement has a unique ability to harness the power of increased physical activity through sport for improving public health. Olympians are more than athletes: they are role models for people to enjoy sport and the benefits of physical activity. The Let’s Move initiative, supported by the WHO, combines the power of the Olympics and WHO’s advice on physical activity to help inspire and motivate people to move more for better health.”
Past and future Olympic hosts will also take part in the initiative by encouraging people to exercise in their local communities. Paris 2024 (along with the French Ministry of National Education and Youth and the Ministry of Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Games) has already introduced 30 minutes of physical activity as part of the school curriculum over the past 12 months, in recognition of the multitude of mental and physical health benefits of daily exercise.
Over 131 mass participation events and digital activations will take place in all corners of the world, being organised by the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and the wider Olympic Movement, providing an opportunity for everyone to move together on Olympic Day.
Australia: Running a host of “Have a Go” activities in line with Let’s Move, featuring Olympic sports and hosted by Olympians, and looking ahead to Brisbane 2032, 23 -24 June
Barbados: Olympic Day Run, the “GLOW 2K” beginning late in the evening where runners will wear glow-in-the-dark wrist bands, 23 June
Cabo Verde: mega Let’s Move Fitness Class, at the Kebra Kanela Square, 23 June
Croatia: Olympic Day Run in Zagreb, 17 June
Guinea Bissau: Olympic Day Run, starting in the city of Mansoa, where the OlympAfrica Centre is located, 23 June
Italy: Online workouts with Olympians and elite athletes, 1 – 25 June
Mongolia: Olympic Day event in the National Park of Ulaanbaatar, 23 June
Norway: Olympic Day run for children in the main street of Lillehammer, 24 June
People’s Republic of China: Olympic Day will be celebrated in over 10 cities and linked to an online challenge including five events to get active, 1 – 23 June
Samsung Health Olympic Day Step Challenge: Reach 100,000 steps together on the Samsung Health app, 10 – 23 June
Thailand and Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Celebrating together on the second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge (Mukdahan-Savannakhet), 24 June
Worldwide: A host of city landmarks will light up to inspire the world to move, including in Barcelona, Beijing, Mexico City and Tokyo, 23 June
For more information on global and local participation events on Olympic Day, visit Olympics.com.
The Let’s Move initiative shines a light on the benefits of moving more and contributes to IOC’s Olympism365 strategy, where one of the key aims is to increase access to sports opportunities, and bring the health and societal benefits of physical activity to communities in all corners of the globe.
Let’s Move encourages everyone to share how they are getting active on Olympic Day on social media using #LetsMove #OlympicDay and tagging @Olympics, and to therefore become a source of inspiration for others.
Let’s Move on Olympic Day is the first event in a series of initiatives from the IOC with the ambition of supporting and inspiring the world to move. It will directly contribute to the Olympism365 priority area of “Sport, Health and Active Communities”, which is focused on ensuring that more people, from more diverse backgrounds, can enjoy the mental and physical benefits of participating in sport and physical activity.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
United Nations agencies are calling for urgent action to protect the most vulnerable children in the 15 countries hardest hit by an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis.
Conflict, climate shocks, the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, and rising costs of living are leaving increasing numbers of children acutely malnourished while key health, nutrition and other life-saving services are becoming less accessible. Currently, more than 30 million children in the 15 worst-affected countries suffer from wasting – or acute malnutrition – and 8 million of these children are severely wasted, the deadliest form of undernutrition. This is a major threat to children’s lives and to their long-term health and development, the impacts of which are felt by individuals, their communities and their countries.
In response, five UN agencies - the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) - are calling for accelerated progress on the Global Action Plan on Child Wasting. It aims to prevent, detect and treat acute malnutrition among children in the worst-affected countries, which are Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, the Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, the Sudan and Yemen.
The Global Action Plan addresses the need for a multi-sectoral approach and highlights priority actions across maternal and child nutrition through the food, health, water and sanitation, and social protection systems. In response to increasing needs, the UN agencies identified five priority actions that will be effective in addressing acute malnutrition in countries affected by conflict and natural disasters and in humanitarian emergencies. Scaling up these actions as a coordinated package will be critical for preventing and treating acute malnutrition in children, and averting a tragic loss of life.
The UN agencies call for decisive and timely action to prevent this crisis from becoming a tragedy for the world’s most vulnerable children. All agencies urge for greater investment in support of a coordinated UN response that will meet the unprecedented needs of this growing crisis, before it is too late.
“This situation is likely to deteriorate even further in 2023,” said QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “We must ensure availability, affordability and accessibility of healthy diets for young children, girls, and pregnant and lactating women. We need urgent actionnow to save lives, and to tackle the root causes of acute malnutrition, workingtogether across all sectors.” Qu said.
“The UN system is responding as one to this crisis and the UN Global Action Plan on Child Wasting is our joint effort to prevent, detect and treat wasting globally. At UNHCR we are working hard to improve analysis and targeting to ensure that we reach children who are most at risk, including internally displaced and refugees populations.” Filippo Grandi, High Commissioner, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
“Today’s cascading crises are leaving millions of children wasted and have made it harder for them to access key services. Wasting is painful for the child, and in severe cases, can lead to death or permanent damage to children’s growth and development. We can and must turn this nutrition crisis around through proven solutions to prevent, detect, and treat child wasting early. ”Catherine Russell, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
“More than 30 million children are acutely malnourished across the 15 worst-affected countries, so we must act now and we must act together. It is critical that we collaborate to strengthen social safety nets and food assistance to ensure Specialized Nutritious Foods are available to women and children who need them the most.” David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP)
“The global food crisis is also a health crisis, and a vicious cycle: malnutrition leads to disease, and disease leads to malnutrition,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO).”Urgent support is needed now in the hardest hit countries to protect children’s lives and health, including ensuring critical access to healthy foods and nutrition services, especially for women and children.”
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
Mogadishu, 11 June 2023 – The World Health Organization (WHO) condemns in the strongest possible terms the complex attack on the Pearl Beach Hotel and Restaurant located in the Abdiaziz district of Mogadishu, Somalia, on 9 June 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 16 innocent civilians, including a WHO national staff member. This tragic event also left more than 10 people injured.
“We are appalled by the tragic loss of life in this senseless attack, including the death of Ms Nasra Hassan, a WHO national female staff member. Nasra, 27 years old, joined the WHO country office in Somalia to support the drought emergency response operations in Jubaland. She was known for her dedication, ambition and commitment among her colleagues. We extend our deepest condolences to Nasra’s family, as well as to the families and friends of all those who died during the attack,” said Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean.
"We condemn in the strongest terms this heinous attack on a hotel that claimed so many lives, including the precious life of one of our dearest colleagues Nasra. We condemn all attacks on innocent civilians and humanitarian aid workers and express our deepest condolences to the family members of all those who were killed in this attack,” said Dr Malik Mamunur, WHO Representative in Somalia.
WHO is committed to continuing efforts to preserve health and respond to emergencies in Somalia. WHO affirms that the safety and security of its staff is a paramount factor in ensuring ongoing life-saving response operations.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening,
Today, Equatorial Guinea declared its outbreak of Marburg Virus Disease over, 42 days after the last patient was discharged from treatment.
The outbreak was the first of its kind in Equatorial Guinea, with 17 laboratory-confirmed cases, including 12 reported deaths. In addition, 23 probable cases were reported, all of whom died.
Four patients recovered and have been enrolled in a survivors programme to receive psychosocial and other post-recovery support.
I thank the government of Equatorial Guinea and the affected communities for their response, and the health workers who put themselves in harm’s way to serve others. I honour those health workers who paid the ultimate price for simply doing their jobs.
To support the government’s response to the outbreak, WHO deployed 80 experts in epidemiology, logistics, health operations, risk communications, clinical care and infection prevention and control.
We worked with the health authorities to set up a treatment centre, provided medical supplies and trained health workers, to support safe care for patients, including emergency use of a promising antiviral.
WHO also supported authorities in neighbouring Cameroon and Gabon to ramp up outbreak readiness and response.
We continue to work with Equatorial Guinea to maintain surveillance and testing to enable prompt action should flare-ups occur.
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Now to Ukraine, where the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam has caused widespread devastation and human suffering, leading to severe flooding, displacement of communities and significant infrastructure and environmental damage.
The impact on the region’s water supply, sanitation systems and public health services cannot be underestimated.
WHO has rushed in to support the authorities and health care workers in preventive measures against waterborne diseases and to improve disease surveillance.
Our team is in the field, continuously reviewing health needs to support those affected.
In the coming days, WHO will deliver additional supplies to strengthen access to health services.
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Next to Haiti, where the humanitarian situation has been deteriorating. Recent torrential rain, flooding and earthquakes have added to a toxic mix of poverty, hunger, violence and disease.
4.9 million people —almost half the population— are expected to face crisis levels of hunger this year.
With armed gangs controlling large areas, insecurity in parts of the country have reached levels comparable to countries at war.
Hundreds have been killed in the violence, and rape and other forms of sexual violence are rampant.
Hunger and disease go hand-in-hand. The cholera outbreak, which began in October last year, continues to simmer, with more than 45 thousand cases and 700 deaths reported.
Other diseases, such as TB, measles and polio, present an active risk.
Essential health services such as routine immunization for children have been severely disrupted. In 2021, only 41% of children had been fully immunized against measles , and we expect that number to be even lower now.
Children are particularly at risk of the deadly combination of hunger and disease. Severely malnourished children are many times more likely to die of diseases like cholera and measles.
Due to problems of insecurity and violence, patients and health personnel have difficulty accessing hospitals and health services, while health facilities are unable to function normally due to fuel shortages.
WHO is working to address the immediate needs of the population in areas affected by the resurgence of cholera, as well as protecting the most vulnerable groups impacted by violence, insecurity and rising poverty levels.
WHO has asked for 37 million U.S. dollars to reach 1.8 million of those in need in 2023.
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Haiti is far from the only country where health is imperilled by a lack of access to electricity, or to sources of clean energy.
A new report this week shows that globally, 675 million people still lack access to electricity, most of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Meanwhile, 2.3 billion people globally – more than 1 in 4 – use polluting fuels for cooking, leading to millions of deaths each year.
This puts women and children particularly at greater risk of chronic diseases, while also contributing to climate change and perpetuating gender inequity.
Cooking with solid fuels such as wood, charcoal, coal, crop waste and kerosene is a huge health burden for more than a quarter of the world’s population, particularly for the most vulnerable populations.
WHO is supporting countries to integrate clean cooking into broader energy planning, improving affordability, and devising better delivery mechanisms.
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Finally, yesterday marked World Food Safety Day.
Every day, an estimated 1.6 million people around the world become sick from eating unsafe food.
Over 200 diseases, from diarrhoea to cancers, are caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemicals.
Safe food is a primary determinant of human health. To guarantee this right, governments must ensure that food meets safety standards.
These standards are developed by WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, through the Codex Alimentarius, the international standard-setting body for food safety and quality, which this year marks its 60th anniversary.
Another way WHO is supporting countries to make food safe is by harnessing the power of technologies such as whole genome sequencing.
Sequencing the genomes of microbes in food can identify with precision where a germ originated, whether from a food processing facility or a restaurant, pinpointing the source of a food-borne outbreak.
Tomorrow, WHO is announcing new guidance for countries on how to use whole genome sequencing to improve food safety surveillance.
Margaret, back to you.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
Today the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) signed a new and revised Strategic Framework for Collaboration, designed to build stronger and more resilient health systems and maximize collaboration and impact in support of country, regional and global responses to major communicable diseases.
The new five-year framework builds on the previous agreement signed in 2018. It aligns with the 2023-2028 Global Fund Strategy and the WHO General Programme of Work, which put communities at the centre of the health response and also address pandemic preparedness and challenges posed by climate change. The framework fits with broader collaboration platforms to accelerate support to countries to achieve the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
“As health budgets globally are strained and under pressure, it is imperative for our two organizations to continue to work together to support countries to expand access to services for the three diseases as part of their journey towards universal health coverage,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “In light of slowing progress towards ending the AIDS, TB, and malaria epidemics, coupled with emerging health challenges, stronger collaboration between WHO and the Global Fund is needed more than ever.”
With WHO and the Global Fund’s common mission and commitment to serve countries, the new Strategic Framework for Collaboration will further strengthen and extend collaboration.
“At a time when the world is beset by interlocking and intersecting crises, from conflict to climate change, the partnership between the Global Fund and WHO is more critical than ever,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Crises shock global systems and roll back gains, with the world’s most vulnerable people bearing the brunt. Organizations like ours are most effective when we collaborate closely with national governments and other trusted partners to strengthen local, community-driven systems for health.”
Continued collaboration over the past years has contributed to significant achievements at country level:
· 20 countries are now implementing, in a more efficient and cost-effective way, differentiated service delivery for HIV testing, treatment, advanced HIV disease care, as well as virtual interventions to reach those unaware of their HIV status.
· Collaboration has enabled early guidance and surveys on dual testing for COVID-19 and TB, allowing for improved detection of people with TB through the innovations adopted during and after the COVID-19 emergency.
· Strategic initiatives on malaria enabled accelerated progress towards malaria elimination. Since 2018, eight countries have been certified malaria-free by WHO, with five more preparing for certification in 2023 and 2024.
· The partnership also provides the foundation to accelerate the implementation of innovative approaches, such as the new WHO Insecticide Treated Nets Guidelines for malaria and the scale-up of new, shorter treatments for multidrug-resistant TB.
· Valuable support was provided in the development of 50 evidence-based and costed national strategic plans aligned to the latest WHO guidelines, serving as a basis for high-quality funding requests to the Global Fund.
· Global health financing remains an important area for continued collaboration to help countries develop stronger, more sustainable and efficient health financing systems. WHO’s work to track health expenditure in 59 low- and middle-income countries, has informed national health policy dialogue. Joint work to support cross-programme efficiency analysis in 13 countries has reduced fragmentation and duplication.
Even with this level of progress, much work remains to be done in countries to accelerate progress towards ending AIDS, TB and malaria epidemics and to build strong health systems that are also capable of responding to the next emergency.
Through this new framework, WHO and the Global Fund will be leveraging their comparative strengths across 35 areas for collaboration divided into 4 categories:
1. Health policies and normative guidance
2. Advocacy and health governance
3. Health products and innovations
4. Technical support and capacity building
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
On 2 June 2023, the Ministry of Health of the United Republic of Tanzania declared the end of its first documented outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD). Between 21 March and 31 May, a total of nine cases (eight laboratory-confirmed and one probable) were reported. All cases were reported from Bukoba district, Kagera region. A total of six deaths (case fatality ratio 67%) were reported during the outbreak.
In accordance with WHO recommendations, the declaration was made 42 days (twice the maximum incubation period for Marburg virus infection) after the last possible exposure to an MVD probable or confirmed case.
WHO encourages countries to maintain most response activities for three months after the outbreak ends. This is to make sure that if the disease re-emerges, health authorities would be able to detect it immediately, prevent the disease from spreading again, and ultimately save lives.
On 21 March 2023, the Ministry of Health (MoH) of the United Republic of Tanzania officially declared the first MVD outbreak in the country. Between 21 March and 31 May, a total of nine cases, including eight laboratory-confirmed cases and one probable (the index case), were reported (Figure 1). The last confirmed case was reported on 11 April 2023 and the date of sample collection of the second negative PCR test was on 19 April 2023. All cases were reported from Bukoba district, Kagera region, in the north of the country.
Among the confirmed cases, three have recovered, and a total of six deaths (CFR 67%) have been reported, of which five were confirmed and one was a probable case.
Cases ranged in age from 1 to 59 years old (median 35 years old), with males being the most affected (n= 6; 67%). Six cases were close relatives of the index case, and two were healthcare workers who provided medical care to the patients.
On 2 June 2023, the MoH of the United Republic of Tanzania declared the end of the MVD outbreak. This declaration was made 42 days (twice the maximum incubation period for Marburg virus infection) after the last possible exposure to MVD probable or confirmed case.
Figure 1: Distribution of MVD cases (confirmed and probable) by date of symptom onset in the United Republic of Tanzania, as of 31 May 2023.
Figure 2: Map of district reporting MVD confirmed and probable cases in the United Republic of Tanzania, as of 31 May 2023.
Marburg virus spreads between people via direct contact through broken skin or mucous membranes with the blood, secretions, organs, or other body fluids of infected people and with surfaces and materials such as bedding, and clothing contaminated with these fluids. Healthcare workers have previously been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed MVD. Burial ceremonies involving direct contact with the body of the deceased can also contribute to the transmission of the Marburg virus.
The incubation period varies from 2 to 21 days. Illness caused by the Marburg virus begins abruptly, with high fever, severe headache, and severe malaise. Severe haemorrhagic manifestations may appear between five and seven days from symptom onset. However, not all cases have haemorrhagic signs, and fatal cases usually have some form of bleeding, often from multiple areas.
Early supportive care – rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids – and treatment of specific symptoms and co-infections can improve survival. A range of potential treatments are being evaluated, including blood products, immune therapies, and drug therapies.
This was the first documented outbreak of MVD reported in the United Republic of Tanzania. There is an ongoing outbreak of MVD in Equatorial Guinea (for more information, please see the Disease outbreak news published on 8 May 2023 in Equatorial Guinea and the United Republic of Tanzania). Other MVD outbreaks have been previously reported in Ghana (2022), Guinea (2021), Uganda (2017, 2014, 2012, 2007), Angola (2004-2005), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2000 and 1998), Kenya (1990, 1987, 1980) and South Africa (1975).
The MoH, together with WHO and other partners, initiated response measures to control the outbreak and prevent further spread to other regions in the country and neighboring countries. Regular coordination meetings were held to coordinate responses.
Active case search and alert management were implemented, with a total of 243 alerts received as of 30 May, of which 62 MVD suspected cases were detected, and samples were sent for laboratory confirmation. The eight laboratory-confirmed cases were identified, and the remaining samples tested negative.
A total of 212 contacts were identified and monitored with 210 having completed their 21-day follow-up period with no symptoms. Of the remaining two contacts, one developed symptoms and subsequently tested positive for MVD while the other died due to other causes.
The three recovered cases were provided with care and, together with their relatives, received mental health and psychosocial support services (MHPSS) through the survivor programme.
On 2 June 2023, the Ministry of Health of Tanzania declared the end of the MVD outbreak that affected Bukoba district in Kagera region. This was the first documented MVD outbreak in the country.
MVD is an epidemic-prone disease associated with high case fatality ratios (CFR 24-90%). MVD is caused by the same family (Filoviridae) as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and is clinically similar. In the early course of the disease, clinical diagnosis of MVD is difficult to distinguish from other tropical febrile illnesses because of the similarities in the clinical symptoms. Other viral hemorrhagic fevers need to be excluded, particularly Ebola diseases, as well as malaria, typhoid fever, and dengue. Epidemiologic features can help differentiate between diseases (i.e., exposure to bats, caves, or mining).
Marburg virus has been isolated from fruit bats (Roussettus aegyptiacus) that are present in Tanzania and countries neighboring the affected Kagera region, therefore the same bat species may carry the virus in this region.
WHO encourages countries to maintain most response activities for three months after the outbreak is declared over. This is to make sure that if the disease re-emerges, health authorities would be able to detect it immediately, prevent the disease from spreading again, and ultimately save lives.
WHO advises the following risk reduction measures as an effective way to reduce MVD transmission:
Reducing the risk of bat-to-human transmission arising from prolonged exposure to mines or caves inhabited by fruit bat colonies. During work or research activities or tourist visits in mines or caves inhabited by fruit bat colonies, people should wear gloves and other appropriate protective clothing (including masks). During outbreaks, all animal products (blood and meat) should be thoroughly cooked before consumption.
Health facilities should ensure infection, prevention and control measure (IPC) programmes are in place including screening for cases of MVD, training of health workers on IPC practices, safe injection practices, environmental cleaning and disinfection protocols are in place, decontamination of reusable medical devices and safe waste management.
Health workers caring for patients with confirmed or suspected MVD should apply transmission-based precautions in addition to standard precautions, including appropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and hand hygiene according to the WHO 5 moments to avoid contact with patients' blood and other body fluids and with contaminated surfaces and objects.
Surveillance activities should be strengthened to ensure early detection of any future cases.
Raising community awareness of the risk factors for Marburg infection and the protective measures that individuals can take to reduce human exposure to the virus are key to reducing human infections and deaths.
WHO advises against any other international travel and/or trade measures in the United Republic of Tanzania.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
On 5 May 2023, France reported an increase in cases of severe neonatal sepsis associated with Enterovirus (Echovirus-11 (E-11)). A total of nine cases of neonatal sepsis with hepatic impairment and multi-organ failure were reported between July 2022 and April 2023 from four hospitals in three regions of France. As of 5 May 2023, seven cases have died and two were still hospitalized in neonatal unit.
The current increase in incidence and severity in neonates, associated with a recombinant lineage of E-11 that previously was not detected in France, and is considered unusual due to the extremely rapid deterioration and associated case fatality rate amongst the affected babies.
Based on the limited information available, WHO assesses the public health risk for the general population to be low, despite the concerning nature of the increase.
On 5 May 2023, France reported nine cases of severe neonatal sepsis associated with hepatic impairment and multi-organ failure including seven associated deaths. Of these nine cases, eight were preterm (born before 38 weeks of gestation). Four pairs of twins were affected and presented with late-onset neonatal sepsis (occurring after one week of birth to three months).
The cases were reported from four hospitals in three regions between July 2022 and April 2023. Of the nine reported cases, six were reported in 2022 (two cases each in July, October, and December) and three were reported in 2023 (one case in January and two cases in April).
All cases presented with one or more clinical signs less than seven days after birth, suggesting a mother-to-child transmission route. The clinical presentation of these cases was considered to be atypical due to their extremely rapid deterioration and the associated case fatality rate. As of 5 May 2023, seven cases have died and two were still hospitalized in the neonatal unit; their short-term prognosis is no longer threatened.
Enterovirus reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing of all nine cases (including blood samples, throat swabs, nasopharyngeal swabs, cerebrospinal fluid samples, and/or post-mortem biopsies) confirmed the presence of enterovirus, typed as Echovirus-11 (E-11). E-11 maternal infection was confirmed by RT-PCR and enterovirus genotyping by analyzing blood samples from four out of five mothers. All tested mothers presented with gastrointestinal signs or fever within the three days before or at delivery.
Sequence analyses of all typed enterovirus infections in 2022 showed the circulation of at least two lineages of recombinant origin, of which the predominant one included all the sequences associated with the nine cases together with sequences associated with non-neonatal or non-severe neonatal infections. Further genetic analyses are ongoing.
According to historical data from 2016 to 2021, E-11 represented 6.2% (3 of 48) of reported severe neonatal infections with known enterovirus type while this proportion increased to 55% (11 of 20) in 2022.
Enteroviruses are a group of viruses that can cause various infectious illnesses and are responsible for annual epidemics. Illness is usually mild but has been found to affect neonates differently and sometimes more severely than older children and adults. There are multiple transmission routes, particularly in the neonatal period, including intrapartum by exposure to maternal blood, secretions, and/or stool, or postnatally from close contacts with infected caregivers. Echovirus 11 (E-11) is a positive-strand RNA virus belonging to the genus Enterovirus of the family Picornaviridae.
The infections can cause severe inflammatory illnesses in neonates, including severe acute hepatitis with coagulopathy.
On 28 April 2023, the French national reference centre for enteroviruses and parechoviruses informed clinicians and virologists involved in the care of newborns, to reinforce the diagnosis and surveillance of enterovirus infection in neonates with severe sepsis through a professional network. In particular, the message focused on:
What to do in newborns with a picture of severe sepsis of indeterminate aetiology to sensitize about the risk of transmission.
Clinicians were invited to systematically consider enterovirus infection in neonates with severe liver failure, enterocolitis, meningoencephalitis, or myocarditis.
Close monitoring of liver function, cardiac function, neurological function, and risk of enterocolitis were recommended in neonates with severe neonatal sepsis of undetermined aetiology.
Clinicians were also invited to undertake an early notification of referral hospitals in order to discuss potential therapeutic options.
The risk of maternal transmission of E-11 was raised and recommendations made to monitor the infant closely for at least 7 days if the mother was known to have had an infection before or during childbirth.
The importance of collecting additional samples (blood, stool, and nasopharyngeal) in newborns and mothers for enterovirus.
The importance of genotyping EV-positive samples: Clinical virologists were invited to send EV-positive samples in a prospective manner, especially from patients presenting with severe clinical signs. Samples are sent to the National Reference Laboratories for genotyping and genome studies.
Continuous information sharing regarding this event among France and other Member States (through the European Non-Polio Enterovirus Network (ENPEN)), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and WHO is ongoing. To date, no comparable increase of E-11 cases associated with neonatal sepsis has been observed in countries that have reported to the ECDC (Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Spain) in 2022 and 2023.
A review of the epidemiological data collected from 2016 to 2022 in France through routine surveillance of enterovirus infections among hospitalized patients showed a significant increase in incidence and mortality for all severe neonatal infections associated with E-11, defined as infections with at least one organ failure and/or requiring admission to intensive care.
A total of 443 enterovirus neonatal infections (severe and non-severe types) including seven deaths (case fatality rate, (CFR) 1.6%) were reported in France in 2022. Of these, 72% (n=317) had a known enterovirus type. E-11 was the predominant circulating enterovirus type (all ages included) and was identified in 30.3% (96 of 317) of neonatal infections (severe and non-severe) with known enterovirus type. It has been continuously detected since June 2022.
Of the reported neonatal infections in 2022, 4.5% (22 of 443) were classified as severe. Of these 20 had known enterovirus types. E-11 represented 55% (11 of 20) of these cases as compared to 6.2% (3 of 48) of cases with known enterovirus type out of the total reported severe neonatal infections (n=62) between 2016 to 2021.
In 2022, there were seven deaths (case fatality rate, (CFR) 1.6%) out of the cumulative 443 enterovirus neonatal infections recorded in 2022 (six associated with E-11), compared to seven deaths (CFR 0.4%), out of 1774 neonatal infections from 2016 to 2021(none associated with E-11). As mentioned above, there have also been seven deaths so far in 2023.
Sequence analyses showed the circulation of at least two lineages of recombinant origin, of which the predominant one included all the sequences associated with the nine severe cases together with sequences associated with non-neonatal or non-severe neonatal infections. This new variant of E-11 had not been observed in France before July 2022, nor elsewhere based on available sequences on Genbank, as of 28 April 2023. As of 5 May 2023, E-11 sequences retrieved from samples collected in 2023 all belong to this predominant lineage. Although higher pathogenicity of this new lineage cannot be excluded, the severity of infections may also be explained by the young age, prematurity, and the absence of maternal immunity. Further analyses are warranted to delineate the characteristics of this recombinant virus.
Based on the limited information available, WHO assesses the public health risk for the general population to be low. However, asymptomatic carriage and shedding of infectious viruses are a feature of enterovirus infection. Echovirus infection was confirmed in four out of five mothers by analyzing blood samples three days before or at delivery. There have been previous reports of severe E-11 infection in twin neonates, however, the observation of four sets of twins amongst nine cases is more than expected. As non-polio enterovirus infection is often not a notifiable disease in Member States, additional cases of severe neonatal enterovirus infection may have gone undiagnosed and/or unreported.
Non-polio enteroviruses are common and distributed worldwide. Although infections often are asymptomatic, some may present with respiratory tract infections. Symptoms include fever, runny nose, and body weakness. These viruses are also associated with occasional outbreaks in which an unusually high proportion of patients develop clinical disease, sometimes with serious and fatal consequences. Clinicians managing neonates and young infants presenting with circulatory shock should consider an underlying diagnosis of sepsis and perform appropriate diagnostic investigations, including testing for enteroviruses.
Health and care workers working with samples suspicious of non-polio enteroviruses should be properly trained to collect, store, and transport various samples. If samples are referred domestically and/or internationally for confirmation, typing, or sequencing purposes, appropriate national and international regulations on the transport of infectious substances should be strictly followed. Laboratories that perform sequencing should consider sharing genetic sequence data through publicly accessible databases.
No specific antiviral therapy for echovirus infection is available, and treatment focuses on preventing complications. Health facilities caring for neonate populations in France should familiarize themselves with the signs and symptoms of enterovirus and maintain vigilance for potential healthcare-associated infection cases and outbreaks in wards providing neonatal care.
Healthcare facilities and health and care workers in units working with neonates should implement infection prevention and control measures with a focus on adherence to WHO “Your 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene,” visitor restriction, re-enforcing the importance of cleaning and disinfection of the environment and use of contact precautions when caring for neonates suspected or confirmed to have E-11. For confirmed neonates consider isolation, ensure pacifiers and baby bottles are not shared and educate mothers on personal hygiene and handwashing during change of diapers. WHO provides training for health and care workers on preventing maternal and neonatal sepsis which can be accessed on Open WHO.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
On World No Tobacco Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) urges governments to stop subsidizing tobacco farming and support more sustainable crops that could feed millions.
“Tobacco is responsible for 8 million deaths a year, yet governments across the world spend millions supporting tobacco farms,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “By choosing to grow food instead of tobacco, we prioritize health, preserve ecosystems, and strengthen food security for all.”
More than 300 million people globally are faced with acute food insecurity. Meanwhile more than 3 million hectares of land across more than 120 countries are being used to grow deadly tobacco, even in countries where people are starving.
A new WHO report, “Grow food, not tobacco”, highlights the ills of tobacco growing and the benefits of switching to more sustainable food crops for farmers, communities, economies, the environment, and the world at large. The report also exposes the tobacco industry for trapping farmers in a vicious cycle of debt, propagating tobacco growing by exaggerating its economic benefits and lobbying through farming front groups.
Tobacco farming causes diseases to the farmers themselves and more than 1 million child laborers are estimated to be working on tobacco farms, missing their opportunity for an education.
“Tobacco is not only a massive threat to food insecurity, but health overall, including the health of tobacco farmers. Farmers are exposed to chemical pesticides, tobacco smoke and as much nicotine as found in 50 cigarettes – leading to illnesses like chronic lung conditions and nicotine poisoning,” said Dr Ruediger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at WHO.
Tobacco growing is a global problem. The focus has so far been in Asia and South America, but the latest data show tobacco companies are expanding to Africa. Since 2005, there has been a nearly 20% increase in tobacco farming land across Africa.
WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme support the Tobacco Free Farms initiative that will provide help to more than 5 000 farmers in Kenya and Zambia to grow sustainable food crops instead of tobacco.
Every year World No Tobacco Day honours those making a difference in tobacco control. This year one of the Awardees, Ms Sprina Robi Chacha, a female farmer from Kenya, is being recognized for not only switching from growing tobacco to high protein beans, but also training hundreds of other farmers on how to do this to create a healthier community.
182 Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control have committed to “...promote economically viable alternatives for tobacco workers and growers”. A crucial way that countries can fulfill this obligation is by ending subsidies for tobacco growing and supporting healthier crops.
By choosing to grow food instead of tobacco, we prioritize health, preserve ecosystems, and increase food security.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for caution to be exercised in using artificial intelligence (AI) generated large language model tools (LLMs) to protect and promote human well-being, human safety, and autonomy, and preserve public health.
LLMs include some of the most rapidly expanding platforms such as ChatGPT, Bard, Bert and many others that imitate understanding, processing, and producing human communication. Their meteoric public diffusion and growing experimental use for health-related purposes is generating significant excitement around the potential to support people’s health needs.
It is imperative that the risks be examined carefully when using LLMs to improve access to health information, as a decision-support tool, or even to enhance diagnostic capacity in under-resourced settings to protect people’s health and reduce inequity.
While WHO is enthusiastic about the appropriate use of technologies, including LLMs, to support health-care professionals, patients, researchers and scientists, there is concern that caution that would normally be exercised for any new technology is not being exercised consistently with LLMs. This includes widespread adherence to key values of transparency, inclusion, public engagement, expert supervision, and rigorous evaluation.
Precipitous adoption of untested systems could lead to errors by health-care workers, cause harm to patients, erode trust in AI and thereby undermine (or delay) the potential long-term benefits and uses of such technologies around the world.
Concerns that call for rigorous oversight needed for the technologies to be used in safe, effective, and ethical ways include:
the data used to train AI may be biased, generating misleading or inaccurate information that could pose risks to health, equity and inclusiveness;
LLMs generate responses that can appear authoritative and plausible to an end user; however, these responses may be completely incorrect or contain serious errors, especially for health-related responses;
LLMs may be trained on data for which consent may not have been previously provided for such use, and LLMs may not protect sensitive data (including health data) that a user provides to an application to generate a response;
LLMs can be misused to generate and disseminate highly convincing disinformation in the form of text, audio or video content that is difficult for the public to differentiate from reliable health content; and
while committed to harnessing new technologies, including AI and digital health to improve human health, WHO recommends that policy-makers ensure patient safety and protection while technology firms work to commercialize LLMs.
WHO proposes that these concerns be addressed, and clear evidence of benefit be measured before their widespread use in routine health care and medicine – whether by individuals, care providers or health system administrators and policy-makers.
WHO reiterates the importance of applying ethical principles and appropriate governance, as enumerated in the WHO guidance on the ethics and governance of AI for health, when designing, developing, and deploying AI for health. The 6 core principles identified by WHO are: (1) protect autonomy; (2) promote human well-being, human safety, and the public interest; (3) ensure transparency, explainability, and intelligibility; (4) foster responsibility and accountability; (5) ensure inclusiveness and equity; (6) promote AI that is responsive and sustainable.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
WHO has validated Benin and Mali as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, making them the fifth and sixth countries in WHO’s African Region to achieve this significant milestone. Countries that previously received WHO validation for trachoma elimination are Ghana (June 2018), Gambia (April 2021), Togo (May 2022) and Malawi (September 2022).
“WHO congratulates the health authorities of Benin and Mali and their network of global and local partners for these milestones”, said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Following Benin’s and Mali’s success, trachoma remains endemic in 23 countries in WHO’s African Region, bringing us a step closer towards the elimination target for trachoma set in the road map for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030.”
Globally, Benin and Mali join 15 other countries that have been validated by WHO for having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. These are Cambodia, China, the Gambia, Ghana, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Togo and Vanuatu.
Both Benin and Mali implemented the WHO-recommended SAFE strategy to eliminate trachoma with the support of WHO and partners. The SAFE strategy consists of surgery to treat late trachoma complications; antibiotics to clear infection; facial cleanliness; and environmental improvement, particularly improving access to water and sanitation, to reduce transmission. Through the International Trachoma Initiative, the antibiotic azithromycin is donated by Pfizer to elimination programmes implementing the SAFE strategy.
Benin has integrated trachoma elimination interventions with those implemented against other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), under the umbrella of the National Programme for Communicable Diseases. Trachoma is the third NTD to be eliminated in Benin, after dracunculiasis (in 2009) and gambiense human African trypanosomiasis (in 2021).
Mali has conducted trachoma impact and surveillance surveys and rolled out interventions to achieve elimination targets, despite security challenges in the northern regions of the country and sociopolitical upheavals in recent years. Trachoma is the first NTD to be eliminated in Mali, which therefore now joins a global group of 47 countries that have eliminated at least one NTD.
“These are impressive public health achievements,” said Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall, Director of the WHO Global NTD Programme. “Benin and Mali demonstrate how strong political will, cross-sector integration, surveillance and community engagement can work in concert to achieve disease elimination.”
Significant progress has been made in the fight against trachoma over the past few years. The number of people requiring antibiotic treatment for trachoma in the WHO African Region fell by 84 million, from 189 million in 2014 to 105 million as of June 2022.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.