World Health Organization - Page 20

Families Steal Ebola Patients from Hospital in DR Congo

International public health authorities confirmed 52 cases and 22 deaths in the ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus in Democratic Republic of Congo this week, where locals’ fear that medical professionals are intentionally spreading the disease has triggered at least two cases of families stealing patients out of hospitals.

Ebola patients flee hospital in DR Congo, says MSF

At Least 19 Dead in Latest Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo has documented 19 deaths and 39 potential or confirmed cases of Ebola beginning on April 4, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which deployed extensive medical assets to the country this week in the hope of preventing a devastating outbreak on the scale of the one that ravaged West Africa in 2014.

Ebola graveyard

World Health Organization: 500 Patients with Chemical Symptoms in Syria, Over 70 Dead

The World Health Organization published a statement on Wednesday saying it was “deeply alarmed” by reports of chemical weapons deployment in Syria. WHO said it has received reports from partners in the Douma area that roughly 500 patients have been treated for symptoms consistent with toxic exposure, while over 70 deaths were reported from the attack, 43 of them apparently caused by toxic chemical exposure.

A Syrian man mourns after an alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma in Sy

Texas University Researchers Lead Zika Border Project

Two University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) professors will lead Zika research along the Texas-Mexico border as part of a multi-institutional consortium to establish a Western Gulf Center for Excellence for Vector-borne Diseases. They hope to create an early warning system to curtail the spread of the virus.

The Associated Press

Israeli Field Hospital May Be Recognized as World’s Best

Israel’s military field hospital, regularly dispatched to disaster zones to provide humanitarian relief — and to win the Jewish state some rare international brownie points — may soon be awarded the World Health Organization’s highest ranking, which would make it the first in the world to be so recognized.

An injured Nepalese woman arrives on stretcher to be treated at the Israeli field hospital

Syrian Government Launches Aleppo Blitz

Syrian government forces and their allies attacked the opposition-held sector of Aleppo on several fronts on Tuesday, the biggest ground assault yet in a massive new campaign that has destroyed a U.S.-backed ceasefire.

Smoke billows following the detonation of explosives placed by Syrian government forces in

Brazilian Researchers: Zika Has Mutated into Something More Dangerous

A new study has allowed scientists to watch the Zika virus destroy nascent brain cells in mice fetuses, proving definitively the link between the virus and birth defects in humans as well as cementing suspicions that the strain of Zika spreading in Latin America is a more dangerous mutation than those seen previously.

aedes aegypti mosquitoes spreads zika virus

Harvard Public Health Review: Postpone Rio Olympics Until Zika Is Under Control

Blasting the World Health Organization’s (WHO) silence on the Zika virus in Latin America as “deplorable, incompetent and dangerous,” professor Amir Attaran writes in the Harvard Public Health Review that there is no way to continue with the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on schedule without exposing millions to the threat of contracting Zika virus.

AP Photo/Leo Correa, File