WHO news

Accelerating progress on child survival since 2000, UN says
13 September 2012 – The pace of reducing child deaths has accelerated sharply since 2000, according to new data released today by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and the UN Population Division.
Expanding prepayment is key to universal health coverage
3 September 2012 — Health insurance schemes hold untapped potential for achieving universal coverage of health services, according to a study of countries in Asia and Africa published this month in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
WHO welcomes landmark decision from Australia’s High Court on tobacco plain packaging act
15 August 2012 — WHO strongly welcomes the landmark decision from Australia’s High Court to dismiss a legal challenge from the tobacco industry, and calls on the rest of the world to follow Australia’s tough stance on tobacco marketing.

Success in Turkey’s fight against noncommunicable diseases

21 September 2012 — Just six years ago, more than one in three adults in Turkey used tobacco products, which greatly increase the risk of noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory disease. But today Turkey is a success story. A new study of health professionals showing that more than 1 in 2 Turkish health managers have given up tobacco in the past 4 years, reflects what is being seen across the country.

Read the feature story

Accelerating progress on child survival

13 September 2012 — The pace of reducing child deaths has accelerated sharply since 2000, according to new data released today by UNICEF, WHO, the World Bank and the UN Population Division. An annual report by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation shows that in 2011, an estimated 6.9 million children died before their fifth birthday, compared to around 12 million in 1990.

Read the joint news release

Europe assesses monitoring of noncommunicable diseases

18 September 2012 — Governments are deciding on the best targets and indicators to monitor noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease. Signs of progress could include a reduction in deaths or risk factors such as tobacco, healthy diet and physical activity. But it is critical to ensure that the markers of progress can be measured. Countries in WHO’s European Region had a web-consultation to determine the capacities for monitoring NCDs.

Read more about the web-consultation

Expanding prepayment key to universal health coverage

4 September 2012 — Health insurance systems hold untapped potential for achieving universal coverage of health services. A study of countries in Asia and Africa published in this month’s Bulletin of the World Health Organization, found that community and social health insurance schemes in these countries increase financial protection by reducing the need to pay for health services at the point of delivery.

Global Alert and Response (GAR)