3 February 2012 -- Current WHO guidelines call on health service providers to remind patients, that neither hormonal contraceptives nor intrauterine devices known as IUDs offer protection against HIV or other sexually transmitted infections. Protecti ...

18 January 2012 -- Dr Margaret Chan was nominated today by the WHOs Executive Board for a second term as Director-General of the Organization. If confirmed by the World Health Assembly, Dr Chan's new term will begin on 1 July 2012 and continue until ...

17 January 2012 -- Dr Ala Alwan will take up his appointment as the Regional Director of WHO's Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO/EMRO) for a five-year term starting on 1 February 2012.

12 January 2012 -- India appears to have completed one year without polio since its last case on 13 January 2011. This is a momentous achievement because India was once recognized as the world’s epicentre of polio. However, there remains no room fo ...

6 January 2012 -- Six Gulf States detail how they plan to tackle noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) during the coming years. The regional strategy by Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates lays out details on setting targets an ...

30 December 2011 -- WHO takes note that studies undertaken by several institutions on whether changes in the H5N1 influenza virus can make it more transmissible between humans have raised concern about the possible risks and misuses associated with t ...

15 December 2011 -- About 358 000 women still die each year during pregnancy and childbirth; 7.6 million children die before the age of 5 annually. A new global consensus has agreed on the key evidence-based interventions that will sharply reduce the ...

13 December 2011 -- Malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25% globally since 2000 according to the World malaria report 2011 , issued today. This is the result of a significant scaling-up of malaria prevention and control measures in the l ...

30 November 2011 -- The Report on the global HIV/AIDS response shows that increased access to HIV services resulted in a 15% reduction of new infections over the past decade and a 22% decline in AIDS-related deaths in the last five years. While there ...

21 November 2011 -- Only one candidate has been proposed for the election of WHO Director-General. The candidate is Dr Margaret Chan, the current Director-General, whose name has been submitted by China.

4 November 2011 -- The Executive Board of WHO ended a three-day special session with Member States expressing strong support for WHO's work. Agreement was reached on broad proposals for reform, which aim to better position WHO to improve health outco ...

19 October 2011 -- Life expectancy gap between countries is 36 years and there is ample evidence that a person's health status is largely determined by his/her socio-economic position. Governments will be discussing necessary steps to tackle the root ...

11 October 2011 -- For the first time the number of people falling ill with tuberculosis (TB) is declining. A new WHO report also shows that the number of people dying from the disease fell to its lowest level in a decade. Yet, current progress is at ...

7 October 2011 -- One in four people will require mental health care at some point in their lives but in many countries only two per cent of all health sector resources are invested in mental health services.

26 September 2011 -- Air pollution is reaching levels that threaten people's health according to air quality data released today by WHO. The information includes data from nearly 1100 cities across 91 countries, including capital cities and cities wi ...

19 September 2011 -- WHO welcomes the UN General Assembly's adoption of a political declaration on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases (such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, chronic respiratory disease and cancer). For the fi ...

18 September 2011 -- Noncommunicable diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide, killing more people every year. Nearly 80% of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. But a new WHO study reveals that low-income countries could ...

15 September 2011 -- The number of children under five years of age dying each year declined from more than 12 million in 1990 to 7.6 million in 2010, UNICEF and WHO said today, releasing the latest estimates on worldwide child mortality.

14 September 2011 -- More than nine million of all deaths attributed to noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) occur before the age of 60; 90% of these "premature" deaths occurred in low and middle income countries. A new WHO report features information on ...

9 Spetmeber 2011 -- Today, WHO acknowledges the generous commitment by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to donate 400 million more deworming tablets - albendazole - a year over the next five years to help children in deprived communities. This donation comes on ...