Air pollution causes for 20pc deaths in country: WB

A new World Bank (WB) report shows that air pollution is responsible for about 20% of the total premature deaths in Bangladesh. In South Asia, it causes an estimated two million premature deaths each year and incurs significant economic costs. The report titled "Striving for Clean Air: Air Pollution and Public Health

Why do 800 mothers a day die from preventable causes?

The answer is that there are alarming setbacks for maternal health care and, in many cases, even a total lack of maternity services, which threaten to further raise the number of these tragic preventable deaths one million or more a year by 2030. Severe bleeding, high blood pressure, pregnancy-related infections, complications

Big-time shake-up in top echelons of World Bank

The World Bank’s senior leadership is undergoing a major reshuffle as calls for the institution to reform grow louder. If development finance institutions were students in a class on transparency, let’s just say a lot of them would be held back a few grades. And the World Health Organization kicks off

WHO panel discusses Covid emergency status

The World Health Organization's emergency committee on Covid-19 had a meeting Friday to discuss whether the pandemic still merits the highest level of global alert. Before the meeting, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus suggested that the emergency phase of the pandemic is not over, pointing to the more than 170,000

World Leprosy Day: Why we need a world without leprosy

World Leprosy Day (WLD) will be observed in the world, including in Bangladesh, on January 29. Generally held on the last Sunday of January each year, the day aims to increase public awareness of leprosy and the complications surrounding it. The day is an opportunity to lift up the voices

WHO urges China to give more COVID-19 info

The World Health Organization has appealed to China to keep releasing information about its wave of COVID-19 infections after the government announced nearly 60,000 deaths since early December following weeks of complaints it was failing to tell the world what was happening.The announcement Saturday was the first official death toll

WHO keeps urging China to share more data on Covid

The UN health agency has "continued to urge China" to share more rapid, regular, reliable data on hospitalisations and deaths, as well as more comprehensive, real-time viral sequencing in the wake of a Covid surge in the East Asian country.   "The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the risk

Bangladesh’s capacity in health sector improved after Covid-19: WHO

Bangladesh has used lessons learnt during the Covid-19 pandemic to build emergency preparedness capacities by training rapid response teams that can be deployed during any public health event due to influenza or any other respiratory pathogen. In total, more than 200 rapid response team members have been trained, including epidemiologists,

Why climate-resilient health systems are key to health for all

Last year, the World Health Organization identified climate change as humanity's single biggest health threat. Marking Universal Health Coverage Day on the heels of the 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 27, serves as an urgent reminder that health and climate are fully entwined and that empowering and equipping health workers to

Future Pandemic: WHO members agree on draft deal to protect people

Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) have agreed to develop the first draft of a legally binding agreement designed to protect the world from future pandemics.This "zero draft" of the pandemic accord, rooted in the WHO Constitution, will be discussed by Member States in February 2023. Agreement by