Latest news with #WorldHealthOrganisation
South Wales Argus
10 hours ago
- Health
- South Wales Argus
Thousands of pupils in Wales exposed to unsafe air pollution
More than 65,000 young people across Wales are living in areas where air quality breaches World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, according to analysis by Friends of the Earth using Defra data from 2021 to 2023. The findings show that 79 per cent of Welsh neighbourhoods exceed recommended levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter (PM2.5), with 203 schools affected. Joseph Carter, chair of Healthy Air Cymru and head of devolved nations at Asthma and Lung UK Cymru, said: "Schools should be safe places for young people. "It's shocking to discover thousands of school children in Wales are breathing in dangerous, polluted air that could damage their lungs." The top 10 worst-affected schools are in Cardiff, but high pollution levels were also recorded in Newport, Swansea, Caerphilly, Vale of Glamorgan, and Neath Port Talbot. Haf Elgar, vice-chair of Healthy Air Cymru and director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, said: "This data is a timely reminder that we must go further and faster to clean up our dirty air. 'Air pollution affects the most vulnerable in society the most, who are often doing the least to cause it."
Middle East Eye
13 hours ago
- Health
- Middle East Eye
Israel demands condemnation from World Health Organisation after hospital strike
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that Iran's supreme leader "can no longer be allowed to exist" after a hospital in Israel was hit by an Iranian missile on Thursday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran would "pay a heavy price" for the strike. Soroka Hospital in the southern city of Beersheba was left in flames by a bombardment that Iran said was intended to target a military and intelligence base. Daniel Meron, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, demanded a condemnation from the UN in a video on X filmed outside the World Health Organisation's headquarters. Israel has repeatedly bombed healthcare facilities in Gaza, which include 36 hospitals. WHO said that at least 94 percent of all hospitals in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed.
Middle East Eye
14 hours ago
- Health
- Middle East Eye
Bombing hospitals is a red line - unless Israel is doing it
On Thursday morning, Iranian missiles struck Soroka hospital in Beersheba, triggering expressions of outrage from Israeli officials. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir likened the Iranian regime to 'Nazis who fire missiles at hospitals, the elderly and children'. President Isaac Herzog evoked imagery of a baby in intensive care and a doctor rushing between beds. Culture Minister Miki Zohar declared on social media that 'only the scum of the earth fires missiles at hospitalized children and elderly people in their sick beds'. The chair of Israel's medical association, Zion Hagay, decried the strike as a war crime and urged the international medical community to condemn it. This swift and unified condemnation by Israeli political and medical leadership underscores a striking contradiction: these same actors not only ignored but openly justified the destruction of Gaza's hospitals over the past two years. Since 7 October 2023, Israeli air strikes and ground invasions have decimated Gaza's healthcare infrastructure. The World Health Organisation has recorded around 700 attacks on healthcare facilities. Major hospitals - al-Shifa, Nasser and the Indonesian hospital, among others - have been besieged, bombed and dismantled. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Israeli officials frame these hospitals as military targets and Hamas 'shields'. Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, was placed under siege and then invaded, with the attack hailed by Israeli media as a victory. Meanwhile, the Israeli Medical Association remained silent. In one of its rare statements after a year and a half of Israel's repeated and targeted attacks on hospitals and civilian infrastructure, the association echoed the state's narrative, stating that health facilities and personnel must not be targeted 'unless these are being used as a base for terrorist activities'. Selective moral outrage What is especially striking about this moment is the selective moral outrage from Israeli officials. The same ministers who justified the systematic dismantling of Gaza's healthcare system now describe an attack on an Israeli hospital as a red line, a war crime. Herzog's sentimental imagery of doctors rushing between beds evokes the stark reality in Gaza, where health workers have been shot and shelled in operating rooms, imprisoned, or forced to abandon their patients under fire. International medical voices have played along. While many doctors and health workers have spoken out, many others have remained silent, with no real actions taken to hold Israel accountable. Follow Middle East Eye's live coverage of the Israel-Palestine war It would be a mistake to treat these official statements as being detached from the public mood in Israel. Most Israelis have defended the destruction of Gaza's healthcare infrastructure. Public discourse has normalised the idea that Palestinian hospitals are legitimate military targets, even celebrating their destruction in some cases. This normalisation is not incidental. It is part of a broader dehumanisation of Palestinians, where even a child under anaesthesia in a Gaza operating room is not seen as a victim, but as collateral damage or a 'shield'. The outrage over Soroka thus reveals a deeper truth: in the eyes of many institutions and audiences, some lives are inherently more valuable than others. When Israeli hospitals are struck, the world responds with empathy and urgency. When Palestinian hospitals are dismantled - patients killed in their beds, doctors arrested mid-surgery - the world hesitates, rationalises or remains silent. How can Palestinian medics 'cooperate' with Israeli health bodies during a genocide? Read More » This is not simply a double standard; it reflects an entrenched hierarchy of whose suffering matters. Israeli leaders speak today of moral lines, of civilians and children, of hospitals as sanctuaries. Yet for nearly two years, those very values have been systematically violated in Gaza, with hardly a whisper of regret. This situation reveals not only hypocrisy but also the cynical confidence that comes with impunity. It reflects how the boundaries of Israeli grief and outrage are drawn narrowly around Jewish Israeli lives, grounded in the certainty that Israel will face no consequences. This moment puts the international system to the test. While some medical and humanitarian groups have expressed concern, most international stakeholders have remained silent in the face of the destruction of Gaza's entire health system. Will medical journals, international associations and UN bodies respond to the attack on an Israeli hospital with the kind of swift condemnation and concrete actions they failed to take when hospitals in Gaza were bombed? The world should have acted when the first operating room was hit in Gaza. It should not take an Israeli facility being targeted for them to remember that hospitals are meant to be protected spaces. If an attack on a hospital is a red line, this must be true for all hospitals, not just those serving Israelis. If international law is to mean anything, it must protect everyone, with the same standards applied to every violation. Anything less is not only hypocrisy; it is complicity. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Hindustan Times
16 hours ago
- Health
- Hindustan Times
What we know about Covid variant ‘Nimbus' known for ‘razor blade throat' amid surge in cases
A new Covid variant is on the rise. According to reports, the most recent variant of the coronavirus has been identified as the "Nimbus" variant, known for causing a 'razor blade throat'. The new variant 'Nimbus', officially known as the NB.1.8.1, as per an Associated Press report, has been detected in several US states such as Washington, New York, California and Virginia. Furthermore, the variant has also been detected in Australia and the UK. As per the World Health Organisation, Nimbus is a subvariant of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19. Under the WHO list of Covid variants to watch for, Nimbus has been classified as a 'variant under monitoring'. 'The WHO assesses the additional risk to the global public as currently low, and existing Covid-19 vaccines are considered effective in preventing severe disease,' Dr Naveed Asif, a general practitioner at The London General Practice, told The Independent. Also Read: India's active Covid cases near 6,500; 'newly emerging XFG variant' found, says INSACOG | What is it? As per the data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the new Omicron variant is currently responsible for one-third of coronavirus cases in the United States (37 per cent). Furthermore, according to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, the new variant has been detected in at least 13 US states. The variant was also detected in the UK. As per the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA, Britain saw a 10 percent jump in hospitalisation with around 947 patients admitted in the week ending May 31. of this, at least 13 cases have been attributed to Nimbus. The Nimbus variant also carries symptoms similar to the Omicron variant, such as congestion, fatigue, mild cough, fever, loss of taste and smell, runny nose, loss of appetite and muscle aches. However, the variant has garnered global attention due to an unusually painful symptom called "razor blade throat." As the phrase says, patients have likened this symptom to having a razor blade stuck down your throat. Despite this symptom, WHO has stated that the Nimbus variant does not appear to cause more severe illness than previous strains and is still at the low risk category.
Metro
20 hours ago
- Health
- Metro
Family of Brit killed by rabies share video of her dancing weeks before she died
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A British mum who died of rabies weeks after being scratched by a dog on holiday was dancing and carefree just a fortnight before her death. Yvonne Ford, from Barnsley in South Yorkshire, started feeling ill a couple of weeks ago. The 59-year-old had been scratched by a dog during a family holiday in Morocco in February – but nobody thought anything of it until she started showing symptoms earlier this month. Yvonne's family have shared a warning about the dangers of rabies, and shared a heartbreaking video of her dancing only a short time before she started showing symptoms to demonstrate just how quickly the virus took hold. The clip, filmed less than two weeks before Yvonne's death, shows her dancing around an umbrella surrounded by younger relatives, throwing her hands in the air and smiling. She was showing absolutely no signs that she was carrying the virus, which can take up to 12 weeks to start showing symptoms. Her daughter Robyn Thompson, 32, shared the video on social media and added: 'We never thought something like this could happen to someone we love. Please take animal bites seriously, vaccinate your pets and educate those around you.' Recalling the moment her mum was scratched by a dog, she added: 'At the time, she did not think any harm would come of it and didn't think much of it. 'Two weeks ago, she became ill, starting with a headache and resulted in her losing her ability to walk, talk, sleep, swallow. 'Mum was the heart of our family – strong, loving and endlessly supportive. 'No words can fully capture the depth of our loss or the impact she had on all of us.' Initial symptoms can include anxiety, headaches and fever There may be hallucinations and respiratory failure if it develops Spasms of the muscles used for swallowing make it difficult for the patient to drink The incubation period between being infected and showing symptoms is between three and 12 weeks If you are bitten, scratched or licked by an animal you must wash the wound or site of exposure with plenty of soap and water and seek medical advice without delay Once symptoms have developed, rabies is almost always fatal Before symptoms develop, rabies can be treated with a course of vaccine – this is 'extremely effective' when given promptly after a bite – along with rabies immunoglobulin if required Every year, more than 15million people worldwide receive a post-bite vaccination and this is estimated to prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths Pre-exposure immunisation is recommended for people in certain high-risk occupations and for travellers to rabies-affected, remote areas But effective treatment for rabies is not readily available to those in need UKHSA/World Health Organisation The UK Health Security Agency says it's assessing anyone who came into contact with Yvonne since she returned from Morocco. More Trending They say there is no risk to the wider public. Dr Katherine Russell said: 'If you are bitten, scratched or licked by an animal in a country where rabies is found then you should wash the wound or site of exposure with plenty of soap and water and seek medical advice without delay in order to get post-exposure treatment to prevent rabies.' Rabies, which is fatal in almost all cases, causes tens of thousands of deaths every year, mostly in Asia and Africa, according to the World Health Organisation, and dogs are responsible for 99% of cases. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Urgent recall for chicken fettuccine alfredo 'linked to three deaths and a pregnancy loss' MORE: Urgent recall of dark chocolate almonds over 'life-threatening' health risk MORE: MPs vote in favour of decriminalising abortions in free vote
