Distribution of gifts to cancer patients on International Childhood Cancer Day 2025. Photo: WHO 1 September 2025 – Globally, 400 000 children are diagnosed with cancer annually, which means 3 children are diagnosed with cancer every 4 minutes. Of these cases, 90% occur in low- and middle-income countries, where only a fifth of diagnosed children survive. In…
Government representatives call for standardized public health procedures at the close of a 3-day simulation exercise. 25 August 2025, Cairo, Egypt – Government representatives from Egypt, Libya, Sudan and Tunisia — major countries on migratory routes in North Africa — convened in Cairo from 18–20 August for a 3-day table-top simulation exercise (SimEx) organized by…
FAO, UNICEF, WFP and WHO reiterate call for immediate ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access to curb deaths from hunger and malnutrition 22/08/2025- ROME/GENEVA/NEW YORK – More than half a million people in Gaza are trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths, according to a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC)…
19 August 2025 World Humanitarian Day (WHD), established after the 2003 Canal Hotel bombing in Iraq, honours the courage of humanitarian workers who risk their lives to save others. This year, in the region where WHD began, the Eastern Mediterranean faces some of its darkest humanitarian crises. Humanitarian needs have never been greater, yet funding…
11 August 2025, Manama, Bahrain – World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Hanan Balkhy has completed her first official visit – from 4 to 6 August 2025 – to the Kingdom of Bahrain. The visit reaffirmed the longstanding strategic partnership between WHO and the Government of Bahrain, highlighted Bahrain’s progress…
31 July 2025, Jerusalem, Cairo: The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip, according to the alert published this week by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). People are foregoing food for days. Others are dying as their undernourished, weakened bodies succumb to disease or organ failure. The health…
Invest in breastfeeding, invest in the future 1 August 2025 – Since 1992, World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) has been celebrated Annually, in the first week of August. In 2018, a World Health Assembly resolution endorsed WBW as an important breastfeeding promotion strategy. Championed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),…
26 July 2025 – In Lebanon, I stood in the ruins of a bombed-out primary health care centre in the southern suburbs of Beirut. I met mothers doing their utmost to keep their children healthy amid rising prices and dwindling options. And I witnessed the quiet determination of health workers who continue to show up…
World Hepatitis Day is observed each year on 28 July to raise awareness of viral hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, mostly caused by a viral infection that progresses to severe liver disease and liver cancer. Hepatitis is a major public health problem across the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region, affecting 27 million people…
Jerusalem, Cairo, Geneva, 27 July 2025 – Malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July. Of 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 occurred in July – including 24 children under five, a child over five, and 38 adults. Most of these people were declared dead…
