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Tag: Dr. Margaret Chan

  • 1.25m people die in road accidents annually – WHO

    1.25m people die in road accidents annually – WHO

    No fewer than 1.25 million people died as a result of road accidents every year, the World Health Organisation (WHO), said on Friday.

    WHO, in a new report ‘Managing Speed’, also said that “excessive or inappropriate speed contributes to one in three road traffic fatalities worldwide”.

    Road traffic fatality rates are nearly 3 times lower in Europe compared to Africa, WHO said.

    According to the global health body, measures to address speed prevents road traffic deaths and injuries, make populations healthier, and cities more sustainable.

    “Around 1.25 million people die every year on the world’s roads. Studies indicate that typically 40 to 50 per cent of drivers go over posted speed limits.

    “Drivers who are male, young and under the influence of alcohol are more likely to be involved in speed-related crashes.

    “Road traffic crashes remain the number one cause of death among young people aged 15 to 29 years.

    “They are estimated to cost countries from three to five per cent of Gross Domestic Products (GDPs) and push many families into poverty,” WHO said.

    WHO said only 47 countries comply with speed management measures.

    These measures are, implementing an urban speed limit of 50 kilometres per hour or less and allowing local authorities to reduce these limits further on roads around schools, residences and businesses.

    WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said “speed is at the core of the global road traffic injury problem.

    “If countries were to address just this key risk, they would soon reap the rewards of safer roads, both in terms of lives saved and increases in walking and cycling, with profound and lasting effects on health”.

    The UN agency recommended some speed management measures, among which are building or modifying roads to include features that calm traffic, such as roundabouts and speed bumps; and establishing speed limits appropriate to the function of each road.

    Others are enforcing speed limits through the use of manual and automated controls; installing in-vehicle technologies in new cars, such as intelligent speed assistance and autonomous emergency braking; and raising awareness about the dangers of speed.

    “By reducing speed and improving safety, their populations benefit from the added advantages of increases in walking and cycling and reductions in air and noise pollution.

    “Such actions, in turn, have positive health benefits on rates of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases,” it said.

    ‘Managing Speed’ was released in advance of the Fourth UN Global Road Safety Week, from May 8 to 14.

    The week and its related campaign “Save Lives: #SlowDown” draw attention to the dangers of speed and the measures which should be put in place to address this leading risk for road traffic deaths and injuries.

    Among hundreds of other events would feature symposia in Nigeria, Montenegro, Philippines, Poland and Sierra Leone.

    The UN Week is a unique advocacy opportunity that contributes to achievement of the road safety-related Sustainable Development Goal targets 3.6 and 11.2.

    On the occasion of the UN Week, WHO will also release ‘Save LIVES: a road safety technical package’.

    The package details 22 key evidence-based measures considered most likely to impact on road traffic deaths and injuries, including a number linked to managing speed.

  • WHO begins process to elect next Director-General

    WHO begins process to elect next Director-General

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that the process to elect its next Director-General was now underway.

    A statement by the world health body said that the Director-General is WHO’s chief technical and administrative officer and oversees policy for its international health work.

    Dr Margaret Chan, who is the current incumbent director-general was elected in 2006 and will complete her second term on June 30 next year.

    According to the statement, the first step in a rigorous process will be for member states to nominate candidates.

    This would culminate in a final round of voting at the World Health Assembly in May 2017, with the new Director-General taking office on July 1, 2017.

    “The process of electing a new Director-General takes more than one year and it involves some key steps.

    “Member States will have until September 22 to submit proposals for nominations to the post of Director-General, at which point the names of the candidates and their proposers will be made public.

    “In October, member states and candidates will be given the opportunity to interact in a password-protected web forum hosted on the WHO website.

    “In November, over a period of up to three days, a live forum will be held, at which candidates will present their vision to WHO Member States.

    “They will also be able to answer questions on their candidacy,’’ the statement read in part.

    It added that: “In January 2017, WHO’s Executive Board will use a new electronic voting system to draw up a short list of up to five candidates.

    “Executive Board members will then interview these candidates and nominate up to three of them to go forward to the World Health Assembly in May 2017.

    “At the World Health Assembly, member states will vote in a new Director-General, who will take office on July 1, 2017.’’

  • WHO calls for global action to stop rise in diabetes

    WHO calls for global action to stop rise in diabetes

    The World Health Organisation (WHO), on Wednesday called for global action to halt rise in and improve care for people with diabetes.
    This is contained in a report on diabetes launched for the first time by the WHO, ahead of the World Health Day, which will be observed on Thursday.
    The organisation called for measures including expanding health-promoting environments to reduce diabetes risk factors, and physical inactivity and unhealthy diets.
    It also called member states to strengthen national capacities to help people with diabetes receive the treatment and care that they would need to manage their conditions.
    WHO added that the number of people living with diabetes had almost quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults, with most living in developing countries.
    It said that factors driving this dramatic rise include overweight and obesity.
    Key findings from the “Global report on diabetes” are that number of people living with diabetes and its prevalence are growing in all regions of the world.
    It showed that in 2014, 422 million adults or 8.5 per cent of the population had diabetes, compared with 108 million or 4.7 per cent in 1980.
    It further showed that the epidemic of diabetes had major health and socio-economic impacts, especially in developing countries.
    It said in 2014, more than one in three adults age over 18 years, were overweight and more than one in 10 were obese.
    It warned that the complications of diabetes could lead to heart attack, stroke, blindness, kidney failure and lower limb amputation.
    For example, it added that rates of lower limb amputation were 10 to 20 times higher for people with diabetes.
    WHO added that diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012.

     

    It said that higher-than-optimal blood glucose caused an additional 2.2 million deaths by increasing the risks of cardiovascular and other diseases.
    The report also showed that many of these deaths occur prematurely.
    The deaths are mostly before the age of 70 and are largely preventable through adoption of policies to create supportive environments for healthy lifestyles and better detection and treatment of the disease.

     

    It called for good management including use of a small set of generic medicines; interventions to promote healthy lifestyles; patient education to facilitate self-care.

     

    It also called for regular screening for early detection and treatment of complications.

     

    It further added that global efforts were underway to make medicines, including for Non

    Communicable Diseases (NCDs) readily available and affordable.

     

    Reacting to the report in a statement, Dr Margaret Chan, the WHO Director-General said :”if we are to make any headway in halting the rise in diabetes, we need to rethink our daily lives.

     

    “To eat healthily, be physically active, and avoid excessive weight gain.
    “Even in the poorest settings, governments must ensure that people are able to make these healthy choices and that health systems are able to diagnose and treat people with diabetes.”
    Also, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Non Communicable Diseases (NCD) and Mental Health, Dr Oleg Chestnov, said that many cases of diabetes could be prevented.

     

    Chestnov said that measures existed to detect and manage the condition, improving the odds that people with diabetes live long and healthy lives.

     

    She said that change greatly depended on governments doing more by implementing global commitments to address diabetes and other NCDs.

     

    Among the measures she mentioned are meeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), target three and four, which calls for reducing premature death from NCDs, including diabetes by 30 per cent by 2030.

     

    Also, Dr Etienne Krug, the Director of WHO’s Department for Management of NCDs, said that around 100 years after the insulin hormone was discovered, the report shows the availability of essential diabetes medicines and technologies.

     

    Krug said that it included insulin, needed for treatment and are generally available in only one in three of the world’s poorest countries.

     

    “Access to insulin is a matter of life or death for many people with diabetes. Improving access to insulin and NCD medicines in general should be a priority,” Krug said.

     

    The WHO added that commitment from world leaders, including the SDGs, the 2011 “UN Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of Non Communicable Diseases.

     

    It said that it was aimed at improving affordability and availability of essential drugs for people living with diabetes.

     

    The UN organisation said that there were three main forms of diabetes: Type one and Type two and gestational diabetes.

     

    The cause of Type One diabetes, it added, “is unknown and people living with it require daily insulin administration for survival.’’
    “While Type two accounts for the vast majority of people living with diabetes globally, and is largely the result of excess body weight and physical inactivity.’’
    It said that once seen only in adults, type two diabetes “is now increasingly occurring in children and young people.’’

     

    While Gestational diabetes is a temporary condition that occurs in pregnancy and carries long-term risk of type two diabetes.
    Gestational diabetes, it says is present when blood glucose values are above normal but still below those diagnostic of diabetes.

  • Zika outbreak will worsen before it gets better – WHO

    Zika outbreak will worsen before it gets better – WHO

    The Director-General, World Head Organisation (WHO), Margaret Chan, has warned that Zika outbreak would likely worsen before nations infected by the mosquito-borne virus get some relief.

    She made the statement on Thursday in Rio de Janeiro at the end of her two-day visit to Brazil, the country at the epicentre of the Zika crisis.

    “Things may get worse before they get better.

    “Don’t be surprised to see microcephaly reported in other parts of Brazil,” she said.

    Chan said that though the outbreak of Zika virus had been concentrated in the northeastern part of Brazil, there is possibility of it spreading to other parts of the country.

    Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly, (a condition marked by unusually small heads of the offspring of women affected by the disease that could result in developmental problems).

    Chan said that scientists were still working to determine the relationship between the virus and the birth defect.

    She said that Brazil had confirmed more than 580 cases of microcephaly, and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers.

    “Brazil is investigating more than 4,100 additional suspected cases of microcephaly,’’ she said.

    The D-G said that after Brazil, Colombia had been hardest hit by Zika infections with the country’s health officials reporting a probable case of microcephaly possibly linked to Zika in an aborted fetus.

    She said that Colombia had reported more than 37,000 cases of Zika including 6,356 in pregnant women, but was yet to have a confirmed microcephaly case linked to the virus.

    “At least 34 countries, mostly in the Americas, have active Zika outbreaks and the virus is expected to spread,’’ she said.

    Chan said that WHO declared the outbreak an international health emergency on Feb. 1, and cited “strongly suspected” relationship between Zika infection in pregnancy and microcephaly.

    She said that scientists were also studying a potential link between Zika infection and Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological disorder that could weaken the muscles and cause paralysis.

  • WHO convenes emergency meeting on Zika virus

    WHO convenes emergency meeting on Zika virus

    The World Health Organisation said it had convened a meeting of an expert committee to determine if the Zika virus outbreak in the Americas constitutes a global health emergency.

    WHO Chief, Margaret Chan, said on Thursday, during an interaction with member state representatives in Geneva, that the level of alarm was extremely high.

    She said the meeting had become necessary because the disease, which has been tentatively linked to a spike in babies born with malformed heads in Brazil, has spread to 23 countries and territories in the Americas.

  • WHO to Nigeria: War against polio must not fail

    WHO to Nigeria: War against polio must not fail

    The Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, has charged Nigeria not to relent in the efforts to rid the country of polio disease.

    Chan, who spoke at the opening of the 68th Session of the World Health Assembly, on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, maintained that overcoming the polio virus disease “is one initiative that must not fail.”

    The WHO chief, according to a statement signed by Mrs. Ayo Adesugba, Director Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Health, also commended the country for its ongoing efforts, which has ensured that no new cases had been reported in the last nine months.

    The statement reads: “The WHO Director General observed that in the past nine months Nigeria has not had any reported case of the disease and according to her, the situation in Nigeria looks extremely encouraging.”

    “She further stated that overcoming the polio virus disease is one initiative that must not fail. Dr. Chan pointed out that Afghanistan and Pakistan have both made great strides despite severe challenges.

    “Nigeria’s recognition by the WHO boss comes as a result of its aggressive response in tackling the polio virus. Its efforts have yielded success  as no case of the disease has been reported in the southern part of the country for five years and with the exception of some cases in Kano and Yobe States, no polio virus infection has been reported in the past two years in the Northern states.

    “The nation has strengthened surveillance and routine immunization, embarking on house-to-house campaigns to ensure that all eligible children receive the life-saving Polio vaccine. If Nigeria’s efforts are sustained, by July 2015, the country will be removed from the list of polio endemic countries by the World Health Organization. ”