Dar Es Salaam, May 18 (IANS) Tanzania has stepped up surveillance, border screening and emergency preparedness measures following an Ebola outbreak in the neighbouring Congo (DRC), a senior health official said.Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Ministry of Health, Erasto Sylvanus, said on Sunday that the government is working closely with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and neighbouring countries to strengthen prevention, early detection and rapid response mechanisms aga…
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Colombo, May 13 (IANS) Sri Lanka has recorded 27,754 dengue cases and 14 deaths so far this year, with infections reported from all 25 districts, health officials said.The National Dengue Control Unit said the number of confirmed cases has increased compared with 2025. The highest number of infections has been reported from the Western Province, while Matara, Galle, Ratnapura, Kalutara and Kandy have also recorded significant case numbers during the first four months of 2026.Community Medical Sp…
Cape Town, May 13 (IANS) The number of possible contacts with hantavirus-infected people has increased to 97 in South Africa, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has confirmed.South African teams were working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) to track exposed passengers, healthcare workers and airline contacts with infected persons, Motsoaledi told the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) News on Monday.”So far, we have ide…
Madrid, May 12 (IANS) The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday said additional hantavirus cases could still emerge in the coming weeks following the evacuation of passengers from the outbreak-hit cruise ship MV Hondius, while stressing that the global public health risk remains low.”Given the long incubation period of the virus, it is possible that we may see more cases in the coming weeks,” Tedros said at a joint press conference with Spanish Pr…
Beijing, May 12 (IANS) China has announced that it will not approve Taiwan’s participation in the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA) set to be held in Geneva from May 18-23. Addressing a regular press conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun reiterated the country’s stance that Taiwan is an “inalienable” part of China and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Guo stated that Taiwan’s participa…
Seoul, May 11 (IANS) North Korea has raised the alarm over the danger posed by the Hantavirus after an outbreak on a foreign cruise ship has killed three passengers, echoing its response to the COVID-19 pandemic years earlier.The Rodong Simnum, the ruling Workers’ Party’s official newspaper, reported Monday on the outbreak of the Andes strain of the virus on a ship sailing in the Atlantic Ocean, describing it as “raising concerns from the international community.”The US Centres for Disease Contr…
Madrid, May 11 (IANS) The Embassy of India in Madrid, Spain, stated on Sunday that two Indians who were aboard the Hantavirus-hit cruise ship are safe and asymptomatic.The Dutch-flagged vessel MV Hondius, with around 150 individuals, including two Indian nationals, arrived in Spain on Sunday.In the context of the Hantavirus outbreak, the ship anchored off the coast of the Canary Islands of Spain. The passengers onboard disembarked from the ship in accordance with the protocol established by the …
Islamabad, May 8 (IANS) Over 20,000 patients out of 84,000 registered HIV infected people in Pakistan have gone “missing” after beginning antiretroviral therapy, raising concerns over the potential transmission within the community, a report said on Friday. According to an editorial in leading Pakistani daily ‘The Express Tribune’, Pakistan has emerged as one of the fastest-growing HIV epidemic hotspots in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, covering 22 countries in West Asia, North Africa, th…
Kabul, May 6 (IANS) A mother dies from preventable complications every hour in Afghanistan, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, showcasing a health system still struggling to protect women during pregnancy and childbirth, local media reported on Wednesday. In a statement issued on International Day of the Midwife, the WHO said the maternal mortality rate in Afghanistan remains among the highest across the world, at 521 deaths per 100,000 live births, even as access to basic care has improv…
Islamabad, May 3 (IANS) The WHO’s Global Hepatitis Report 2026 has revealed that Pakistan is the single largest contributor to the number of people living with hepatitis C in the world, even as field reports from different parts of the country revealed continued availability of banned reusable syringes and fake auto-disable syringes in the market, which experts fear can cause transmission of hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV, when used repeatedly by unqualified practitioners. Pakistan is among t…