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By Category: Public Health

World Health Agency Gets a Grip on Its Budget

(ScientificAmerican) Just three years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) was in deep financial trouble, with a US$300-million deficit. Today the agency’s future looks healthier. Last week, the World Health Assembly — the annual gathering in Geneva, Switzerland, of health ministers of the WHO’s 194 governing member states — voted in favor of major budgetary Read More »

June 5, 2013
| Filed under Europe, North America, International, Policy & Initiatives, and Public Health
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Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)

(WHO) The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has notified WHO of an additional laboratory-confirmed case with Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The patient is a 14-year-old girl with underlying medical conditions who became ill on 29 May 2013. She is reported from the Eastern region, but not from Al-Ahsa where an outbreak began Read More »

June 5, 2013
| Filed under Europe, Middle East, North America, International, and Public Health
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Of Mosquitoes And Men: Scientists Discover How Disease-carrying Vectors Are Attracted To Humans

(Science2.0) Female mosquitoes are predators of mammalian blood, relying on blood proteins to lay their eggs. While certain mosquito species are attracted to mammals by their emission of body heat and carbon dioxide, other species, such as Anopheles gambiae and Aedes aegypti, have evolved a strong lust for the smell of humans. Such mosquitoes are Read More »

June 5, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, North America, Agents & Toxins, International, Public Health, and Research
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Duke to co-lead NIH research network on antibacterial resistance

(EurekAlert) Investigators at Duke Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have been selected to oversee a nationwide research program on antibacterial resistance, which includes a focus on the growing unmet challenges associated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and E. coli. The research team will direct the allocation of a federal grant from Read More »

June 4, 2013
| Filed under North America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, Policy & Initiatives, Public Health, and Research
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Public Health Ministry warns Thais of 17 monsoon diseases

(PattayaMail) The Public Health Ministry has expressed its concerns on people catching diseases during the wet season, while disclosing that nearly 900,000 people were found sick during the rainy season of 2012, with 764 fatalities. As Thailand has now entered the monsoon season, Dr. Pradit Sintavanarong, Minister of Public Health, has warned people to be Read More »