UN starts vaccinating people against Ebola in Congo LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization said Wednesday that officials have begun vaccinating people in eastern Congo against Ebola, after it was confirmed last week that the disease killed a toddler. The U.N. health agency said in a statement that people at high risk of catching the disease, including the young boy’s family members […]
Panel finds 80 alleged abuse cases tied to WHO’s … BENI, Congo (AP) — Twenty-one workers for the World Health Organization in Congo have been accused of sexually abusing people during a Ebola outbreak, a WHO-commissioned panel said Tuesday in a report that identified 83 alleged perpetrators connected to the 2018-2020 mission. The panel released its findings months after an Associated Press investigationfound senior WHO […]
UNAIDS chief says behavior of ex-staffer was ‘unacceptable’ LONDON (AP) — The U.N. AIDS agency acknowledged in an internal email last week that the behavior of a former top official toward women was “unacceptable” and was permitted by a culture which allowed misconduct. It was the latest development of a sexual harassment scandal that led the agency’s previous leader to bow out early […]
WHO issues call for experts to help with COVID origins … GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization has issued a call for experts to join a new advisory group it’s forming, in part to address the agency’s fraught attempts to investigate how the coronavirus pandemic started. In a statement on Friday, the U.N. health agency said the new scientific group would provide the WHO with […]
‘Heartbreaking’: Mississippi gets 2nd field hospital … JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — On normal days, the garage is where people park while visiting Mississippi’s only children’s hospital, a building next door decorated with a logo of a rainbow and sun. Now air-conditioned tents with beds, monitors and oxygen fill the garage’s bottom floor. By Wednesday, coronavirus patients will begin being treated in Mississippi’s […]
Ebola case reported in Ivory Coast after Guinea outbreak ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — A patient has tested positive for Ebola in Abidjan, a city of more than 4 million people, marking the first case of the disease in Ivory Coast in more than a quarter century, the World Health Organization said. Health officials said it was not immediately known whether the case was […]
WHO, Guinea find at least 4 contacts of Marburg virus … GENEVA (AP) — At least four people have turned up as contacts of a man who died in Guinea from the Ebola-like Marburg virus, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, as staffers deployed in the West African country to help authorities prevent an outbreak. WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said the case, first reported late Monday, […]
Guinea reports West Africa’s first known Marburg … CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Authorities in West Africa have confirmed the region’s first known case of Marburg virus after at least one person in Guinea died of the hemorrhagic fever disease, the World Health Organization said Monday. Health officials said they were trying to track down everyone who may have come into contact with the […]
Study: Vaccinated people can carry as much virus … In another dispiriting setback for the nation’s efforts to stamp out the coronavirus, scientists who studied a big COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts concluded that vaccinated people who got so-called breakthrough infections carried about the same amount of the coronavirus as those who did not get the shots. Health officials on Friday released details of that […]
WHO chief says it was ‘premature’ to rule out COVID … BERLIN (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization acknowledged it was premature to rule out a potential link between the COVID-19 pandemic and a laboratory leak, and he said Thursday he is asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus. In a rare departure from his […]
WHO appoints official to help prevent sexual abuse … GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization has appointed a new official to address the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, following revelations that staffers allegedly traded jobs for sex during a deployment to Congo to fight an Ebola outbreak, the U.N. agency said Friday. Dr. Gaya Gamhewage, a 20-year WHO veteran, will seek to […]
US to spend $3.2B on treatments for COVID-19, other … WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is devoting $3.2 billion to speed development of antiviral pills to treat COVID-19 and other dangerous viruses that could turn into pandemics. The new program will invest in “accelerating things that are already in progress” for COVID-19 but also would work to come up with treatments for other viruses, […]