World Health Organization (WHO) News

Zika Virus Concern Boosts Travel Insurance Sales: Reuters

Travel insurance sales for trips to Latin America have surged as vacationers consider scrapping their plans to avoid the rapidly spreading Zika virus, one of the top U.S. providers, RoamRight, told Reuters on Monday. The Maryland-based company, part of insurer …

Nations Must Wake Up to Catastrophic Potential of Pandemic Risk: Report

In October of 2000, an Ebola outbreak was detected in Gulu, Uganda. The virus spread across the country, infecting 425 people and killing over half of them. It was a wakeup call for the African nation, but apparently not the …

Update on Ebola in U.S.: New CDC Protocols, Rapid Response Team, Czar

The United States issued stringent new protocols on Monday for health workers treating Ebola victims, directing medical teams to wear protective gear that leaves no skin or hair exposed to prevent medical workers from becoming infected. The new guidelines from …

As Risks Multiply, NGOs Reassess Security, Insurance Costs in Middle East

Aid agencies are tightening security measures in the Middle East and increasingly outsourcing work to local organizations to limit their exposure to multiplying risks across the region. Most if not all international NGOs had already stopped sending expatriate staff into …

Budget Cuts Worry Bird Flu Experts

The World Health Organization’s ability to police the new strain of bird flu that has killed 27 people in China is being jeopardized by budget cuts, according to a top U.S. official. “One of the things that, frankly, concerns us …

WHO Says New Bird Flu Strain is ‘One of Most Lethal’ Viruses

A new strain of bird flu that has killed 22 people in China is “one of the most lethal” of its kind and is more easily transmissible to humans than an earlier strain that has killed hundreds around the world …

Scientists in Race to Gauge Pandemic Risk of New Bird Flu

Genetic sequence data on a deadly strain of bird flu previously unknown in people show the virus has already acquired some mutations that might make it more likely to cause a human pandemic, scientists say. But there is no evidence …