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  • 12/04/2015 - First ever estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases show almost 1 in 10 people fall ill every year from eating contaminated food and 420 000 die as a result. Children under 5 years of age are at particularly high risk, with 125 000 children dying from foodborne diseases every year. WHO African and South-East Asia Regions have the highest burden of foodborne diseases.
  • 11/25/2015 - Unbeknownst to most of the 2,000+ delegates gathering for the start of the 2nd Global High-Level Conference on Road Safety in Brasilia last week, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Margaret Chan, the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa F. Etienne, and PAHO/WHO's country representative in Brazil, Joaquín Molina, were meeting with the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff to discuss topics which impact many countries in the Americas. The informal 10-minute meet and greet turned into a 40-minute conversation.
  • 11/25/2015 - The first meeting of the Program to Strengthen Cooperation for Health Development in the America is taking place, this week, in the Palace Itaboray, in Petrópolis, Brazil. The Department of External Relations, Partnerships, and Mobilization of Resources of the Pan American Health Organization/Organization World Health (PAHO/WHO), with the support of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), is developing a program to strengthen the capacities of the International Relations Offices (ORIS) in the Ministries of Health of the Region, as well as leading national actors of international health cooperation, based upon the recently approved Policy on Cooperation for Health Development during the PAHO/WHO's 52 Directing Council, in September 2013.
  • 11/24/2015 - Lack of access to toilets is endangering millions of the world’s poorest children, UNICEF said today, pointing to emerging evidence of links between inadequate sanitation and malnutrition.    Some 2.4 billion people globally do not have toilets and 946 million – roughly 1 in 8 of the world’s population – defecate in the open. Meanwhile, an estimated 159 million children under 5 years old are stunted (short for their age) and another 50 million are wasted (low weight for age).    A report issued today, Improving Nutrition Outcomes with Better Water, Sanitation and Hygiene, from UNICEF, USAID and the World Health Organization, for the first time brings together years of research and case studies which demonstrate the link between sanitation and malnutrition. More importantly, it provides guidance for action.  
  • 11/19/2015 - The Pan American Journal of Public Health, published by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), announces a call for papers for an upcoming special issue on HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care and Treatment in the Region of the Americas: Achievements, Challenges and Perspectives, to be published by December of 2016 with support from the HIV, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis and STI Unit at PAHO and other regional partners.
  • 11/18/2015 - The ministers of health of MERCOSUR and Associate States completed initial negotiations with a number of pharmaceutical companies on 13 November in Asunción, Paraguay, that will lead to the joint procurement of high-cost medicines, with the support of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). In an initial round of negotiations, the ministers of health received an offer from the pharmaceutical company Gilead for an antiviral medicine against hepatitis C at the lowest price available in the region. Agreement was also reached on using the PAHO Strategic Fund for pooled procurement of an antiretroviral medicine to treat HIV/AIDS.
  • 11/18/2015 - Updated figures released by the United Nations yesterday revealed that the global maternal death ratio has dropped 44 per cent since 1990. Yet too many women continue to die needlessly, and a majority of them are dying in countries afflicted by humanitarian crises or fragile conditions. Between 1990 and 2015, the annual number of maternal deaths fell from about 532,000 to 303,000, according to the latest figures released by UNFPA, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the UN Population Division. The maternal death ratio fell from 385 deaths to 216 out of every 100,000 live births.
  • 11/16/2015 - An estimated 11 million children are at risk from hunger, disease and lack of water in eastern and southern Africa as a result of a strengthening El Niño, which is also causing droughts and floods in parts of Asia, the Pacific and Latin America, UNICEF warned on Tuesday. The consequences could ripple through generations unless affected communities receive support amid crop failures and lack of access to drinking water that are leaving children malnourished and at risk of killer diseases, UNICEF said in report called A Wake Up Call: El Niño's Impact on Children.
  • 11/03/2015 - The experience of the European Union with cross-border health care was the subject of the opening conference of the workshop “Border health policies in UNASUR”, organized by ISAGS, from October 27 to 29, in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). The speech was broadcasted live and was delivered by the expert from European Commission, Maria Iglesia Gomez. Delegations from the 12 countries of the Bloc, besides representatives from sub-regional organisms - CARICOM, ACTO, ORAS-CONHU and MERCOSUR – participated.
  • 10/26/2015 - With the purpose of responding to the needs of countries of the Andean area in order to ensure the access to quality and efficient medicines at a low cost, the electronic platform of the Andean Observatory on Medicines was launched in Cochabamba (Bolivia), on October 13. The mechanism was developed by the Executive Secretariat and by the Subregional Technical Commission on Policies for the Access to Medicines of ORAS-CONHU, and received support from PAHO Bolivia, as well as contributions from the Ministries of Health of the region. The strategic points of the Andean policy for medicines outlined the four central axes that constitute the Observatory: the access to medicines; quality, efficiency and safety; the rational use of medicines; research and development.

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