WHO & Regional Offices [to 9 April 2016]
World Health Day 2016: Action needed to halt rise in diabetes
6 April 2016 — The number of people living with diabetes has nearly quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults, with most living in developing countries. WHO is marking World Health Day, 7 April, by calling for action on diabetes. In its first “Global report on diabetes”, WHO highlights the need to step up prevention and treatment of the disease.
Read the news release

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Highlights
WHO Director-General visits Angola; urgent action needed to contain yellow fever outbreak
April 2016 — The Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, arrived today in Angola’s capital Luanda for a two-day visit to assess the situation of the current outbreak of yellow fever virus.

General Assembly proclaims the Decade of Action on Nutrition
April 2016 — The United Nations General Assembly today agreed a resolution proclaiming the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition from 2016 to 2025. The resolution aims to trigger intensified action to end hunger and eradicate malnutrition worldwide, and ensure universal access to healthier and more sustainable diets.

The Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) celebrates 90 years
April 2016 — On 1 April 1926, epidemiologists in the Health Office of the League of Nations, Geneva created the first WER. The publication’s mission was to provide the world with information about disease hazards that, at that time, mostly travelled by sea: plague, cholera, yellow fever, typhus and smallpox.

Austria: Measles in the spotlight
April 2016
In Austria, where elimination of measles is tantalizingly close, a creative and innovative campaign seeks to encourage vaccination among unimmunized adults.

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WHO SAGE Meeting
Geneva: 12 – 14 April 2016.
:: Draft agenda pdf, 121kb as of 18 March 2016

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Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) 08 April 2016, vol. 91, 14 (pp. 181–192)
Contents:
181 A review of the role of training in WHO Ebola emergency response
186 Yellow fever urban outbreak in Angola and the risk of extension
192 Monthly report on dracunculiasis cases, January– February 2016

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Disease Outbreak News (DONs)
:: 8 April 2016 Lassa Fever – Sweden
:: 6 April 2016 Yellow Fever – Kenya
:: 6 April 2016 Yellow Fever – China

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:: WHO Regional Offices
WHO African Region AFRO
:: WHO Director General and WHO Regional Director for Africa Conclude Official Visit to Angola
7 April 2016, Luanda – The World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti and the Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan have concluded a three-day official visit to Angola. The visit aimed at assessing the ongoing efforts to prevent and control the yellow fever epidemic which has gripped the country since December 2015, and to identify ways of further strengthening support to Angola.

WHO Region of the Americas PAHO
:: PAHO offers to provide technical support for pilot studies of new mosquito control technologies (04/08/2016)
:: PAHO Director lauds Mexico’s soda tax as a model measure to fight diabetes (04/07/2016)
:: The number of people with diabetes in the Americas has tripled since 1980 (04/06/2016)
:: ‘Don Francisco’ joins PAHO to promote diabetes prevention and control (04/05/2016)

WHO South-East Asia Region SEARO
:: Urgent, concerted efforts needed to stem diabetes epidemic: WHO
SEAR/PR/1620
New Delhi, 29 March 2016: Countries in the WHO South-East Asia Region must take vigorous and concerted action to ‘prevent, treat and beat’ diabetes, a potentially fatal disease that has reached epidemic proportions and is expected to further increase in coming years.

WHO European Region EURO
:: Poliomyelitis (polio) and the vaccines used to eradicate it – questions and answers 08-04-2016
:: European countries to participate in global polio vaccine switch 08-04-2016
:: WHO calls for global action on diabetes 07-04-2016
:: World Health Day 2016: Living with diabetes and educating others 07-04-2016
:: Consensus on causal link between Zika and neurological disorders 06-04-2016

WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region EMRO
:: WHO condemns attack on Ma’arib Hospital, Yemen 6 April 2016
:: Kuwait boosts treatments for chronic diseases in Syria 6 April 2016
:: New WHO policy aims to lower sugar intake to fight obesity and overweight in the Region
5 April 2016

WHO Western Pacific Region
:: World Health Day 2016: Together on the front lines against diabetes
MANILA, 7 April 2016 – On World Health Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) in the Western Pacific Region stands with all Member States and partners to renew its commitment to advance the understanding of diabetes and calls on all communities across the Region to work together to effectively manage and prevent the disease.