Posts tagged WHO

Open-source exoskeleton aims to close disability divide

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By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 03.07.2025 (SciDev.Net): Mechanical engineers in the US have decided to make their design open source, ensuring the assistive technology for people with severe physical disabilities is free to access across the globe.

The Northern Arizona University researchers say OpenExo could help people in resource-limited countries create their own wearable robotic devices and foster innovation in this field. The modular robotic device with multiple configurations can assist in the rehabilitation and improved mobility of people with physical disabilities, such as spinal cord injuries, stroke-related impairments and cerebral palsy.

Globally, over 2.5 billion people need one or more assistive products. According to The WHO and UNICEF Global report on assistive technology (2022), only three per cent of people in some low-income countries have access to the assistive products they need, in comparison to 90 per cent in some high-income countries.

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No ‘human-to-human infection’ of bird flu in Cambodia

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A man with his rooster in Battambang, Cambodia. Photo Credit ©Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 02.03.2023 (SciDev.Net): Cambodian health authorities have confirmed that the two avian flu cases last week in Prey Veng province were “infected from birds in their village” and that “no transmission between father and daughter has been found”.

“As of today [1 March], there is no evidence of human-to-human transmission in Cambodia and the response is still ongoing,” Ailan Li, WHO Representative to Cambodia, told SciDev.Net following the death of an 11-year-old girl from the virus. “While there have been a few infections in humans globally, so far, the virus is not known to spread from person to person easily.”

The infection, which largely affects birds and animals, has a 50 per cent mortality rate in humans. Globally, 873 human cases of H5N1 and 458 deaths have been reported in 21 countries since 2003, according to the UN health agency.

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Smartphone operated tool uses light beam to detect malaria

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The malaria detection tool collects an infrared signature for a mobile phone to process. Photo Credit: ©The University of Queensland.

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 16.12.2022 (SciDev.Net): A quick, affordable, non-invasive detection tool could help accelerate progress in meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ target to eliminate malaria, say researchers who developed it.

The WHO’s global technical strategy for malaria 2016–2030 aims to reduce malaria incidence and mortality rates by at least 75 per cent by 2025 and at least 90 per cent by 2030 against a 2015 baseline. But by 2021, malaria case incidence and deaths are both off track by 48 per cent. Based on the current trajectories, the world will be off track in reaching the malaria targets by 88 per cent, according to Abdisalan Noor, head of the Strategic Information for Response Unit, WHO Global Malaria Programme.

To help get back on track, researchers from Australia and Brazil have come up with a handheld, smartphone-operated, near-infrared spectrometer that shines infrared light for about five seconds on a person’s ears, arms, or fingers to detect changes in the blood caused by malaria.

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