Posts tagged World Health Organisation

Nanotech tool may help detect diseases using a smartphone

0 Comments read Health & Science
A 3D model of the nanostructure fabricated by the scientists at the University of Melbourne. Shown is a less than 200nm thick array of so called ‘nanorods’ that allows the device to visualize transparent objects like biological cells. Photo Credit: University of Melbourne & ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems.

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 12.05.2022 (SciDev.Net): A nanotech imaging device, tiny enough to fit on a smartphone camera lens, has the potential to make the diagnosis of certain diseases accessible and affordable for people in rural and remote regions, say Australian scientists who developed it.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought diagnostics into sharp focus and the World Health Organization has called on countries to prioritise investments in quality diagnostics as the first step in control, treatment and prevention of disease.

The scientists from the University of Melbourne and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) published details of the device in the journal ACS Photonics.

Continue reading →

Climate change a major threat to global health: WHO

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science
Climate change is impacting health. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 11.04.2022 (SciDev.Net): Climate change poses a serious threat to human health that calls for urgent action and global collaboration on scales seen in the COVID-19 response, says the World Health Organization (WHO).

“If we don’t take action today on planet health, we are putting our future health at risk. And when health is at risk, everything is at risk. That’s what we have learned from COVID-19,” Takeshi Kasai, WHO regional director for the Western Pacific Region said addressing a virtual press conference from Manila on 7 April, World Health Day

“Climate crisis is also a health crisis since climate change affects health in many different ways,” Kasai said, emphasising the need to build sustainable, climate-resilient health systems.

Continue reading →

Legal Identity for all a must

0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 24.11.2021 (SciDev.Net): A strong, universal, responsive civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system is critical for Asia Pacific countries to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that the most vulnerable have access to healthcare, immunisation and social welfare services.

This was highlighted in the Ministerial Declaration issued at the conclusion in Bangkok of the Second Ministerial Conference on CRVS (16—19 November) in Asia and the Pacific, organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

Nearly 40 per cent of global deaths in 2020 were unregistered, according to a WHO report. And preliminary WHO estimates suggest that the total global excess mortality directly or indirectly attributable to COVID-19 amounts to 1.2 million more than the reported deaths in 2020.

Continue reading →