Category: Community
UN Report: newborn mortality likely to rise in near future
The latest report by UN agencies warned on Thursday that at current trends of child mortality, nearly 60 million children could die before their fifth birthday between 2017 and 2030, half being newborns, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. The report, Levels and Trends in Child Mortality 2017, was jointly released by the UN Children’s Fund [...]
3 Americans awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for body clock studies
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was recently awarded to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young on Monday. They had made discoveries about the molecular mechanisms controlling the body’s circadian rhythm. The three scientists used fruit flies to isolate a gene that controls the rhythm of a living organism’s daily life. [...]
WHO not to partner with Philip Morris-funded smoking foundation
Leading tobacco company Phillip Morris International has set up a foundation that will focus on researching ways of reducing harm from smoking. But the World Health Organization (WHO) said it will not partner with the foundation and urged governments to do the same. The UN health body said there was a conflict of interest in [...]
Singapore develops healthier, “diabetic-friendly” noodles
Singapore’s Health Promotion Board (HPB) and the Food Innovation Research Centre at Singapore Polytechnic have co-developed “diabetic-friendly” noodles that could be used to cook healthier versions of the popular noodle dishes mee rebus and cheecheong fun. Mee rebus, which literally means “boiled noodles, is a popular noodle dish in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Chee cheong [...]
Spread of “super malaria” in Southeast Asia a serious global health threat
A dangerous form of the malaria parasite, called “super malaria”, is spreading across Southeast Asia and causing alarm as it poses a serious global health threat. The team at the Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok said there was a real danger of malaria becoming untreatable. The new form of the parasite is resistant [...]
Only a fifth of the UN health goals are likely to be met, global review says
A global health review has revealed that not a single country, out of the almost 200 that were reviewed, were on track to meet the UN goal of eliminating new tuberculosis infections by 2030. They also found that less than 5% of countries were likely to reach the UN goal of reducing suicides, road deaths [...]
Congo’s cholera epidemic kills more than 500 people
The current cholera epidemic that is sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa has now claimed over 500 lives, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Outbreaks of the water-borne disease occur regularly in Congo, mainly due to poor sanitation and a lack of access to clean drinking water. But this year’s epidemic, [...]
Fears rise over malaria’s possible comeback in Italy after decades
A four-year-old girl in Italy has died of malaria, raising fears over the comeback of the mosquito-borne disease decades after it has been eliminated in the country. Sonia Zago developed a high fever after returning home from a vacation in Bibione, a seaside town on the Adriatic coast near Venice. As her condition worsened, she [...]
NUS president Tan ChorhChuan is Singapore’s first Chief Health Scientist
Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH) has chosen National University of Singapore (NUS) president Tan Chorh Chuan to be the country’s first Chief Health Scientist beginning January 1 next year. He will concurrently serve as executive director of the new Office for Healthcare Transformation, MOH said in a press release. “As the founding executive director, Professor [...]
Singapore to improve training, salary of clinical research coordinators
As clinical research takes on an increasing and more vital role in the search for healthcare solutions that are specifically tailored for the needs of Singapore’s population, its Health Ministry is putting in S$35 million to fund training programs and salary increases of clinical research coordinators (CRCs). Senior Minister of State for Health and Transport [...]
