WHO – The Commerce Africa https://thecommerceafrica.com African Reneissance Tue, 05 Dec 2023 22:12:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9 Alcohol, sugary beverages kill 10.6 million yearly — WHO https://thecommerceafrica.com/alcohol-sugary-beverages-kill-10-6-million-yearly-who/ https://thecommerceafrica.com/alcohol-sugary-beverages-kill-10-6-million-yearly-who/#respond Tue, 05 Dec 2023 22:09:23 +0000 https://thecommerceafrica.com/?p=15754 The World Health Organisation has called for increased taxes on alcohol and Sugary-Sweetened Beverages to reduce deaths from drinking alcohol and unhealthy behaviours.

The WHO who made this known in a press statement on Tuesday, noted that globally, 2.6 million people die from drinking alcohol every year and over eight million from an unhealthy diet, implementing a tax on alcohol and SSBs will reduce these deaths.

Meanwhile, new data released by the WHO on Tuesday showed a low global rate of taxes being applied to unhealthy products such as alcohol and SSBs.

Meanwhile, new data released by the WHO on Tuesday showed a low global rate of taxes being applied to unhealthy products such as alcohol and SSBs.

The findings highlighted that the majority of countries are not using taxes to incentivise healthier behaviours.

“Half of all countries taxing SSBs are also taxing water, which is not recommended by WHO. Although 108 countries are taxing some sort of sugar-sweetened beverage, globally, on the average excise tax, a tax designated for a specified consumer product, represents just 6.6 percent of the price of soda.

“At least 148 countries have applied excise taxes to alcoholic beverages at the national level. However, wine is exempted from excise taxes in at least 22 countries, most of which are in the European Region. Globally, on average, the excise tax share in the price of the most sold brand of beer is 17.2 percent. For the most sold brand of the most sold spirits type, it is 26.5 percent,” it said.

A 2017 study shows that taxes that increase alcohol prices by 50 percent would help avert over 21 million deaths over 50 years and generate nearly $17tn in additional revenues.

“Taxing unhealthy products creates healthier populations. It has a positive ripple effect across society – less disease and debilitation and revenue for governments to provide public services. In the case of alcohol, taxes also help prevent violence and road traffic injuries,” said the WHO Director for Health Promotion, Dr Rűdiger Krech.

The organisation said countries like Lithuania, which increased alcohol tax in 2017 to drive down consumption have decreased deaths from alcohol-related diseases.

“Lithuania increased alcohol tax revenue from 234 million euros in 2016 to 323 million euros in 2018 and saw alcohol-related deaths drop from 23.4 per 100,000 people in 2016 to 18.1 per 100,000 people in 2018.

“Research shows that taxing alcohol and SSBs helps cut down the use of these products and gives companies a reason to make healthier products. At the same time tax on these products helps prevent injuries and noncommunicable diseases such as cancers, diabetes and heart diseases.

“A recent Gallup Poll, conducted in collaboration with WHO and Bloomberg Philanthropies, found that the majority of people surveyed across all countries supported increasing taxes on unhealthy products such as alcohol and SBBs.

“WHO recommends that excise tax should apply to all SSBs and alcoholic beverages,” it added.

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WHO calls for safe and ethical AI for health https://thecommerceafrica.com/who-calls-for-safe-and-ethical-ai-for-health/ https://thecommerceafrica.com/who-calls-for-safe-and-ethical-ai-for-health/#respond Tue, 16 May 2023 10:50:58 +0000 https://thecommerceafrica.com/?p=13608 The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for caution to be exercised in using artificial intelligence (AI) generated large language model tools (LLMs) to protect and promote human well-being, human safety, and autonomy, and preserve public health. 

LLMs include some of the most rapidly expanding platforms such as ChatGPT, Bard, Bert and many others that imitate understanding, processing, and producing human communication. Their meteoric public diffusion and growing experimental use for health-related purposes is generating significant excitement around the potential to support people’s health needs. 

It is imperative that the risks be examined carefully when using LLMs to improve access to health information, as a decision-support tool, or even to enhance diagnostic capacity in under-resourced settings to protect people’s health and reduce inequity.

While WHO is enthusiastic about the appropriate use of technologies, including LLMs, to support health-care professionals, patients, researchers and scientists, there is concern that caution that would normally be exercised for any new technology is not being exercised consistently with LLMs. This includes widespread adherence to key values of transparency, inclusion, public engagement, expert supervision, and rigorous evaluation. 

Precipitous adoption of untested systems could lead to errors by health-care workers, cause harm to patients, erode trust in AI and thereby undermine (or delay) the potential long-term benefits and uses of such technologies around the world. 

Concerns that call for rigorous oversight needed for the technologies to be used in safe, effective, and ethical ways include:

  • the data used to train AI may be biased, generating misleading or inaccurate information that could pose risks to health, equity and inclusiveness;
  • LLMs generate responses that can appear authoritative and plausible to an end user; however, these responses may be completely incorrect or contain serious errors, especially for health-related responses;
  • LLMs may be trained on data for which consent may not have been previously provided for such use, and LLMs may not protect sensitive data (including health data) that a user provides to an application to generate a response;
  • LLMs can be misused to generate and disseminate highly convincing disinformation in the form of text, audio or video content that is difficult for the public to differentiate from reliable health content; and
  • while committed to harnessing new technologies, including AI and digital health to improve human health, WHO recommends that policy-makers ensure patient safety and protection while technology firms work to commercialize LLMs.

WHO proposes that these concerns be addressed, and clear evidence of benefit be measured before their widespread use in routine health care and medicine – whether by individuals, care providers or health system administrators and policy-makers. 

WHO reiterates the importance of applying ethical principles and appropriate governance, as enumerated in the WHO guidance on the ethics and governance of AI for health, when designing, developing, and deploying AI for health. The 6 core principles identified by WHO are: (1) protect autonomy; (2) promote human well-being, human safety, and the public interest; (3) ensure transparency, explainability, and intelligibility; (4) foster responsibility and accountability; (5) ensure inclusiveness and equity; (6) promote AI that is responsive and sustainable.

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WHO, UNICEF Call for Emergency Action to Avert Major Measles, Polio Epidemics https://thecommerceafrica.com/who-unicef-call-for-emergency-action-to-avert-major-measles-polio-epidemics/ https://thecommerceafrica.com/who-unicef-call-for-emergency-action-to-avert-major-measles-polio-epidemics/#respond Fri, 06 Nov 2020 11:16:27 +0000 http://thecommerceafrica.com/?p=2566 The World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have called for urgent actions to protect most vulnerable children from deadly measles and polio epidemics as COVID-19 disrupts immunisations.

The UN agencies made the call in a statement posted on WHO website.

According to the statement, the agencies have issued an urgent call to action as COVID-19 continues to disrupt immunisation services worldwide, leaving millions of vulnerable children at heightened risk of preventable childhood diseases.

“The two organisations estimate that 655 million dollars (400 million dollars for polio and 255 million dollars for measles) are needed to address dangerous immunity gaps in non-Gavi eligible countries and target age groups,” the statement said.

The statement quoted Tedros Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General as saying, “COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on health services and in particular immunisation services worldwide.

“But unlike with COVID, we have the tools and knowledge to stop diseases such as polio and measles.

“What we need are the resources and commitments to put these tools and knowledge into action. If we do that, children’s lives will be saved.’’

Similarly, the statement quoted Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Executive Director as saying “we cannot allow the fight against one deadly disease to cause us to lose ground in the fight against other diseases.

“Addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic is critical.

“However, other deadly diseases also threaten the lives of millions of children in some of the poorest areas of the world.

“That is why today we are urgently calling for global action from country leaders, donors and partners.

“We need additional financial resources to safely resume vaccination campaigns and prioritise immunisation systems that are critical to protect children and avert other epidemics besides COVID-19.”

In recent years, there has been a global resurgence of measles, with ongoing outbreaks in all parts of the world. Vaccination coverage gaps have been further exacerbated in 2020 by COVID-19.

In 2019, measles climbed to the highest number of new infections in more than two decades.

Annual measles mortality data for 2019 to be released next week would show the continued negative toll that sustained outbreaks were having in many countries around the world.

At the same time, poliovirus transmission is expected to increase in Pakistan, Afghanistan and in many under-immunised areas of Africa.

Failure to eradicate polio now would lead to global resurgence of the disease, resulting in as many as 200,000 new cases annually within 10 years.

New tools, including a next-generation novel oral polio vaccine and the forthcoming Measles Outbreak Strategic Response Plan are expected to be deployed over the coming months to help tackle these growing threats in a more effective and sustainable manner, and ultimately save lives.

The Plan is a worldwide strategy to quickly and effectively prevent, detect and respond to measles outbreaks.

(NAN)

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Gates, Dangote Hail Achievement As WHO Declared Africa Polio-Free https://thecommerceafrica.com/gates-dangote-hail-achievement-as-who-declared-africa-polio-free/ https://thecommerceafrica.com/gates-dangote-hail-achievement-as-who-declared-africa-polio-free/#respond Wed, 26 Aug 2020 07:24:40 +0000 http://thecommerceafrica.com/?p=1716 Philanthropists Bill Gates and Aliko Dangote have hailed the declaration of Nigeria by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as being polio-free.

The global health body on Tuesday certified Nigeria and the rest of Africa polio-free.

The WHO Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) said the major milestone was achieved four years after the last recorded cases of wild polio in the country.

In a tweet, Gates said that the remarkable achievement was a step closer to global polio eradication.

“Today, we move one step closer toward a world without polio. This is an incredible milestone that’s worth celebrating. It is also an important reminder of what can be accomplished when we work together toward a common goal,” he wrote on his Twitter handle @BillGates.

In his remarks, Africa’s richest man, Dangote, said that the polio-free Africa was an indication that the fight to end polio globally was possible.

“Today we celebrate a polio-free Africa, the result of decades of vaccination, hard work, collaboration. Tomorrow we get back to work, to ensure wild polio does not come back. Together, we all can #EndPolio globally,” he tweeted.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, tweeted via his official Twitter account @antonioguterres, that the declaration filled him with optimism that a lot could be achieved through global efforts.

“Africa has been declared free of polio today.

“This historic milestone fills me with hope and optimism.

“We can achieve so much when we work together as a global community.”

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Board Chair, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), felicitated with the President, Muhammadu Buhari and his predecessors.

“A great day for Nigeria and Africa. Nigeria receives polio-free Certificate from WHO.

“Africa declared PolioFree. Congratulations Nigerians on this great achievement. Congrats to President
M Buhari, President GE Jonathan, President Obasanjo, PHDA, GAVI, Gates Foundation,” she tweeted via @NOIweala

A virologist at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Dr Olubusuyi Adewumi, who lauded the historic achievement, said that Africa had indeed successfully eradicated the wild polio virus.

Adewumi said that while the wild polio virus was responsible for most infections, there was also the rare form called vaccine-derived polio virus.

“Today marks the end of any circulation of wild type poliovirus in Nigeria and all of Africa.

“There are three subtypes of polio virus which are poliovirus type (PV1), type 2 (PV2), and type 3 (PV3).

“Also, we have the vaccine and wild type of each subtype of poliovirus,” he said.

“The vaccine type is referred to as Sabin strain because it is derived from oral polio vaccine (OPV).

“The wild type poliovirus is responsible for most infections.

“Paralysis resultant vaccine strain of poliovirus occurs but are very rare, thus we can as well say Nigeria and indeed Africa is free of polio with the eradication of wild poliovirus,” he said.

NAN reports that the WHO had in September 2015 removed Nigeria from the Polio-Endemic countries list following its successful interruption of transmission of wild poliovirus for a year.

With the WHO declaration of a successful eradication of polio in Nigeria, the devastating disease remains endemic in only two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, globally.

Polio is a contagious viral illness that in its most severe form causes nerve injury leading to irreversible paralysis and sometimes death.

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WHO Says 10 Countries Account for 88% of COVID-19 Cases in Africa https://thecommerceafrica.com/who-days-10-countries-account-for-88-of-covid-19-cases-in-africa/ https://thecommerceafrica.com/who-days-10-countries-account-for-88-of-covid-19-cases-in-africa/#respond Sat, 18 Jul 2020 08:50:15 +0000 http://thecommerceafrica.com/?p=1126 The World Health Organisation (WHO) says 10 countries account for 88 per cent (440,672) of all reported Coronavirus (COVID19) cases in the African Region.

WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, disclosed this in a report posted on its official Twitter account @WHOAFRO on Friday.

The UN health agency in “COVID-19 WHO Africa Region External Report 20,’’which was issued on July 15 stated that South Africa accounted for more than half of cases reported.

It, however, listed the 10 countries as South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

According to the report, COVID-19 outbreak continues to evolve in the WHO African Region since it was first detected in Algeria on Feb.25, 2020.

“Since our last External Situation Report 19 issued on July 8, 2020, a total of 108,098 new confirmed COVID-19 cases (a 27 per cent increase) was reported from 45 countries from 8 to 14 July, 2020.

“Of the 108, 098 reported new cases, the majority, 76 per cent (82,437), were recorded in South Africa, which remains the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in the region.

“South Africa is now the eighth most affected country globally, with its cumulative number of cases (298, 292).

“South Africa cases exceed that of the United Kingdom (290, 137) and Iran (Islamic Republic of) (259,652), which previously reported the highest numbers and are now in the ninth and tenth position, respectively.

“On July 11, 2020, the WHO African Region and South Africa recorded their highest daily case counts of 17, 232 and 12, 349, respectively.’’

During this period, WHO stated that five countries in the region observed the highest percentage increase in incidence cases.

“The countries are Lesotho 181 per cent (from 91 to 256 cases), Namibia 60 per cent (from 539 to 864 cases), Madagascar 54 per cent (from 3, 472 to 5,343 cases).

“Also, Burundi recorded 41 per cent increase from 191 to 269 cases and Angola 40 per cent from previous 386 cases to 541 cases.

“Lesotho and Namibia have been among the top five countries recording the highest percentage increase for the past three reporting periods.

“Equatorial Guinea and United Republic of Tanzania did not officially submit reports indicating any confirmed case.

“A total of 101 new health worker infections were recorded from three countries: Malawi (44), Lesotho (17), Mozambique (15), Guinea-Bissau (11), South Sudan (5), Sierra Leone (5) and Zambia (4).’’

In addition, it stated that Namibia reported two new deaths of health workers for the first time; no new country reported any health worker infection for the first time in this reporting period.

From July 8 to July 14, it stated that 1,231 new COVID-19 related deaths (17 per cent increase) were registered in 32 countries, with 844 (69 per cent) of the deaths recorded in South Africa, similar to the previous period.

“This was followed by Nigeria, with 85 (6.9 per cent) deaths and then Algeria with 60 (4.9 per cent) deaths.’’

The report said as at July 14, 2020, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the region surpassed the 500, 000 mark.

“It is now at 503,122 cases including 502, 801 confirmed and 321 probable cases, reported across the 47 Member States.

“The probable cases have been reported from Sao Tome and Principe (320) and Democratic Republic of the Congo, one case.’’

According to the report, South Africa has registered more than half, 59 per cent (298, 292) of all reported confirmed cases in the region.

“The other countries that reported large numbers of cases are Nigeria with 33, 616 cases, Ghana (24, 988), Algeria (20, 216) and Cameroon (15, 173).

“Others are Côte d’Ivoire which reported 13, 037 cases, Kenya (10, 791), Senegal (8, 243), Ethiopia (8, 181) and DRC with 8, 135 reported cases.

“These 10 countries collectively account for 88 per cent (440, 672) of all reported cases.

“Of the 503, 122 COVID-19 cases reported, 263 969 (53 per cent) have recovered from across all the 47 countries in the region.’’

The report further stated that a total of 8, 607 deaths had been reported in 44 countries, giving an overall case fatality ratio (CFR) of 1.7 per cent.

“Three countries, including, Eritrea, Seychelles and Uganda have not registered any COVID-19 related deaths since the beginning of the pandemic,’’ it stated.

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Oil Prices Fall Amidst COVID-19 Concern https://thecommerceafrica.com/oil-prices-fall-amidst-covid-19-concern/ https://thecommerceafrica.com/oil-prices-fall-amidst-covid-19-concern/#respond Mon, 13 Jul 2020 08:16:03 +0000 http://thecommerceafrica.com/?p=1012 Oil prices dropped on Monday, amid concerns that a record rise in COVID-19 infections could stall global recovery in fuel demand.

The WHO Sunday reported a record daily rise in virus cases worldwide. In the US, Florida reported over 15 thousand new virus infections Sunday, the highest single-day total to date for any US state since the health crisis began in the country.

At the same time, investors are looking at an OPEC technical meeting this week, which is expected to recommend an easing in supply cuts. At around 06:00 AM GMT, WTI crude fell 0.8% to $40.23 a barrel, while Brent crude was down 0.7% to $42.94 a barrel.

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