(CNN) — Watching as a video game ensnares their child, many a parent has grumbled about “digital heroin,” likening the flashing images to one of the world’s most addictive substances.
Now, they may have backup: The World Health Organization announced “gaming disorder” as a new mental health condition included in the 11th edition of its International Classification of Diseases, released Monday.
Continue reading… “WHO classifies ‘gaming disorder’ as mental health condition”
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The World Health Organization says we need to step up the fight against a dozen bacteria that are growing resistant to all the antibiotics we have to treat them.
One of the scariest features of the antibiotic resistance crisis — which has been accelerated by how we overuse these drugs — is that pharmaceutical companies aren’t developing new antibiotics quickly enough. They also often place profits ahead public health when choosing which drugs to develop.
Continue reading… “The 12 most dangerous superbugs, ranked by the WHO”
India has been polio free for the past 3 years.
India had over 200,000 cases of polio reported in 1988. For the past three years, they’ve had 0. At the end of this month, the WHO will announce the end of polio in India.
Continue reading… “India has declared the end of polio”
WHO recommends that adults have less sugar per day than is found in one glass of many soft drinks.
Scientists are gearing up for a battle with the food industry after the World Health Organization (WHO) moved to halve its recommendation on sugar intake.
Continue reading… “WHO proposal to cut recommended sugar intake by half”
Hunger ranked first on the list of the world’s Top 10 health risks.
Today, one in 8 people will sleep on an empty stomach. There are about 870 million people in the world who suffer from hunger due to food scarcity based on Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) data.
Continue reading… “Hunger: Solving the world’s most solvable problem”
Europeans down the equivalent of 12.5 litres of pure alcohol a year or almost three glasses of wine a day.
People in Europe drink more alcohol than in any other part of the world. They down the equivalent of 12.5 liters of pure alcohol a year or almost three glasses of wine a day, according to report by the World Health Organization and the European Commission.
Continue reading… “Europeans are world’s heaviest drinkers”
Tobacco will kill 6 million people this year.
Nearly six million people, including 600,000 non-smokers, will die this this year from tobacco. Governments are not doing enough to persuade people to quit or protect others from second-hand smoke, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Continue reading… “Smoking Death Toll Could Reach 8 Million a Year by 2030”
China introduces a smoking ban.
More than a million Chinese die each year from smoking related diseases, according to the China Centre for Disease Control. China has the world’s most serious smoking problem so China has banned smoking in public places in an attempt to placate the World Health Organization, however, there are no penalties for those who flout the rules.
Continue reading… “China Bans Smoking in Public Places but with No Penalties for Breaking the Rules”
Second-hand smoke kills an estimated 600,000 people a year.
Around one in a hundred deaths worldwide is due to passive smoking, which kills an estimated 600,000 people a year, World Health Organization (WHO) researchers said on Friday.
Continue reading… “1 in 100 Deaths Worldwide Due to Second-Hand Smoke”
A map of the world from an atlas which concentrates on population rather than land mass released last year. The Earth’s population is due to hit 7bn by next year.
As the scientist who helped eradicate smallpox he certainly know a thing or two about extinction. And now Professor Frank Fenner, emeritus professor of microbiology at the Australian National University, has predicted that the human race will be extinct within the next 100 years.
Continue reading… “Scientist Claims Human Race ‘Will Be Extinct Within 100 Years’”
India’s infant and maternal mortality rates lag behind.
At the beginning of this millennium in year 2000, 189 countries and 23 international health agencies had pledged to reduce child under-5 mortality by two-thirds and maternal mortality by three-fourths by 2015. These were called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) number 4 and 5. With only five years left for the target year, a clutch of international health agencies and NGOs have come out with ‘‘Countdown to 2015 — Decade Report (2000-2010)”.
Continue reading… “Infant and Maternal Mortality Rates Increase in India”
A drawing of a pig and a biohazard sign mark the door of a lab where samples are tested for the H1N1 swine flu virus
The new H1N1 flu is “strikingly different” from seasonal influenza, killing much younger people than ordinary flu and often killing them very fast, World Health Organization officials said on Friday. A review of studies done during the seven months the virus has been circulating shows it is usually mild, but can cause unusual and severe symptoms in an unlucky few, according to a WHO-sponsored meeting in Washington this week.
Continue reading… “New H1N1 Flu Can Kill Fast According To Researchers”
