More than 270 000 pedestrians die on the world's roads each year. We are all pedestrians, but many transport systems neglect our needs.5 May 2013 – This year, the second Global Road Safety Week, starting on 6 May 2013, is dedicated to pedestrian safety. The Week aims to highlight the need to improve pedestrian safety worldwide, to generate...

Health care-associated infections usually occur when germs are transferred by health-care providers’ hands touching the patient4 May 2013 – Every year, a global campaign, known as Hand Hygiene Day, takes place on 5 May 2013 to raise awareness of the importance of hand-hygiene as a key approach in preventing disease. The slogan of this year’s...

One of the biggest challenges facing the priority malaria-endemic countries of the Region is the limited coverage and poor quality of diagnostic testing, treatment and surveillance systems, which are the pillars of the existing global strategy to fight malaria.22 April, 2013 – This week, countries across the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region are...

Vaccination Week aims to promote one of the world’s most powerful tools for health – the use of vaccines to protect, or immunize, people of all ages against diseaseFollowing the remarkable success of prior Vaccination Weeks, WHO and partners will be celebrating the fourth Vaccination Week in the Eastern Mediterranean Region from 24 to 30 April...

People need to know why raised blood pressure is dangerous, and how to take steps to control it8 April 2013 – The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean celebrated World Health Day on 7 April, the theme of which was high blood pressure, or hypertension. WHO is calling for intensified efforts to prevent and control hypertension, which,...

Detecting high blood pressure is the first step in preventing and controlling it4 April 2013 – This year's slogan for World Health Day, celebrated annually on 7 April is: control your blood pressure... control your life. High blood pressure is one of the most important contributors to heart attacks and stroke – which together are the world’s...

The works entered in the World Health Day competition reflected a good understanding of the causes of high blood pressure by the participantsCairo, 25 March 2013 – More than 1570 art works have been flooding into the Regional Office over the past few weeks for participation in the WHO regional school student art competition for World Health Day...

Tuberculosis is a preventable and treatable disease24 March, Cairo – On the occasion of World TB Day, Dr Ala Alwan, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, urges all partners to work together to fight tuberculosis (TB). “We know what to do, we know we can defeat tuberculosis, we know we can save unnecessary suffering caused by...

Road traffic injuries kill nearly 1.24 million people annuallyCairo, 14 March 2013 – The recently published Global status report on road safety reveals that road traffic crashes globally and in the Eastern Mediterranean Region remain a major public health concern. Despite some progress made in a number of countries, road traffic crashes continue to...

Amman, 8 March 2013 – Prior to the crisis in Syria, more than 90% of medicines were locally produced. Since then, the effects of economic sanctions, currency fluctuations, difficulty in the availability of hard currency and an increase in operational costs have negatively affected the production of medicines and pharmaceutical products. The...