One third of the world’s population will remain without access to improved sanitation in 2015, warns a joint report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF.

Global efforts to accelerate progress towards the sanitation targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) must be enhanced; and governments, civil society, the private sector and UN agencies are to pull together and help end the practice of open defecation by the year 2025, says UN Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, in the report.

With less than three years to go, a final push is therefore needed to meet these targets. This requires providing around 1 billion people with access to sanitation – a daunting task that can only be accomplished through the concerted efforts of many partners.

This week — 6 to 12 May — is Global Road Safety Week. This initiative encouraged by World Health Organization (WHO) aims to mobilize action for pedestrian safety since more than 270,000 pedestrians lose their lives on roads each year. The Week will draw attention to the urgent need to better protect pedestrians worldwide and generate action on the measures needed to do so.

“We are all pedestrians, and governments should put in place measures to better protect all of us,” says Oleg Chestnov, WHO Assistant Director-General of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. “When roads are safe, people will walk more, and this in turn will improve health and protect the environment.” 

Read more about WHO’s call for action to save lives and the measures needed to enhance safety on the roads.

Thursday is World Malaria Day.  Invest in the future. Defeat malaria.

Over the last decade, the world has made major progress in the fight against malaria. Since 2000, malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25%, and 50 of the 99 countries with ongoing transmission are now on track to meet the 2015 World Health Assembly target of reducing incidence rates by more than 75%.

Get more information from the World Health Organization (WHO) here: http://goo.gl/o69Y3

World Immunization Week starts on Saturday.

Many countries encounter serious challenges in vaccine supply and logistics, so the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have drawn up new plans for children to get vaccinated to ensure that an additional quarter of a billion children are immunized by 2015.

Sunday is World Health Day.

This year the World Health Organization (WHO) places the focus on the global problem of high blood pressure which affects more than one in three adults worldwide.

High blood pressure, a largely hidden disease due to the lack of symptoms, is a major contributor to heart disease and stroke – which together make up the world’s number one cause of premature death and disability.

A report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that overall cancer risks are low in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear incident that occurred two years ago.

This is a photo of a liquid storage tank that stands twisted at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Photo: IAEA/Giovanni Verlini.

Any attack against health workers, health services, health facilities anywhere is completely unacceptable.

UNICEF and The World Health Organization join the government and people of Pakistan in condemning the recent multiple attacks on health workers. They are heroes who worked selflessly to eradicate polio in Pakistan. This is a double tragedy - for the friends and family of those killed and for the children denied their right to healthcare.

In this photo from UNICEF, a girl receives polio vaccine from a health worker in Sindh Province, Pakistan.

Suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for all ages. Every year, nearly one million people die from suicide. 

The World Health Organisation 

September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day. Find out how suicide affects people all over the world. 

Suicide Prevention Tools