UN Health News

In a historic health milestone, Sudan has launched its first malaria vaccination campaign amid 18 months of civil conflict, aiming to protect thousands of children from the deadly disease.

A new study by the World Health Organization (WHO) lists 17 bacteria, viruses and parasites that regularly cause disease as top priorities for new vaccine development.  

The UN-supported polio vaccine campaign concluded in besieged northern Gaza on Monday, with agencies inoculating 94,000 children, but thousands still remain out of reach.

The long-awaited final phase of a UN-supported polio vaccine campaign began on Saturday in bombarded, besieged northern Gaza even as reports emerged that one vaccination centre had been hit during a humanitarian pause, according to UN agencies on the

Children and disabled people are facing ever more horrific conditions in war-torn Gaza, with some dying as they wait for medical evacuations, as the year-long war grinds on, UN officials and rights experts said on Friday.

Reports of Israeli troops storming one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza are deeply concerning, while ongoing hostilities are hampering polio vaccination in the area, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. 

Countries facing conflict, natural disasters and humanitarian crises are struggling to provide routine childhood immunisations leaving many children vulnerable to the resurgence of polio, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned in new report. 

Twelve years on from independence the people of South Sudan continue to face huge challenges, exacerbated now by the war in neighbouring Sudan, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

New data published on Monday by UN agencies shows that immunization coverage for children worldwide stalled during 2023, leaving around 2.7 million lacking the protection they need compared to the pre-COVID-19 levels of 2019.

More Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza are further threatening the health of people in the embattled enclave, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said during a media briefing in Geneva on Thursday.