Health & Fitness

Waphyto is committed to producing holistic wellness products that are Elemental, Ethical, Environmental, and Empowering. These four keywords encompass the company’s definition of clean beauty and...

(PRWeb July 05, 2022)

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Lighthouse Health & Wellness is excited to announce that it has acquired Academy Hour, in a move that will further support the health and wellness of first responders nationwide.

(PRWeb July 01, 2022)

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Award-winning fatty15 supplement now part of Operation Phoenix to support the health and wellness of active-duty soldiers and military veterans

(PRWeb June 30, 2022)

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The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) announced today it has been recognized by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human...

(PRWeb June 30, 2022)

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Wellness program includes Wellness Workdays’ proprietary wellness portal and onsite, one-on-one health coaching

(PRWeb June 28, 2022)

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Counteract the Fat: Discover How Fiber and Antioxidants Can Counteract the Physiological Effects of Junk Food – A Science-Based Nutrition and Diet Book on Weight and Cholesterol Management Without...

(PRWeb June 27, 2022)

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Crunch Fitness Educator of the Year Winners Awarded Free All Access Membership + $200 Classroom Supplies.

(PRWeb June 27, 2022)

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This partnership will combine the patented, clinically validated Diet ID assessment and platform with the Blue Zones community well-being transformation model.

(PRWeb June 24, 2022)

Read the full story at https://www.prweb.com/releases/blue_zones_and_diet_id_partner_to_empower_well_being_improvement_at_scale/prweb18756742.htm

Republic Business Credit partners with internet retail and software company focused on healthy living

(PRWeb June 23, 2022)

Read the full story at https://www.prweb.com/releases/republic_business_credit_provides_8_million_direct_to_consumer_asset_based_loan_to_spiraledge/prweb18748875.htm

Aggressive Expansion Efforts Capitalize on a Renewed Industry-Wide Commitment to Athlete Wellness, Performance, and Mental Health

(PRWeb June 23, 2022)

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Great Tasting Plant-Based Protein Powder Supports Muscle Health and Athletic Performance

(PRWeb June 23, 2022)

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Global Wellness Institute’s CEO, Susie Ellis, presents “The Future of Wellness and Fitness” at IHRSA 2022; Trends include: the move to creatively combine fitness and nature; new “survivalist”...

(PRWeb June 22, 2022)

Read the full story at https://www.prweb.com/releases/eight_global_wellness_trends_and_how_they_will_impact_the_future_of_fitness/prweb18748385.htm

Introducing SO1O Plug and Play Functionality for all Club Spaces

(PRWeb June 22, 2022)

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Facing incredible demand for survival-based swim lessons, new British Swim School owners are exceeding all expectations.

(PRWeb June 22, 2022)

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BeActiveFit provides research-based factual content on fitness, nutrition, and wellness topics in an easy to consume format.

(PRWeb June 22, 2022)

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Women Across the Valley to Receive Free Luxury Athletic Clothing on June 25

(PRWeb June 21, 2022)

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MatrixPoint will direct strategic media consulting, including digital marketing and analytics.

(PRWeb June 21, 2022)

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Monster Energy congratulates team rider Nyjah Huston on taking first place in the street skateboard competition at CPH Open 2022 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

(PRWeb June 20, 2022)

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With a passion for fitness, expanding her collection to include the unique 2 in 1 Workout Routine And Yoga Mat was a logical next step for Charlyn Asher.

(PRWeb June 20, 2022)

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The DRIPBaR is excited to announce the opening of their newest location in Novi, MI on June 20th, 2022. This marks the 24th location for the franchise, with approximately 500 additional locations in...

(PRWeb June 16, 2022)

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The devastating human, economic, and social cost of COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need for coordinated action to build stronger health systems and mobilize additional resources for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR).

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved the establishment of a financial intermediary fund (FIF) that will finance critical investments to strengthen pandemic PPR capacities at national, regional, and global levels, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries. The fund will bring additional, dedicated resources for PPR, incentivize countries to increase investments, enhance coordination among partners, and serve as a platform for advocacy. The FIF will complement the financing and technical support provided by the World Bank, leverage the strong technical expertise of WHO, and engage other key organizations.

Developed with leadership from the United States, and from Italy and Indonesia as part of their G20 Presidencies, and with broad support from the G20 and beyond, over US$1 billion in financial commitments have already been announced for the FIF, including contributions from the United States, the European Union, Indonesia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Singapore, the Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.

 “I’m pleased by the broad support from our shareholders for a new Financial Intermediary Fund at the World Bank,” World Bank Group President David Malpass said. “The World Bank is the largest provider of financing for PPR with active operations in over 100 developing countries to strengthen their health systems. The FIF will provide additional, long-term funding to complement the work of existing institutions in supporting low- and middle-income countries and regions to prepare for the next pandemic.”

“Access to financing for pandemic prevention and preparedness is crucial. COVID-19 has exposed major gaps in preparedness capacities, which the Financial Intermediary Fund can address in a coherent manner, as part of the global architecture for health emergency preparedness and response,” said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “WHO will play a central role in the FIF, providing technical leadership for its work in close collaboration with the World Bank to realize this ambitious vision.”

The goal of the FIF is to provide financing to address critical gaps in pandemic PPR to strengthen country capacity in areas such as disease surveillance, laboratory systems, health workforce, emergency communication and management, and community engagement. It can also help address gaps in strengthening regional and global capacity, for example, by supporting data sharing, regulatory harmonization, and capacity for coordinated development, procurement, distribution and deployment of countermeasures and essential medical supplies.

In the coming weeks, the Bank and WHO will work closely with donors and other partners to develop the detailed scope and design of the FIF. The ongoing discussions will be informed by the extensive inputs provided through stakeholder engagement. The goal is to launch the FIF in fall 2022.

Drawing on its financial and legal platform, program management and operational expertise, and experience in managing FIFs, the World Bank will serve as the FIF’s Trustee and host the Secretariat, which will be staffed by the Bank and WHO. Drawing on its technical expertise, the WHO will also lead on supporting and coordinating the work of the FIF’s technical advisory panel. Implementing entities for FIF-financed projects in addition to the World Bank Group are expected to include WHO, other multilateral development banks and United Nations agencies, as well as other organizations. The FIF will build on the existing global health architecture for PPR, within the context of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005) and associated monitoring mechanisms, with a central technical role for WHO.

Key principles of the FIF will be to complement the work of existing institutions that provide international financing for PPR, drawing on their comparative advantages and catalyzing funding from private, philanthropic, and bilateral sources. Further, the FIF is expected to incentivize countries to invest more in PPR, serve as an integrator of PPR efforts, and have the flexibility to work through a variety of existing institutions and adjust over time as needs and the institutional landscape evolve. The FIF’s structure will combine inclusivity and agility and operate with high standards of transparency and accountability.

WHO is scaling up its operations in eastern Africa as the region faces acute food insecurity caused by conflict, extreme weather events – including the worst drought in 40 years – induced by climate change, rising international food and fuel prices and the impact of the pandemic.

Over 80 million people in the eastern African region are food insecure and resorting to desperate measures to feed themselves and their families. Acute malnutrition is high, especially among children.

As malnutrition increases, the health needs in the region are mounting, especially among children, and clean water is becoming scarce. As people leave their homes in search of food, they can no longer access health services, and become more at risk from disease outbreaks.  

“The cost of inaction is high,” said Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall, WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response.  “While the clear priority is to prevent people from starving, we must simultaneously strengthen our health response to prevent disease and save lives. Even one life lost from a vaccine-preventable disease, diarrhoea, or medical complications from malnutrition in today’s world is one life too many.”  

Dr Fall was speaking in Nairobi where WHO convened a two-day meeting [26-27 June 2022] to plan its response across the seven countries affected by the health emergency – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda – and coordinate with other UN agencies and partners.

WHO’s emergency response is focused on ensuring affected populations can access essential health services, treating sick children with severe malnutrition, and preventing, detecting and responding to infectious disease outbreaks.

WHO is setting up a hub in Nairobi, from where it will coordinate the response and organize the delivery of life-saving medical supplies to where they are needed most.  These supplies include medicines, vaccines, as well the medicines and equipment needed to treat children who are severely malnourished. Other than providing these critical supplies, WHO is working with ministries of health in the affected countries to set up robust disease surveillance systems to be able to quickly detect and respond to disease outbreaks.

Note to editors

• Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed in the region, a climatic event not seen in at least 40 years. The latest forecasts suggest that there is now a concrete risk that the next rainy season could also fail (source: WMO).
• Over 80 million people in the Eastern African region are food insecure (source: WFP), where they have to resort to desperate measures in order to feed themselves and their families.
• The situation is particularly urgent in the drought-affected areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia where a lack of food means that an estimated 7 million children are malnourished, including over 1.7 million who are severely malnourished (source: Unicef). Severe acute malnutrition is a life-threatening condition requiring urgent treatment.
• Different countries are affected differently. For example, in Uganda, the problem is concentrated in the north-eastern region, while in South Sudan, over 60% of the population is facing a hunger crisis.
• All seven countries (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda) are dealing with outbreaks of measles and cholera.
• All seven countries are malaria-endemic countries. Children are disproportionately affected by malaria, with 80% of malaria deaths in the African region being among those under the age of 5 years.
• Four countries – Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda – are facing outbreaks of meningococcal meningitis, a serious and potentially fatal bacterial infection.
• This region has seen years of conflict and displacement. 4.2 million people in the region are refugees, and another 11.1 million are internally displaced (source: UNHCR).

The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the political declaration to be adopted by Member States during the High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on Global Road Safety. It commits to cut road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% by 2030, a milestone for road safety and sustainable mobility.

The meeting takes place on 30 June – 1 July 2022 under the theme “The 2030 horizon for road safety: securing a decade of action and delivery”.

Road safety affects everyone. We step from our homes every day onto roads that take us to our jobs, schools and to meet our vital daily needs. Yet our transport systems remain far too dangerous. No death should be acceptable on our roads. The future of mobility should promote health and well-being, protect the environment and benefit all,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO. “It will require transformative leadership from the highest levels of government to act on the Political Declaration to make that vision a reality.”

Worldwide, road crashes currently kill around 1.3 million people each year – more than 2 every minute, and more than 90% occur in low- and middle-income countries. Crashes are the biggest killer of children and young people globally. More than 50 million people have died on the world’s roads since the invention of the automobile, more than the number of deaths in the First World War or in some of the worst global epidemics.

WHO is the lead agency for road safety in the United Nations and supported the President of the UN General Assembly in preparing this High-Level Meeting in collaboration with other UN agencies.

Through the declaration governments from around the world commit to provide leadership and coordination at the highest level of government to ensure all parts of the society are included to act on road safety and commit to boost policies and actions to reduce deaths and injuries. The declaration calls for the development and funding of national and local plans with clear targets and funding.

“Road traffic deaths upend countless lives and cost countries around 3% of GDP each year,” notes Dr Etienne Krug, Director of the Department for Social Determinants of Health, WHO. “This is an unacceptable price to pay for mobility. Putting safety at the heart of our mobility systems is an urgent health, economic and moral imperative. Let’s work together to scale up what works, save lives and build streets for life.”

In September 2020, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to proclaim the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030. WHO and the UN regional commissions, in cooperation with other partners in the UN Road Safety Collaboration, have developed a Global Plan for the Decade of Action, which was released in October 2021.  

The plan calls for continued improvements in the design of roads and vehicles, enhancement of laws and law enforcement, and provision of timely, life-saving emergency care for the injured. In addition, it promotes healthy and environmentally sound modes of transport.

It also highlights that responsibility for road safety stretches far beyond health and transport. Urban planners and engineers must prioritize safety as a core value in all transport infrastructure while businesses can influence and contribute to strengthening road safety by applying safety-first principles to their entire value chains.

Countries and cities guided by the plan are seeing dramatic reductions in deaths. For example, the Colombian capital of Bogota halved deaths over 10 years through a set of integrated actions, including wide-ranging technical improvements and regulatory reforms that were driven by strong leadership.

The meeting will take place in New York on 30 June 2022, at 10:00 EST. The event will be broadcasted on UN Web TV.

The World Health Summit (WHS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) join forces to organize the 2022 edition of one of the world's leading international, inclusive and inter-sectoral global health conference to bring global health actors closer to setting agenda for a healthier future.

Registration for on-site participation is now open

The Summit will take place on 16-18 October 2022 in Berlin, Germany. Participants will focus on “Making the Choice for Health” by reflecting on pressing topics such as Investment for Health and Well-Being, Climate Change and Planetary Health, Architecture for Pandemic Preparedness, Digital Transformation for Health, Food Systems and Health, Health Systems Resilience and Equity, and Global Health for Peace.

See more information about the programme and the confirmed speakers here

WHS 2022 is a milestone in a long-term collaboration, as WHO has been a strategic partner of the World Health Summit since its start.

WHS 2022 aims to strengthen exchange, stimulate innovative solutions to health challenges, foster global health as a key political issue and promote the global health debate in the spirit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 17 “Partnership for the Goals”

For more information, visit: https://www.worldhealthsummit.org 

For media inquiries, follow: https://www.worldhealthsummit.org/whs-2022/media-center.html

More information available here

The WHO Director-General has the pleasure of transmitting the Report of the Meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) Emergency Committee regarding the multi-country monkeypox outbreak, held on 23 June 2022, from 12:00 to 17:00 Geneva time (CEST). The WHO Director-General concurs with the advice offered by the IHR Emergency Committee regarding the multi-country monkeypox outbreak and, at present, does not determine that the event constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). 

Since 11 May 2022, the WHO Secretariat alerted the States Parties to the IHR in relation to this event, through postings on the Event Information Site (a secured platform established by the WHO Secretariat for information sharing with States Parties to the IHR). These postings aimed to raise awareness about the extent of the outbreak, inform readiness efforts, and provide access to technical guidance for immediate public health actions recommended by the WHO Secretariat.

Convening an IHR Emergency Committee signals an escalation of the level of alert for States Parties to the IHR and the international public health community, and it represents a call for intensified public health actions in response to this event. 

The WHO Director-General is taking the opportunity to express his most sincere gratitude to the Chair, Vice-Chair, and Members of the IHR Emergency Committee, as well as to its Advisers.

Proceedings of the meeting

Members of and Advisers to the Emergency Committee were convened in person (Chair and Vice-Chair) and by teleconference, via Zoom.

The WHO Secretariat welcomed the participants. The Representative of the Office of Legal Counsel briefed the Members and Advisers on their roles and responsibilities and identified the mandate of the Emergency Committee under the relevant articles of the IHR. The Ethics Officer from the Department of Compliance, Risk Management, and Ethics provided the Members and Advisers with an overview of the WHO Declaration of Interests process. The Members and Advisers were made aware of their individual responsibility to disclose to WHO, in a timely manner, any interests of a personal, professional, financial, intellectual or commercial nature that may give rise to a perceived or actual conflict of interest. They were additionally reminded of their duty to maintain the confidentiality of the meeting discussions and the work of the Committee. Each Member and Adviser was surveyed. No conflicts of interest were identified.

The Principal Legal Officer then facilitated the election of officers of the Committee, in accordance with the rules of procedures and working methods of the Emergency Committee. Dr Jean-Marie Okwo-Bele was elected as Chair of the Committee, Professor Nicola Low as Vice-Chair, and Dr Inger Damon as Rapporteur, all by acclamation. The meeting was handed over to the Chair who introduced the objectives of the meeting: to provide views to the WHO Director-General on whether the event constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, and if so, to provide views on potential temporary recommendations.  

Presentations

The WHO Director-General joined by video and welcomed the participants, welcoming the Committee’s advice on the event.

The WHO Secretariat presented the global epidemiological situation, highlighting that since the beginning of May 2022, 3040 cases have been reported to WHO from 47 countries. Transmission is occurring in many countries that have not previously reported cases of monkeypox, and the highest numbers of cases are currently reported from countries in the WHO European Region. Initial cases of monkeypox, detected in several countries in different WHO Regions, had no epidemiological links to areas that have historically reported monkeypox, suggesting that undetected transmission might have been ongoing for some time in those countries. The majority of confirmed cases of monkeypox are male and most of these cases occur among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men in urban areas and are clustered social and sexual networks.

The clinical presentation is often atypical, with few lesions localized to the genital, perineal/perianal or peri-oral area that do not spread further, and an asynchronous rash that appears prior to the development of a prodromal phase (i.e. lymphadenopathy, fever, malaise). There have been few hospitalizations to date, and one death in an immunocompromised individual was reported. Some preliminary research has estimated that the reproduction number (R0)  to be 0.8 and, among cases who identify as men who have sex with men, to be greater than 1. The mean incubation period among cases reported is estimated at 8.5 days, ranging from 4.2 to 17.3 days (based on 18 cases in Netherlands). The mean serial interval is estimated at 9.8 days (95% CI 5.9-21.4 day, based on 17 case-contact pairs in the United Kingdom). To date, 10 cases of infection have been reported among health care workers, of which at least nine were non-occupational.

Representatives of Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom updated the Committee on the epidemiological situation in their countries and the current response efforts.

The WHO Secretariat then presented the draft “WHO Strategic Plan for the Containment of the Multi-Country Monkeypox Outbreak.” The plan emphasized that a strengthened, agile, and collaborative approach must be adopted, with a particular focus on raising awareness and empowering affected population groups to adopt safe behaviors and protective measures based on the risks they face, and on stopping further spread of monkeypox within those population groups.

The WHO Secretariat also presented their technical guidance, offered to countries in support of their efforts in responding to this event, and revolving around: enhanced surveillance; isolation of cases; contact identification and monitoring; strengthened laboratory and diagnostic capacities; clinical management and infection prevention and control measures within health care and community settings, including care pathways; engagement with affected population groups and effective communication to avoid stigmatization; robust care pathways, including the use of medical countermeasures under collaborative research frameworks, using standardized data collection tools to rapidly increase evidence generation on efficacy and safety of these products.

Deliberative session

Following the presentations session, the Committee reconvened in a closed meeting to examine the questions in relation to whether the event constitutes a PHEIC or not, and if so, to consider the Temporary Recommendations, drafted by the WHO Secretariat in accordance with IHR provisions. At the request of the Chair, the WHO Secretariat reminded the Committee Members of their mandate and recalled the definition of a PHEIC under the IHR: an extraordinary event, which constitutes a public health risk to other States through international transmission, and which potentially requires a coordinated international response.

The Committee discussed key issues related to the outbreak, including: current observations of plateauing or potential downward trends in case numbers in some of the countries experiencing outbreak early on; the need for further understanding of transmission dynamics; the challenges related to contact tracing, particularly because of anonymous contacts, and potential links to international gatherings and LGBTQI+ Pride events conducive for increased opportunities for exposure through intimate sexual encounters; the need for continuous evaluation of interventions that appear to have had an impact on transmission; the identification of key activities for risk communications and community engagement, working in close partnership with affected communities to raise awareness about personal protective measures and behaviours during upcoming events and gatherings; the need to evaluate the impact of different interventions, including the evaluation of vaccination strategies implemented by certain countries in response to the outbreak, and the availability and equity in access and licensing of medical countermeasures.

The Committee was concerned about the potential for exacerbation of the stigmatization and infringement of human rights, including the rights to privacy, non-discrimination, physical and mental health, of affected population groups, which would further impede response efforts. Additionally, for the protection of public health, some Members of the Committee expressed the views that laws, policies and practices that criminalize or stigmatize consensual same-sex behaviour by state or non-state actors create barriers to accessing health services and may also hamper response interventions.

Additional knowledge gaps and areas of uncertainty, for which more information is needed rapidly to support a more comprehensive assessment of the public health risk of this event, include: transmission modes; full spectrum of clinical presentation; infectious period; reservoir species and potential for reverse zoonoses; the possibility of virus; and access to vaccines and antivirals and their efficacy in humans.

The Committee recognized that monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, where it has been noted to cause disease, including fatalities, for decades, and that the response to this outbreak must serve as a catalyst to increase efforts to address monkeypox in the longer term and access to essential supplies worldwide.

Conclusions and advice

The Committee noted that many aspects of the current multi-country outbreak are unusual, such as the occurrence of cases in countries where monkeypox virus circulation had not been previously documented, and the fact that the vast majority of cases is observed among men who have sex with men, of young age, not previously immunized against smallpox (knowing that vaccination against smallpox is effective in protecting against monkeypox as well). Some Members suggested that, given the low level of population immunity against pox virus infection, there is a risk of further, sustained transmission into the wider population that should not be overlooked. The Committee also stressed that monkeypox virus activity has been neglected and not well controlled for years in countries in the WHO African Region.

The Committee also noted that the response to the outbreak requires collaborative international efforts, and that such response activities have already started in a number of high-income countries experiencing outbreaks, although there has been insufficient time to have evaluated the effectiveness of these activities.

While a few Members expressed differing views, the committee resolved by consensus to advise the WHO Director-General that at this stage the outbreak should be determined to not constitute a PHEIC.

However, the Committee unanimously acknowledged the emergency nature of the event and that controlling the further spread of outbreak requires intense response efforts. The Committee advised that the event should be closely monitored and reviewed after a few weeks, once more information about the current unknowns becomes available, to determine if significant changes have occurred that may warrant a reconsideration of their advice.

The Committee considered that the occurrence of one or more of the following should prompt a re-assessment of the event: evidence of an increase in the rate of growth of cases reported in the next 21 days, both among and beyond the population groups currently affected; occurrence of cases among sex workers; evidence of significant spread to and within additional countries, or significant increases in number of cases and spread in endemic countries; increase in number of cases in vulnerable groups, such as immunosuppressed individuals, including with poorly controlled HIV infection, pregnant women, and children; evidence of increased severity in reported cases (i.e. increased morbidity or mortality and rates of hospitalization; evidence of reverse spillover to the animal population; evidence of significant change in viral genome associated with phenotypic changes, leading to enhanced transmissibility, virulence or properties of immune escape, or resistance to antivirals, and reduced impact of countermeasures; evidence of cluster of cases associated with clades of greater virulence detected in new countries outside West and Central African countries.

Finally, the Committee advised the WHO Director-General that countries, in the spirit of Article 44 of the IHR, should collaborate with each other and with WHO in providing the required assistance through bilateral, regional or multilateral channels, and should follow the guidance provided by WHO (see Monkeypox).