Margaret Chan

One in four deaths worldwide are due to environmental factors like air, water and soil pollution, as well as unsafe roads and workplace stress, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on March 15.

An estimated 12.6 million people died in 2012 as a result of living and working in unhealthy environments, 23 percent of all deaths reported globally, according to the new study.

Brazil is signing an agreement with the University of Texas to develop a vaccine against the Zika virus, the country's health minister said on Feb. 11, adding the goal is for the vaccine to be ready for clinical testing within 12 months.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan declared on Monday that the Zika virus constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Chan had convened an Emergency Committee to collect advice on the severity of the health threat associated with the continuing spread of Zika virus disease in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease suspected of causing serious birth defects, is expected to spread to all countries in the Americas except Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization said.

South Korea said June 19 that the MERS outbreak that has killed 24 people appears to have begun subsiding, as it reported one new case - the lowest rate of new infections in two weeks.

This brought to 166 the total number of confirmed cases of the disease in the country since the first was confirmed on May 20, the health ministry said.

The first large-scale trial of an Ebola vaccine will begin in Guinea at the weekend, the World Health Organization said March 5, weeks after a similar test kicked off in neighbouring Liberia.
      

The World Health Organization's chief on Jan. 25 admitted the UN agency had been caught napping on Ebola and pledged reforms to avoid similar mistakes in future.
      
Despite turning a corner in the fight against Ebola, there was no room for complacency, WHO head Margaret Chan told a rare emergency session of the agency.
      

Diseases linked to lifestyle choices, including diabetes and some cancers, kill 16 million people prematurely each year, the World Health Organization said Jan. 19, urging action to stop the "slow-moving public health disaster".
      

Ebola outbreak "tantamount to genocide" - expert

FRANKFURT -- WHO, headed by Margaret Chan, should be put on trial because thousands of people have died needlessly, says New Jersey-based epidemiologist Tomislav Prvulovic....

One person commits suicide every 40 seconds, an avoidable tragedy that fails to grab attention because of taboos and stigma, a UN report said Sept. 4.
      
In a study released three weeks after the apparent suicide of Hollywood great Robin Williams, the World Health Organization also warned that media reporting of suicide details raises the risk of copycat behaviour.