More than 600 negotiators from WIPO’s 186 member states began work today on finalizing a new international treaty to ease access to books for blind, visually impaired, and other print disabled people. The Diplomatic Conference to Conclude a Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities, convened by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco, is meeting in Marrakesh from June 18 to 28, 2013.

13 June 2013 -- WHO estimates that up to half a million new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) occur worldwide, each year. For the first time in over 40 years, a new TB drug with a novel mechanism of action - bedaquiline- is available, and was granted accelerated approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration in December 2012.

12 June 2013 -- On World Blood Donor Day, 14 June, WHO calls for all countries to obtain 100% of their supplies of blood and blood products from voluntary unpaid blood donors by 2020.

10 June 2013 -- Between 4 and 9 June 2013, a joint mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the World Health Organization (WHO) met in Riyadh to assess the situation due to a new coronavirus in the Kingdom. This virus has recently been named the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). It is a new, emerging virus that is distantly related to the virus that caused SARS.

Hundreds of negotiators representing countries around the world will gather later this month to work on finalizing a new international treaty to ease access to books for blind, visually impaired, and other print disabled people.

5 June 2013 -- Many low- and middle-income countries are neglecting overweight and obesity as major health threats, with policies in place to tackle undernutrition, but lack policies to halt the growing burden of diseases due to the rise of overweight, and obesity, according to new information released by WHO today.

29 May 2013 -- On World No Tobacco Day, 31 May, WHO is calling for countries to ban all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship to help reduce the number of tobacco users. Tobacco use kills nearly 6 million people every year.

27 May 2013 -- After seven days of intense discussions, the 66th World Health Assembly (WHA) concluded with agreement on a range of new public health measures and recommendations aimed at securing greater health benefits for all people, everywhere.

20 May 2013 -- WHO's Health Assembly, the world's largest health policy-making body, opened its Sixty-sixth Session today in Geneva with around 3000 participants from around the world.

17 May 2013 -- The yellow fever ‘booster’ vaccination given ten years after the initial vaccination is not necessary, according to WHO.

15 May 2013 -- The world has made dramatic progress in improving health in the poorest countries and narrowing the gaps between countries with the best and worst health status in the past two decades, according to the World Health Statistics 2013.

13 May 2013 – Some 2.4 billion people – one-third of the world’s population – will remain without access to improved sanitation in 2015, according to a joint WHO/UNICEF report issued today.

12 May 2013- The emergence of this new coronavirus is globally recognized as an important and major challenge for all of the countries which have been affected as well as the rest of the world.

3 May 2013 -- On Hand Hygiene Day (5 May), WHO is encouraging patients and their family members to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene. Every year, hundreds of millions of patients around the world are affected by health care-associated infections. These lead to significant physical and psychological suffering and sometimes death of patients, and financial losses for health systems. More than half of these infections could be prevented by caregivers properly cleaning their hands at key moments in patient care.

2 May 2013 -- More than 270 000 pedestrians lose their lives on the world’s roads each year accounting for 22% of the total 1.24 million road traffic deaths. WHO is calling on governments to take concrete actions to improve the safety of pedestrians.

The theme of this year’s World Intellectual Property Day – Creativity – the next generation –honors the talented and ingenious creators and innovators who are imagining how the world will look tomorrow. Intellectual property offices, associations, businesses and technology institutions and students are organizing numerous activities to mark the day, including competitions, exhibitions and public discussions.

25 April 2013 – Today, at the Global Vaccine Summit, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) presented a comprehensive six-year plan, the first plan to eradicate all types of polio disease – both wild poliovirus and vaccine-derived cases – simultaneously. Global leaders and individual philanthropists signaled their confidence in the plan by pledging close to three-quarters of the plan’s projected US$ 5.5 billion cost over six years.

Senior decision-makers from governments, law enforcement, Customs and the private sector gather in Istanbul, Turkey, for the Seventh Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy, to seek innovative responses to the illicit trade in counterfeit and pirated goods.

24 April 2013 -- On World Malaria Day, 25 April, WHO recognizes significant accomplishments in preventing and controlling malaria, including in high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa, but highlights the threat of antimalarial drug resistance in south-east Asia’s Greater Mekong subregion, where an emergency response is now being launched.

18 April 2013 -- An estimated 22 million children in developing countries are still not protected from dangerous diseases with basic vaccines. For World Immunization Week, which starts on 20 April, experts state that better supply and logistics systems are essential to reach all children.