PARIS • The world should brace itself for a potentially devastating impact on human health due to climate change, top policymakers and officials from around the globe meeting in Paris have said.

Some consequences may be avoided if humanity radically curbs its use of fossil fuels in the coming decades, but many are already being felt, they said at the opening on Thursday of a two-day conference run by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and hosted by France.

"Health and climate are inextricably linked because human health depends directly on the health of the planet," French Environment and Energy Minister Segolene Royal told participants.

Ms Royal, also the rotating president of United Nations-led talks on how best to cope with global warming, said health impact must play a more central role in future negotiations. "From now on, I will do my best to ensure that health is integrated into all future climate conferences," starting with a special forum at the 196-nation UN climate meeting in Marrakesh in November, she said.

The Paris Agreement, inked last December, calls for holding global warming to well under 2 deg C and helping poor nations cope with its impact. A crescendo of scientific studies paints an alarming picture of the human suffering in store due to disrupted weather patterns, rising seas, droughts and superstorms.

Tropical disease vectors - for malaria, dengue and Zika, to name a few - are expanding as the insects that carry them spread following warming climes.

Extreme heatwaves set to occur every decade rather than once a century will claim more lives, especially the ill and the elderly. WHO estimated in 2005 that killer hot spells claim 150,000 lives annually.

Most worrying of all, perhaps, is the threat to global food supplies. Many staple foods, especially in the developing world, cannot adapt fast enough to changing weather, resulting in lower yields. Fish - a key source of protein for billions - have not only been depleted by industrial harvesting, but also are migrating as oceans warm and coral reefs die.

Sometimes it is the sources, rather than the impact, of manmade climate change that damage health.

WHO estimates seven million people die each year from air pollution, which also contributes to global warming. "The health sector has been under-represented in this discussion when you think about the millions of lives that will be affected, and even ended," said the UN climate forum's interim head Richard Kinley.

The Second Global Conference On Health and Climate was due to end yesterday with a proposed "action agenda" for national governments.

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Participants attending the Second Global Conference on Health and Climate, hosted by the Government of France, COP21 presidency, proposed key actions for the implementation of the Paris agreement to reduce health risks linked to climate change.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that climate change is already causing tens of thousands of deaths every year. These deaths arise from more frequent epidemics of diseases like cholera, the vastly expanded geographical distribution of diseases like dengue, and from extreme weather events, like heat waves and floods.

At the same time, nearly 7 million people each year die from diseases caused by air pollution, such as lung cancer and stroke.

Experts predict that, by 2030, climate change will cause an additional 2,50,000 deaths each year from malaria, diarrhoeal disease, heat stress and undernutrition alone.

The heaviest burden will fall on children, women, older people and the poor, further widening existing health inequalities between and within populations.

The conference highlighted the benefits of switching to cleaner energy sources. These will help reduce levels of climate and air pollutants, as well as providing desperately needed power for health facilities in low-income countries. The health sector should themselves make a greater effort to promote low-carbon healthcare facilities and technologies; these can simultaneously improve service delivery and reduce costs as well as climate and environmental impacts.

The participants called for countries to adopt a new approach to link health economics assessment and climate change, for example, by calculating the avoided healthcare costs, when countries invest in mitigation of climate emissions, and protection from climate risks.

To develop this work, WHO announced a new working group which will articulate a new coherent approach to health economics and climate change. To do so, it is recommended that countries spend more on protecting health from risks linked to climate, such as extreme weather events and outbreaks of infectious disease and in cleaner energy sources, more sustainable transport systems and urban planning that also reduces major health risks, for example air pollution in cities and in the home. Recommendations also focus on scaling up financing on climate change and health through additional resources and mechanisms and existing resources earmarked for adaptation.

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Bali, Indonesia, 30 June 2016 – The World Health Organization (WHO), governments, financial institutions, development partners, and health agencies from across the world have committed to accelerate strengthening and implementation of capacities required to cope with disease outbreaks and other health emergencies.

A significant threat to global health security is the number of national health systems that are weak, fragmented and under-funded. Only about one third of countries in the world have the ability to assess, detect and respond to public health emergencies. Ebola, Zika, yellow fever and other recent outbreaks have exposed these weaknesses at national, regional and international levels.

"Fortifying health security in today's world must be a key priority of governments, multilateral agencies, development banks, and non-government organizations the world over. What matters most is maintaining the momentum and turning that into real, tangible results," Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region said at the end of the three-day meeting on 'Advancing Global Health Security: From Commitments to Actions', which ended here yesterday. The meeting brought together 250 participants from 52 countries representing 28 different organizations.

Speaking at the opening of the event, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said "the bedrock of outbreak and emergency preparedness and response is a functioning, resilient national health system – with the financing, human resources, infrastructure, information and supply management systems capable of detecting and responding to public health events."

Renewed commitment to health system strengthening in-line with the International Health Regulations (2005) is needed, especially in vulnerable countries. The true power of health systems is their ability to deliver timely, quality health services to those in need in a comprehensive way and on an adequate scale. These systems are especially important during emergencies, when access to quality essential health services can be severely compromised.

The meeting highlighted the critical importance of flexible preparedness planning, community strengthening and engagement, information sharing, strengthening of intersectoral collaboration of national and international partnerships, and the critical role that governments and technical partners play in financing and implementing them. Investing in these systems requires strong ownership and supportive leadership at the highest levels.

A number of side events also took place during the meeting, notably a World Bank Group meeting on sustainable financing for preparedness; an Alliance meeting on the acceleration of IHR implementation; and a Government of Indonesia meeting on zoonoses.

From commitment to action

The meeting in Bali is the second high-level WHO meeting to advance global health security. The first meeting took place in Cape Town, South Africa in July 2015. Since then, considerable preparedness strengthening activities have taken place and been implemented, especially in vulnerable countries.

A significant advancement since the Cape Town meeting is the WHO joint external evaluation (JEE) process, which is one of four components of the new WHO IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. The WHO JEE process helps to identify strengths and weaknesses in national health systems and in other sectors which play a key role in health emergency preparedness and response.

The results of the WHO JEE is shared publicly and will support the country and its partners in developing a national action plan linked to the national budget and planning cycles, anchored in the health system and supporting its implementation in the country.

The JEE process reflects the underlying principles of the strategic framework for emergency preparedness that was fine-tuned at the Bali meeting, including transparency, accountability, multisectorality, partnership, sustainability, and alignment. Key to the Bali framework is the building of robust health systems in order to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) by methods that are efficient, country-focused, transparent and accountable, and strengthening and maintaining the effectiveness of global health security as a global public good.

WHO has also created an open-access web platform called the Strategic Partnership Portal (SPP) to help identify country needs, gaps and partner activities to ensure resources are used more efficiently, without duplication. Training on how to use the SPP, mandated by WHO Member States and supported by health partners, has been rolled out in several high-risk countries in Africa, with planned expansion to other WHO Regions in 2016.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has named a chief to head up its new health emergencies unit. The UN agency was criticized for its response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, prompting it to set up the new unit.

Peter Salama, an Australian epidemiologist who is currently UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, has been tapped to head the WHO's health emergencies unit and will take up his post in July.

The program he will run was set up after the WHO was accused of "egregious failure" in handling the Ebola crisis, during which over 11,000 people died as the disease spread through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in 2015 and early 2016.

The unit will provide rapid support for any country or community facing a health emergency arising from disease, natural or man-made disasters or conflict, the WHO said in a statement.

The Ebola epidemic caused "immense human suffering, fear and chaos," which went "largely unchecked" by the WHO's leadership, a specialist health panel said last year.

Children in the front line

Meanwhile, the UN children's agency said this week that 69 million children under five will die from preventable causes between now and 2030 if action to improve health and education for the most disadvantaged is not accelerated.

UNICEF has said in its annual report that 167 million children will also live in extreme poverty, 60 million won't be attending primary school and 750 million women will have been married as children by 2030 unless inequality is tackled now.

Many are fleeing because of poverty and inequality, UNICEF's Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth said. "These root causes must be addressed if you're going to stop some of these forces overwhelming particular countries and polarizing the political debate," he said. "Our job in UNICEF is to be there on the ground and helping children survive," he added.

UNICEF has called on all 193 UN member states to develop national plans that put the most disadvantaged children first and set clear goals to close gaps between the richest and poorest.

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Even though the explosive spread of the Zika virus has been met with a new level of international response, thanks to lessons learned from the Ebola crisis, experts warn they are only beginning to grasp the damage the mosquito-borne virus can do.

Doctors speaking at a UN meeting on Global Health Crises said Monday that the Zika virus has already affected 60 countries on four continents, and a major outbreak on the Atlantic Ocean island nation of Cape Verde suggests the disease is now poised to enter continental Africa. Zika has already become epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Although Zika was first identified in Uganda in 1947, researchers in 2012 discovered a second distinct Asian lineage of the virus which is the one that has been linked to neurological problems in Brazil and is the same strain that has been identified in Cape Verde, according to the World Health Organization.

• 'Not out of the woods if you don't have symptoms' in pregnancy, birth defect study finds

"It is my analysis that we're at the beginning of a really challenging new outbreak with probably substantial impacts that are not fully understood by the world as a whole, even by those who are experts in bio-medical research," said Dr. David Nabarro, a special adviser to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on health issues.

Zika virus is spread mainly through the bite of a tropical mosquito, Aedes aegypti, and was first thought to cause only mild symptoms like a fever and rash, but it has recently been linked to severe birth defects including babies born with abnormally small heads and a rare neurological syndrome that can cause death or temporary paralysis.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization's emergency response chief, said that thanks in part to lessons learned from the Ebola crisis, a public health emergency was promptly declared in response to Zika and control measures were promptly put in place by UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and local governments.

But, he said, mosquito control measures are "proving grossly inadequate and a new vaccine is at least 36 months away.

On Monday, Inovio Pharmaceuticals said it received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin early-stage safety tests of its DNA-based vaccine against the mosquito-borne virus. The U.S. National Institute of Health is also working on a vaccine they expect to begin testing by early fall.

Aylward said until a vaccine is ready health authorities should concentrate their efforts on the most vulnerable.

"The focus is clear, put women at the centre of the response and protect them and their children from Zika virus infection. Help these women avoid Zika infection, if possible, and help them manage the consequences if exposed," he explained.

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NEW YORK, NY - The global stockpile of the yellow fever vaccine may not be sufficient if simultaneous outbreaks hit the densely populated areas not covered by emergency responses, the United Nations health agency has warned, noting that by mid-June 2016, almost 18 million doses have been distributed in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Uganda this year.

In particular, the Angola outbreak has depleted six million doses twice this year already, a level never seen before. In the past, no more than four million doses have been used to control an outbreak in one country.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), which raised the concern today, the world's four major vaccine manufacturers have been working around the clock to replenish the stockpile, bringing the global stockpile to 6.2 million doses in early June.

Urban yellow fever can spread rapidly in densely populated cities, causing thousands of deaths and very serious humanitarian consequences. Vaccination is the most important measure for preventing the disease. But production takes a long time – around 12 months – and it is difficult to forecast in advance the quantities that will be needed each year to respond to outbreaks.

In 1997, WHO, in partnership with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), created the International Coordinating Group (ICG) to manage emergency vaccine stockpiles for future outbreaks and coordinate the distribution of vaccines to the affected areas.

Yellow fever was first confirmed on 19 January 2016 in Angola. Nine days later, the Angolan Ministry of Health requested 1.8 million doses from the global stockpile of emergency vaccine supplies, which was approved the same day.

Since then, the country has made several additional requests for vaccines from the emergency stockpile and by 18 May had received 11.7 million doses in total. Ongoing vaccination campaigns due to the further spread of the disease are putting continuous demands on the stockpile.

In addition, outbreaks in Uganda and the DRC have stretched the global supply with demands for more than 700,000 and 2.2 million doses respectively.

Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The 'yellow' in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients. Symptoms of yellow fever include fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue.

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Many hospitals and medical practices provide executive health programs. Basically, they entail complete physicals with evaluations and recommendations. These programs are geared to busy executives and others such as business owners who are concerned about their health. While they are quite beneficial for patients, executive health programs are a solid source of revenue for medical institutions. The result is a progressively competitive environment for medical institutions providing them.

With advancements in healthcare and increasingly discriminating prospective patients, executive health programs are going to evolve. This evolution is a function of advances in medical technology and care, more demanding patients able to afford the healthcare advances, and the economic needs of the hospitals and medical practices.

The medical institutions, for example, are probably going to build into their executive health programs ongoing evaluation capabilities. This is possible because of new and continuing developments in tele-medicine. According to Daniel Carlin, M.D., founder and CEO of WorldClinic, one of the foremost concierge healthcare firms, "mHealth is a burgeoning field that will enable hospitals to provide continuous care and connection to their executive patients. These technologies will also enable hospital-based physicians to diagnose, treat and coordinate care for patients when they are away from home."

Another example of a likely change in executive health programs will be the medical institutions expanding into delivering comprehensive longevity planning. "Most likely, the majority of patients for executive health programs today will be drawn to comprehensive longevity planning. The cutting edge hospitals will integrate both genomic and biomarker testing with the design of a holistic and enduring preventive healthcare and risk management plan" say Carlin, "At the same time, the patients' wealth managers will be called upon to create the fiscal 'nest egg' to cover the ongoing costs of these programs. This resource is truly critical and should also be put in place for any patient desiring the means to pay for credible cutting edge treatment options not yet covered by conventional health insurance or Medicare."

For some hospitals and medical practices, executive health and wellness programs are important to their financial prosperity, especially looking forward. The opportunities that are available to these healthcare providers from incorporating mHealth evaluations and treatment to comprehensive longevity planning are considerable. With the economics of healthcare many times working against providers, the evolution of executive health programs will prove very beneficial to all involved.

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Amman, June 13 (Petra)--The World Health Organization (WHO) called, on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, for donating blood to save the lives of millions of people around the world.

WHO Regional Director, Dr Ala Alwan, said in a message on this occasion, a copy of which was obtained by Petra, that "blood donation saves the lives of millions of people around the world every year. It also supports complex medical and surgical procedures and is an essential component of health care during man-made and natural disasters.

"However, in many countries, the demand for blood exceeds available supplies. As a result, blood services face challenges in making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety".

In this context, it is important to reiterate that an adequate and safe supply of blood can only be assured through regular donations by voluntary, unpaid blood donors. However, today, less than 60% of the blood supply in the Eastern Mediterranean Region is collected from such donors. Therefore, we urgently need to exert greater effort to fill this gap.

"As we celebrate the world blood donor day around the world this event serves to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gift of blood and to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure the quality, safety and availability of blood and blood products for patients in need," he added.

The director said that World Blood Donor Day is also an opportunity to urge leaders in the health sector to commit to do their utmost to ensure sufficiency in safe blood and blood products based on 100% voluntary, unpaid donations.

He also thanked those donors who regularly give blood to save the lives of others and we encourage others to begin doing so.

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