Blood test offers faster, less invasive diagnosis for rare genetic diseases in children and infants

WHA78, Geneva, 19-27 May 2025Agenda item: 20Document: A78/16 Chair, Your Excellencies, Director-General As outlined in the Director-General’s report, health conditions in the occupied Palestinian te

Researchers led by Maike Sander, scientific director of the Max Delbrück Center, have developed a vascularized organoid model of hormone-secreting cells in the pancreas. The advance, published in Developmental Cell, promises to improve diabetes research and cell-based therapies.

WHA78, Geneva, 19-27 May 2025Agenda item: 17.1Document: A78/13 Chair, Your Excellencies, Director-General, The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region shoulders one-third of the world’s humanitarian burden

There is no highly effective vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), which remains an infection of global concern. Charles Kyriakos Vorkas, MD, an infectious diseases physician-scientist at the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) at Stony Brook University, and colleagues identified a novel population of immune cells that could serve as an alternative target for TB vaccines and immune-directed therapy. Their findings are detailed in a paper published in Scientific Reports.

WHA78, Geneva, 19-27 May 2025Agenda item: 17.5Document: A78/4 Chair, Your Excellencies, Director-General, When we committed to eradicate polio in 1988, the world was different. Today, conflict, climat

Subarachnoid hemorrhage, the third most common type of stroke, accounting for 5–10% of all cases, could be drastically reduced worldwide through health and lifestyle changes, according to NZ, Australian and international researchers.

The human genome is broadly classified into the genome residing in the cell nucleus (nuclear DNA) and the genome residing in the mitochondria (mitochondrial DNA: mtDNA). Mitochondria are cell organelles that produce energy essential for life activities through oxidative phosphorylation (mitochondrial respiration), and mtDNA encodes a set of genes required for mitochondrial respiration.

A potent opioid detected in Canberra for the first time in September 2024 carries a high risk of overdose, warn chemists from the Australian National University (ANU) and drug checking service CanTEST.

Over the past decade, much research has focused on the connection between skeletal muscle health and cognitive disorders. Scientists have found that sarcopenia, a geriatric syndrome characterized by progressive loss of skeletal muscle mass and function, appears to be strongly associated with an elevated risk of dementia. The complex relationship between our muscles and brain health represents a promising frontier in preventive medicine, particularly as global populations continue to age.

Most humans can recall specific events and past experiences for long periods of time. This capability, referred to as episodic memory, is known to be in great part supported by the activity of neurons in the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe.

A measles outbreak in Mexico has left four people dead this year, including three unvaccinated children, authorities said.

A highly anticipated White House report outlining Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s agenda devotes significant space to raising alarm over vaccines, while touching on environmental and nutrition concerns that remain at odds with broader administration actions.

A Monash University study of almost 400,000 people, published in the journal Cardiovascular Research , is the first to indicate, in humans, that the signaling of substances called short-chain fatty acids or SCFAs, released when gut bacteria break down dietary fiber, significantly protects against cardiovascular disease and hypertension by up to 20%.

A new study has found the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1), which causes cold sores, may be linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease.

When Columbia neurologist and scientist Neil Shneider speaks to his ALS patients who volunteer for experimental therapies, he's unwaveringly honest. "Patients always ask me, 'What can I hope to get out of this?"' Shneider says. "And I always say, in most clinical trials, our hope is that we can slow the disease or maybe even halt progression."

Despite being a top exporter of health care professionals, the Philippines faces a chronic shortage of nurses and physicians. Also, many health graduates in the country are unprepared for real-world public health work. Government primary care facilities and hospitals struggle to hire sufficient staff due to budget and policy barriers, while private hospitals struggle to keep their staff due to fiscal constraints.

As we get older, our bodies stop performing as they once did. We aren't as strong as we once were, we don't see as well as we used to and we start becoming less mobile. These changes inevitably lead to almost one‑third of people over the age of 65 falling each year, resulting in injuries and occasionally death.

Inherited retinal degenerations (IRDs) are a group of genetic disorders that lead to progressive vision loss as the light-sensing cells of the eye—the photoreceptors—die due to mutations in genes needed for their function and survival.