Highlights

• 3rd WHO Consultation on Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines
  November 2016 – The Global Action Plan for Influenza Vaccines (GAP) was launched in 2006 as a-10 year initiative to address the anticipated shortfall in vaccine supply in the event of an influenza pandemic. This 10 year effort on flu vaccine shows progress, but pandemic influenza remains a global threat.

• Lifesaving supplies delivered to displaced people in Yei River State, South Sudan
  November 2016 – WHO has delivered lifesaving supplies to assist thousands of women and children in Yei River State, one of South Sudan’s states most affected by conflict. The supplies will benefit more than 30 000 people living in parts of Logo and Kirkwa for the next 3 months.

• New data reveal higher blood pressure in low- and middle-income countries
  November 2016 – According to new research the number of people in the world with high blood pressure reached 1.13 billion in 2015, nearly doubling since 1975. The largest ever study of its kind, the research involved WHO and hundreds of scientists throughout the world, incorporating blood pressure measurements from nearly 20 million people.

• Morocco eliminates trachoma, leading infectious cause of blindness
  November 2016 – The leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide, trachoma, has been eliminated from Morocco. Transmitted through contact with eye and nose discharge of infected people, particularly young children, trachoma affects populations in 42 countries, and is responsible for blindness or visual impairment in around 1.9 million people.