Cancer mortality can be cut

3 February 2012 -- Cancer is responsible for close to 13% of deaths worldwide, accounting for 7.6 million deaths in 2008. On World Cancer Day (4 February) this year, WHO is focusing on screening and vaccination. Increased access to cost-effective vaccinations to prevent infections associated with cancers and cost-effective cancer-screening programmes can help to reduce the number cancer deaths.

30 January 2012 -- WHO has produced overwhelming evidence to show that the burden of NTDs - which affects over one billion people worldwide - can be controlled, and in many cases eliminated or even eradicated. A new roadmap shows how this can be achieved. "Once considered inevitable companions of poverty, many NTDs are now being brought to their knees, with stunning speed" said WHO's Director-General Dr Margaret Chan in London today.

• Read more about the roadmap to end NTDs
• Read WHO's Director-General's speech

27 January 2012 -- Schistosomiasis is a chronic disease caused by parasitic worms. People become infected with schistosomiasis when the parasite penetrates their skin during contact with infested water. This updated fact sheet reveals that less than 14% of people requiring treatment are reached even though the only available treatment is effective, safe and inexpensive.

24 January 2012 -- Over 2.5 billion people – more than 40% of the world's population – are now at risk from dengue. This updated fact sheet explains that the disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries when it was endemic in only nine in the 1970s. The only way to prevent the transmission of the dengue virus is to control the vector mosquitos that transmit it to humans.