NEWS
Recent news from WHO
- On 31 May World No Tobacco Day was launched at the Japanese Ministry of Health in Tokyo. This year's theme focused on the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. Women are a major target for the tobacco industry as it attempts to recruit new users to replace those who will quit or die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death and kills more than five million people every year, about 1.5 million of whom are women. At the launch, the World Health Organization (WHO) presented a new publication: Gender, women and the tobacco epidemic.
- On 3 June 2010, the Countdown to 2015 decade report (20002010): taking stock of maternal, newborn & child survival was launched at the Women Deliver conference in Washington, DC, United States of America. The 2010 report examines 68 countries where more than 95% of all maternal and child deaths occur. The report calls for more political action and investment to develop basic services that could save millions of lives a year.
- On 14 June World Blood Donor Day 2010 was launched in Barcelona with a slogan "New blood for the world". The global campaign hopes to recruit and retain a new generation of motivated, voluntary unpaid blood donors. The launch was hosted by the Spanish and Catalonian health authorities and donor associations with the Spanish Red Cross.
For more about these and other WHO news items please see: http://www.who.int/mediacentre