WHO

Immunizations are down significantly since the coronavirus pandemic began, according to a report. Meantime, there were about 9 million measles infections and 128,000 deaths worldwide last year.

The WHO chief remains optimistic but urges caution, noting that testing and sequencing rates remain low, vaccination gaps between rich and poor countries are still wide, and new variants continue to proliferate.

According to the World Health Organization report, the coronavirus pandemic caused many people with TB to go undiagnosed.

Invasive, deadly fungi are on the rise. In its first-ever Fungal Priority Pathogen List, the World Health Organization says these are the most important.

In its weekly report on the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said deaths fell by 22% in the past week, at just over 11,000 reported worldwide.

Even though the number of weekly reported deaths have plummeted more than 80% since February, one person still dies with COVID every 44 seconds.

Subsequent variants of monkeypox will be named using Roman numerals for the clade, and lowercase letters for the subclade.

WHO said the number of new cases fell 35% in Europe but increased about 20% in the Western Pacific . Deaths rose 44% in the Western Pacific and 26% in the Middle East, while falling about a quarter in Europe.

A report from WHO and UNICEF states that last year, 25 million children missed out on one or more "lifesaving vaccines" — for diseases like tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, polio and yellow fever.

The action comes as WHO convenes its emergency committee to consider if the outbreak of monkeypox - mostly in Europe - warrants being declared a global emergency.