World Health Organization

The pandemic brought notable setbacks in the effort to eradicate tuberculosis, which is likely to regain its notorious title of deadliest infectious disease in 2023. But there are signs of progress.

The action by the World Health Organization doesn’t mean much for the average person. Health officials say the virus isn’t going anywhere and advise people to get vaccinated.

The World Health Organization today lifted its Public Health Emergency of International Concern for COVID-19. That declaration went into effect three years ago on Jan. 30, 2020.

Peter Ben Embarek, who led the WHO side of a joint team with scientists in China, was dismissed last year, the health agency said.

We asked public health leaders what the World Health Organization should add to its docket in this anniversary year. Answers ranged from pay more attention to teen health to restore the world's trust.

That's what epidemiologist Jenny Cresswell of the World Health Organization said of death rate data in a new report she authored — "equivalent to almost 800 deaths a day or a death every 2 minutes."

That appeal comes after the Chinese government announced nearly 60,000 virus-related deaths since early December following weeks of complaints it was failing to tell the world what was happening.

Malaria cases went up in 2020 and continued to increase in 2021, according to a WHO report. About 95% of the world’s 247 million malaria infections and 619,000 deaths last year were in Africa.

"Removing 'monkey' removes the stigma that monkeypox comes with," an expert tells NPR. But he questions why the World Health Organization will wait a year for the change to take full effect.

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.