World Health

"The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945. The World Food Day and TeleFood theme for 2006 is "Investing in agriculture for food security".

NYT: "The United Nations warned nearly 90 countries including the United States and most of Europe on Thursday to prepare for more deaths from heroin overdoses because of surging opium production in Afghanistan. The 2006 Afghan Opium Survey, published by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, found production of the raw material for heroin hit a record 6,100 tonnes, almost 50 percent higher than last year. This accounted for more than 90 percent of the world's supply."

AP: "A new study finds that very few survivors of Hurricane Katrina contemplated suicide despite the extreme conditions they faced. While the survivors suffered twice as much mental illness as the pre-storm population, they contemplated suicide far less often than mentally ill people surveyed before Katrina.

"WHO and health partners are supporting the national authorities in meeting the urgent needs of the rapidly increasing number of displaced people, including access to safe drinking water, health care, vaccines and life saving medications. Collaboration with other health agencies such as UNICEF, UNFPA, the Lebanese Red Cross and others is instituted through the Health Cluster mechanism, and the UN Flash Appeal launched on 24 July. Eighteen health projects are listed under the Flash Appeal, for a total requirement of US$ 32 428 200. Pledges thus far include US$ 1 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), US$ 381 000 from Australia, 200 000 Euros from Italy, 100 000 Euros from Ireland, US$ 600 000 from Sweden, US$ 660 000 from Canada, 1 000 000 Euros from Norway and 500 000 Euros from ECHO."

"A World Health Organization investigation showed that the H5N1 virus mutated slightly in an Indonesian family cluster on Sumatra island, but bird flu experts insisted Friday it did not increase the possibility of a human pandemic." [More]

"On the final day of a special session on the fight against H.I.V. and AIDS, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan delivered a gloomy assessment, saying the world was losing the battle.

NYT: "Stopping the epidemic of AIDS will require $22 billion a year by 2008 and possibly more in the following years, officials of the United Nations AIDS program said Wednesday. The $22 billion is nearly triple the $8.3 billion spent last year by all sources, including governments and the private sector.

AP: "The world continues to lose an ugly battle to HIV/AIDS that shows no sign of letting up after 25 million people have died a quarter-century into the epidemic, the head of the U.N.'s HIV/AIDS joint program said.

"An Indonesian who died of bird flu after nursing his sick son might have caught the virus in a case of direct human-to-human transmission, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today. WHO gave its first details of the case of a family cluster of H5N1 avian influenza infections in which six people have now died, and today said it was still looking for the source of the outbreak.