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• US health boss Kennedy calls medical journals corrupt

  For years Kennedy has attacked the huge influence of the pharmaceutical industry in the US health care system. He had previously attacked these storied medical journals.

  

• Amnesty demands release of striking health workers in Ethiopia

  The rights NGO said 20 health workers were being held at police headquarters in the capital Addis Ababa, including Mahlet Guuesh, a doctor who was recently interviewed by the BBC.

  

• Bird flu outbreaks in mammals double, raising human risk: report

  The number of mammal outbreaks soared to 1,022 across 55 countries last year, compared to 459 in 2023, according to the Paris-based agency, which monitors animal diseases worldwide.

  

• England to launch 'world first' gonorrhoea vaccination programme

  "This vaccination programme is a hugely welcome intervention at a time when we're seeing very concerning levels of gonorrhoea, including antibiotic resistant gonorrhoea," said NHS consultant epidemiologist Sema Mandal.

  

• WHO chief says 2 million 'starving' in Gaza

  Speaking at the opening of the annual World Health Assembly, Tedros said that increasing hostilities, evacuation orders, shrinking humanitarian space and the Gaza aid blockade were "driving an influx of casualties to a health system that is already on its knees".

  

• High times for German cannabis firm amid medical boom

  "The change in the law meant lots of people became aware for the first time that you can get cannabis from the chemist without being gravely ill," Schetter said. "That led to a surge in demand."

  

• Polio outbreak declared in Papua New Guinea

  In subsequent testing, two children in Lae were found to have the poliovirus type 2 strain, according to the WHO representative in Papua New Guinea, Sevil Huseynova.

  

• WHO says Gaza's last cancer hospital stops working

  The WHO chief said "the hospital's closure has cut off vital services including neurosurgery, cardiac care, and cancer treatment -- all unavailable elsewhere in Gaza."

  

• Ivorian women fight FGM with reconstructive surgery

  A report by the UN children agency, UNICEF, last year estimated that more than 230 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation -- 30 million more than in 2016.

  

• Dengue, chikungunya may soon be endemic in Europe: research

  The new study, published in the Lancet Planetary Health journal, analyses the impact a number of factors including the climate have had on the spread of the two diseases in Europe over the last 35 years.

  

• WHO reduces management team after US funding cuts

  Tedros already told member states last month the agency would need to slash operations and jobs as US funding cuts had left the organisation with a budget hole of several hundred million dollars.