Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a renewed warning about the alarming impact of air pollution, which it describes as the most significant environmental health threat of modern times. According to WHO estimates, air pollution causes around seven million premature deaths each year, contributing to chronic respiratory diseases, lung cancer, and cardiovascular conditions. In a recent post on its official X account, the United Nations (UN) emphasized the serious health risks posed by air pollution, urging swift and decisive action to address the crisis.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has congratulated former President Goodluck Jonathan for winning the year 2025 Sunhak Peace Founders’ Award. The congratulatory message was contained in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, this morning, as the president applauded Jonathan for his dependable advocacy for peace and democracy, describing the action as a patriotic effort that has earned him global recognition.

Around half of the 830 million people worldwide living with diabetes, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, lack access to proper treatment. The number of people with diabetes, as well as those without treatment, has been rising steadily for decades, especially in these regions. Access to affordable diabetes medicines is critical, yet pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi control much of the global insulin and GLP-1 medicine market. This monopoly allows them to set high prices, limiting access in low-resource regions. Allowing competition could significantly reduce costs, similar to how generic HIV medicines became 99% cheaper over the past two decades. Expanding production would also help meet the growing global demand for insulin and diabetes care.

Researchers have confirmed that bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) extracts can help fight hard-to-treat bacterial infections by enhancing the effectiveness of antibiotics. This could lead to lower antibiotic doses and fewer side effects. Studies found that bitter leaf extract has moderate antibacterial effects, especially against Staphylococcus aureus, a common infection-causing bacterium. However, it showed no effect against Escherichia coli.

Researchers from The Ethox Centre at Oxford Population Health have contributed to a Nature perspective paper outlining, for the first time, how artificial intelligence (AI) can revolutionize infectious disease research and enhance pandemic preparedness. Over the next five years, integrating AI into national response systems could save lives by predicting the location and trajectory of disease outbreaks. The global team of researchers emphasizes the need for stronger collaboration between academia, government, and industry to ensure AI is used safely, ethically, and with accountability in infectious disease research.

The World Bank has approved $50m in support of food nutrition challenges in Nigeria. Country Director of the World Bank, Ndiame Diop revealed this during a meeting with Vice President, Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa Abuja on Tuesday. According to Diop, the fund was earmarked under the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRiN) project 2.0 programme, which is a crisis response window. The Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank, Trina Haque said there was a need for nutrition education for children and adolescents as it is important for early child development. While speaking during the visit, Shettima reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to addressing its growing nutrition challenges through a community driven strategy aimed at transforming nutrition outcomes across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas (LGAs).