(CNN) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
The decision was announced Saturday morning after WHO convened its second emergency committee on the issue on Thursday.
“I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced on Saturday morning.
Tedros said while the committee was unable to reach a consensus, he came to the decision after considering the five elements required on deciding whether an outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.
He added that while he was declaring monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, “For the moment this is an outbreak that’s concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those who have multiple partners, that means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right right groups.”
WHO initially stopped short of declaring the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern after its first emergency committee meeting on June 23. At the time, Tedros said the emergency committee advised that at the moment, “the event does not constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern” but acknowledged the “evolving health threat” that WHO would be following extremely closely. READ MORE...
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK -- Sweden recommended a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose to people 65 and over as well as those living in nursing homes or getting home care, authorities said Monday.
The new guideline drops the age from an earlier recommendation for a fourth shot to people 80 and older.
The recommendation also includes fourth shots for those between 18 and 64 years of age, with moderate to severe immune deficiency, Sweden's Public Health Agency said in a statement.
“The goal is just as before to prevent serious illness and death from COVID-19,” Agency chief Karin Tegmark Wisell said.
Tegmark Wisell added that it's “justified" to provide a second booster shot to a wider age range because infections in Sweden and other countries continue to significantly multiply and vaccine protection is starting to decline for older age groups.
“For people aged 65 and over, it is now four months since the previous vaccine dose, and the vaccine’s protective effect diminishes over time,” she said.
For most of the pandemic, Sweden has stood out among European nations for its comparatively hands-off response. It never went into lockdown or closed businesses, largely relying instead on individual responsibility to control infections. READ MORE...
Secondhand cannabis smoke from a bong is more dangerous than cigarette smoking, according to researchers.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open, authors from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health wrote that bong smoking “is not safe.”
“Decades ago, many people thought [secondhand tobacco smoke (SHTS)] presented no health risk to nonsmokers. Scientific research since then changed this perception and led to smoke-free environments. Incorrect beliefs about [secondhand cannabis smoke (SHCS)] safety promote indoor cannabis smoking,” they said.
“Nonsmokers are exposed to even higher concentrations of SHCS materials during ‘hot-boxing,’ the popular practice in which cannabis smokers produce high volumes of smoke in an enclosed environment. This study’s findings suggest SHCS in the home is not safe and that public perceptions of SHCS safety must be addressed.”
The group found that concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) generated in a home during social cannabis bong smoking to which a nonsmoking resident might be exposed were greatly increased compared with background levels, and that PM2.5 decayed only gradually after smoking ceased.
Following 15 minutes of smoking, average PM2.5 was more than twice the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hazardous air quality threshold.
“If one assumes the exposure concentrations were at the mean levels observed, a single home smoking session with no other exposures would generate an estimated mean daily concentration that greatly exceeds the average in cigarette-smoking homes, nonsmoking homes and the U.S. EPA daily standard,” the researchers said.
In order to reach these conclusions, the Environmental Health Sciences Division members’ levels of PM2.5 were measured before, during and after eight cannabis social-smoking sessions in a household living room.
An aerosol monitor was placed where a nonsmoker might sit to record the levels.
Home cannabis bong smoking significantly increased PM2.5 from background levels by at least 100-fold to 1,000-fold for six of eight sessions. The other two sessions had high background levels and significantly increased PM2.5 more than 20-fold. READ MORE...
