Health Alerts

Malaria cases in the state of Maharashtra are currently concentrated in Mumbai and Gadchiroli (followed by Thane and Nagpur).  Mumbai experienced a 2-fold increase in infections between June and July, while the increase over last year’s case numbers is up to four times greater in the tribal areas of Gadchiroli, which has a predominance of Plasmodium falciparum malaria. This week, the country’s prime minister cautioned the population over tropical and vector-borne diseases during peak monsoon season and the ongoing ’battle against the coronavirus disease’. Read More

A further 55,000+ COVID-19 cases were registered in India over the last 24 hours, according to covidly.com, taking its total to just over 2.7 million. However the Americas still has the highest burden of infections and deaths – the PAHO director noted yesterday that the region has ‘approximately 13% of the world’s population, but 64% of officially reported global deaths’. More recently a rise in new infections has been seen in Peru, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago. Dr Etienne spoke at some length about the mental health crisis, ‘a perfect storm in every country‘.

While daily updates will continue on the WHO global COVID-19 dashboard, the agency’s Situation Reports will cease, replaced by COVID-19 Weekly Epidemiological Updates (starting on Aug 17 with #1).