“The Islamic Development Bank has approved a $251 million loan for Pakistan’s anti-polio program as attacks against health workers continue,” Devex’s “Development Newswire” reports. “The loan will finance a program worth $300 million, which will be managed by the Pakistani government until 2015, when the disease is expected to be…

“Changing attitudes have resulted in a decline in female genital mutilation in Africa and the Middle East, where the practice is most prevalent, according to United Nations data released on” the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation, observed February 6, TrustLaw reports (Mollins, 2/6). According to a WHO press…

The WHO on Tuesday “warned that the ongoing conflict in Syria, which will soon enter its third year, will lead to a sharp spike in the number of people needing urgent aid, including food, clean water and vital medical services,” the U.N. News Centre reports (2/5). “Further aggravating the health of Syrians,…

In a Google+ online discussion on Friday, World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Abeer Etefa “downplayed recent reports that not enough of [the agency’s] Syrian food aid is going to people in opposition areas,” GlobalPost reports. “The panel discussion comes as new figures from the United Nations show that the WFP has only been able to…

“A roadside bomb killed two Pakistani polio workers on their way to vaccinate children in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border on Thursday, an official said,” the Associated Press reports, noting, “The attack — the third this week against polio workers in Pakistan — took place in the…

In the latest round of violence affecting health workers in Pakistan, “[g]unmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a police officer protecting polio workers during a U.N.-backed vaccination campaign in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, the police said,” the Associated Press reports (Khan, 1/29). The policeman, who was escorting two…

“As fighting continues in Syria’s civil war, the United Nations has said that it will be forced to cut already reduced food rations to hundreds of thousands of refugees unless a huge cash injection is found,” Al Jazeera reports. “About four million Syrians rely on international assistance to cope with…

“Pakistani health officials Monday called for infants leaving the country to be issued polio vaccinations at airports after virus samples linked to a southern Pakistani city were discovered in Egypt,” Agence France-Presse reports. “Two sewage samples from Cairo were analyzed and found to resemble a recently discovered strain in the Pakistani city…

“Health workers are back on the streets of Peshawar in Pakistan, defying death threats so they can vaccinate children against polio,” Al Jazeera reports. “Nine of their colleagues were killed last month, and now they have been given extra security,” the news service notes. “Despite the risks, many health workers…

“The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) plans to reach 2.5 million people inside Syria with food aid — a million more than it is currently assisting — now that the government has expanded the list of local partners it can work with, the agency’s chief said” Wednesday, the U.N. News…