The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that 1,134 children in Gaza have undergone amputations as of October 9, 2026. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2,300 amputees — both children and adults — were assessed between September 2024 and May 2026, and only 500 received permanent prosthetics. The nongovernmental organization (NGO) said Israeli restrictions on patient travel and medical evacuations prevent hundreds of children from seeking specialized treatment abroad. According to the organization, only eight certified prosthetics and orthotics professionals are currently available in Gaza, and there is a lack of equipment to make, fit and maintain artificial limbs. The group accused Israel of war crimes and framed the amputation of children and the obstruction of treatment as acts listed in Article 2 of the Genocide Convention.
Theme: Health
Articles and notes about Health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said cholera has killed around 1,800 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) so far this year, a country also battling its deadliest Ebola outbreak, according to AFP, in a text republished by Medical Xpress. Some 60,000 cases of the disease have been recorded in what the WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described as the country’s “worst cholera outbreak in decades.” Most of the infections were detected in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu, prey to a litany of armed groups and partly under the control of the Rwanda-backed M23 militia, Tedros said. He said the concern now is that cases are following the Congo River basin, which means the outbreak could stretch up to Kinshasa. The mortality rate is around 3%, which is high for cholera.
A cybersecurity incident altered the operating parameters of cold chambers at supervision and control installations in three regional sites of the Établissement français du sang (EFS) on Monday. According to Le Canard Enchaîné, the chambers that store donor samples at -30 °C were set to 110 °C. The EFS said no health impact had been identified and that there were no blood product losses to report. Coolworld, the refrigeration company serving the EFS, said only a limited number of units were affected, through remote monitoring software that relied on a third-party component. The case came shortly after a wave of suspected attacks on supermarket refrigerators and freezers in a dozen European countries, France among them; it is not yet known whether the episodes are linked.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delivered four trucks of essential medical supplies to hospitals in Taiz, including surgical kits to treat weapon-wounded patients, in the committee's first delivery of medical supplies to the city since September 23. The Houthis have encircled Taiz since early October and are blocking the road linking the city to Aden, the interim seat of the internationally recognized government. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said roads are closed, water production has halved and food prices have risen by at least 50%.
French authorities said a cyberattack on several blood banks sought to raise temperatures to extremely high levels and was thwarted before it could do any damage to blood products or samples. The French Blood Establishment (EFS) said “temperature and defrosting thresholds were raised to extremely high levels” on Monday at three of its cold-storage sites for plasma, and that no health consequences were identified and no blood products were lost. The attack hit a supplier of refrigeration equipment at three EFS sites. France's national cybersecurity agency and the Health Ministry are investigating the incident. The incident comes after supermarkets in several European countries reported that their fridges and freezers warmed up after being remotely taken over, with tons of spoiled food at a total cost of millions of dollars.
Denise Brown, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, said that there has been an intense pattern of drone strikes over the past couple of weeks against civilian infrastructure, with sources of energy and fuel apparently systematically targeted. At a hospital just outside Khartoum, the power went out and stopped treatment for 25 patients who needed dialysis; the hospital has no generator and no solar panels. Hundreds of aid trucks are stuck for lack of fuel, and there are queues kilometers long for fuel in the capital. The World Food Programme has recorded seven hits on its convoys this year and 20 over the past two years. Brown said she did not know where the strikes originate and called for the message that they must stop to reach whoever needs to hear it.
United Nations (UN) spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Tuesday that partners supporting the collection of solid waste in Gaza warn that only half of their vehicle fleet is operational. According to him, persistent Israeli restrictions on the entry of enough engine oil and spare parts required to keep the vehicles running are increasing public health risks, as only some of the trash can be collected. He called for a wider range of critical supplies to be allowed into Gaza, with less red tape and more crossings open for deliveries.
New York state reported the first measles-linked child death in over 30 years, amid an outbreak. The case is the state’s first measles-linked death in more than three decades, according to the South China Morning Post.
The Ebola outbreak has killed 5,376 people — 5,372 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and two each in Kenya and Uganda, with 10,414 confirmed cases in the country as of October 30. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, with no known vaccine or treatment.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, 53, suffered a stroke on Saturday after experiencing numbness in his arm at his son’s hockey game and was transferred to Johns Hopkins for further monitoring, according to his office. “He is awake and alert,” he is responding well to treatment and doctors are optimistic about a full recovery, chief of staff Allison Herwitt said in a statement. Murphy is not up for re-election in Tuesday’s midterms that will decide which party controls Congress and is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2028; a 20-year senator from Connecticut, he is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations and Foreign Relations committees.
Health authorities in Nigeria are investigating two suspected Ebola cases in the country’s northeast, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) said on Saturday. The two individuals have been isolated while officials carry out contact identification, listing and laboratory testing, the agency said in a post on X.
The Ebola death toll in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has passed 5,000, according to government data cited by Al Jazeera, in an outbreak declared in May that is already the country’s deadliest on record. More than 10,000 people have been infected, and there are no approved treatments or vaccines against the rare Bundibugyo strain.
The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has surpassed 5,000, government data showed on Friday, Reuters reported.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has topped 10,000 confirmed cases, government data showed Tuesday, as health authorities race to slow the spread of the disease in several African countries, according to AP, in a text published by NBC News. It is the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history, and nearly half of the 10,060 people confirmed to have the virus have died, according to data from Congo's Ministry of Health.
Kenya released 20 Ebola contacts from quarantine. The 20 people released completed 21 days of monitoring without developing Ebola symptoms and are in good health, according to the Miami Herald.
Indonesia deployed buses fitted with oxygen tanks in a city on Borneo island, where residents are choking on forest-fire haze that shows no sign of letting up. More than 300,000 people in seven provinces were struck by respiratory tract infections from August to October, according to Indonesia’s health ministry, cited by AFP in a report published by Malay Mail.
Angry youths armed with machetes attacked two community health workers raising awareness about the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing one and wounding the other, Reuters reported.
Nigeria's minister of health and social welfare, Muhammad Pate, confirmed that the country's Ebola index patient has been evacuated to Switzerland, according to AllAfrica. The patient is a 42-year-old Ugandan-born woman who lives in Abuja and returned from Uganda on 3 October, in Nigeria's first Ebola case in more than a decade. The evacuation came six days after the country confirmed the case.
Ebola deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have reached 4,803 and infections 9,876, with a fatality rate of 48.6%, according to TASS. As of October 25, the death toll was double that of the 2018–2020 outbreak, according to Yonhap.
A nurse was killed and another health worker was severely injured while responding to an Ebola alert in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to Al Jazeera, citing the World Health Organization; the attack took place on Saturday in the town of Bafwasende in Tshopo province, according to Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus; data from the country’s Ministry of Health indicate more than 9,800 cases, including more than 4,700 deaths, since the outbreak began in May, the deadliest in the country’s history.
Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention placed 53 contacts under watch and approved an emergency payment of N100,000 per person weekly to support people placed in isolation or quarantine as part of efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in the Federal Capital Territory.
Kenya has recorded its second death from Ebola as it handles its first ever outbreak of the disease, according to the BBC. Seven other Ebola patients were receiving treatment at two isolation facilities, the broadcaster said.
A dialysis center in Taiz has cut sessions from four hours to two and a half because of the siege and the shortage of diesel and medical solutions, Dahan told Al Jazeera. In an October 12 statement, the governorate’s health office warned that the continued siege and the obstruction of essential supplies could endanger the lives of 1,110 patients with kidney failure.
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced the start of the first clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine in the outbreak that began in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to Al Jazeera. Trial participants were vaccinated with the Ervebo vaccine in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province and the epicenter of the outbreak. The DRC declared its 17th and worst-ever Ebola outbreak in May and has since reported more than 9,700 cases, with deaths exceeding 4,600.
Kenya’s health ministry announced on Friday the country’s second Ebola death, a 65-year-old woman who was a close relative of the first patient and developed symptoms while in quarantine, according to SCMP. Kenya has confirmed nine cases so far, including the two deaths, and the remaining seven patients are receiving treatment at two isolation facilities, according to the Hindustan Times, citing the ministry.
The UN warned on Friday that time is running out to get aid into Taiz, besieged by Houthi fighters who are preventing supplies from reaching Yemen’s third-largest city, it said, according to the Middle East Eye. Houthi fighters have encircled Taiz since early October and blocked the road that links it to Aden, the interim capital of Yemen’s internationally recognised government. Road closures and diesel shortages have halved the city’s water production and roughly tripled the price of trucked water, which most residents depend on, Laerke said.
A BBC investigation found evidence that Sudanese paramilitary fighters systematically destroyed el-Fasher's healthcare system during the long siege and the subsequent takeover of the city in Darfur a year ago. The broadcaster documented at least 43 attacks on hospitals and healthcare sites between May 2024 and October 2025, some of them hitting the same target more than once.
Greeceʼs Parliament approved on Friday a ban on the use of social media platforms for children under 15 over health and safety concerns, according to The Hindu. The ban comes into force on January 1, 2027, according to Reuters.
The toll from the Tibet earthquake now includes 76 injured and more than 12,000 residents evacuated, according to the Hindustan Times.
The earthquake that struck Tibet on Thursday night killed at least 16 people and injured 65, according to Chinese state media. At least 339 homes and 20 livestock sheds also collapsed, local officials told state media. Xi Jinping ordered “all-out search and rescue efforts” to find missing people, “prompt medical treatment for the injured” and “every effort to minimize casualties”, according to the Xinhua news agency.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classified the Ebola outbreak in Africa as complex after the disease spread to Nigeria, according to AFP. In its latest weekly bulletin, WHO Africa reported 9,637 confirmed cases and 4,646 deaths, a crude fatality ratio of 48.2% — an increase of 572 cases and 265 deaths since External Situation Report #22.
The director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Jean Kaseya, called on Nigeria’s first confirmed Ebola patient to disclose her complete travel history and possible contacts during a recent visit to Uganda, to help health authorities establish how she contracted the virus. According to Kaseya, the patient was born in Uganda and lives in Abuja, and was in her home country when her husband, a diplomat, travelled to join her. In an interview with the BBC, he said her first symptoms appeared on October 6, when she sought a private hospital believing she had malaria, and that she was admitted on October 11. Nigeria’s health minister, Muhammad Pate, confirmed that the 42-year-old woman spent two and a half weeks in Kampala before returning to Abuja through Ethiopia, with a two-hour stopover in Addis Ababa.
French authorities confirmed that a patient who died at a Lyon hospital earlier in October was infected with the Shamonda virus, the first such report of the virus in a human, according to Al Jazeera. In a statement on Thursday, the French Ministry of Agriculture stressed that there were no identifiable health risks to the general population at this time. France’s Health Ministry said the patient had “severe immunodeficiency” and was receiving treatment for a serious illness at the Hospices Civils de Lyon, TRT World reported.
Nigeria confirmed one imported case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory, becoming the fifth country to detect the virus since an outbreak was declared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on May 15, 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. According to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the patient is a woman with a recent travel history to Uganda. Her symptoms began on October 7, four days after her arrival in Nigeria; she sought care at a private health facility in Abuja on October 11, and a laboratory test confirmed the Bundibugyo virus on October 20. She is in isolation and receiving medical care. The ministry said 44 contacts had been identified and were being monitored.
Nigeria recorded its first Ebola case in about a decade, in a foreign woman living in Abuja who had arrived from Uganda, according to Reuters. Health officials say the case matches the strain of the Democratic Republic of Congo outbreak, according to Al Jazeera.
Nigeria has confirmed one imported case of Ebola Bundibugyo virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. The patient is a woman with a recent travel history to Uganda, and her symptoms began on 7 October, four days after her arrival in the country. According to the WHO, 44 contacts have been identified and are being monitored as efforts are intensified to find other people who may have been exposed.
Nigeria confirmed on Tuesday the first Ebola case of the current outbreak, a woman who arrived from Uganda, the Health Ministry said. The patient began showing symptoms on Oct. 7 and was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja on Oct. 11, where she was diagnosed with Ebola. Contact tracing has begun, with 44 close contacts identified and monitored, including healthcare workers, patients, caregivers and travel contacts, according to Africanews.
Kenya has confirmed a new Ebola case, bringing the total number of infections in the country to nine, amid an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to Al Jazeera.
Between 2023 and 2025, 1,369 physicians left Israel for more than a year, according to a Tel Aviv University report cited by Middle East Eye. The head of the Israel Medical Association (IMA) called the emigration of physicians a strategic threat to Israel.
Kenya’s health authorities have confirmed an eighth Ebola case in the country, a 49-year-old patient attendant, according to Chinese state agency Xinhua. Of 38 people tested on Sunday, one came back positive for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, the agency reported. The United States (US) raised its travel advisory for Kenya as cases reached eight, according to AllAfrica.
The Ebola outbreak in Congo has reached the country’s eighth province, Nord-Ubangi, on the border with the Central African Republic, where the Health Ministry recorded two cases, one of them fatal, in men in their 20s in the Wapinda health zone, according to the Korea Herald. Since the outbreak was declared in mid-May, authorities have recorded at least 9,400 cases and more than 4,500 deaths, the deadliest toll in Congo’s history.
The death toll in Saturday’s stampede in Kolkata, in eastern India, rose to 19, with 25 injured people receiving treatment in different hospitals and one in critical condition, according to Xinhua. Around 10 people, including organizers and private security personnel, were detained by Kolkata Police for questioning, according to the same agency.
An Ebola death in Kenya last week is highlighting the urgency of Africa’s public health emergency preparedness, with governments across the continent committing their national budgets to the health sector, according to Inter Press Service (IPS), in a text republished by AllAfrica. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) warned that the current Ebola strain was spreading so fast that, for emergency health workers, “it was like fighting a megafire.”
Over 1.4 million Palestinians face crisis-level food insecurity or worse through the end of 2026, as the UN warns that recent gains remain fragile, according to TRT World. At least 466 Palestinians, including 157 children, have died from malnutrition and starvation since 2024, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said hospitals across Yemen are struggling to treat a sharp rise in people wounded along several front lines. Front-line hospitals in Marib, Taiz and on Yemen's Red Sea coast saw unprecedented numbers of weapon-wounded patients, with some admitting more than 700 casualties in a single week, according to the ICRC, in an Al-Monitor report based on Reuters. The fighting pits the Iran-backed Houthis against Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces. More than 200,000 people have been displaced since the fighting resumed in recent weeks, according to the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The Vatican said Pope Leo XIV, 71, was diagnosed with lung cancer after surgeons removed part of his right lung on Tuesday, according to a medical bulletin. To make the procedure curative, the lower lobe of his right lung was removed using a video-assisted technique. The surgery lasted 90 minutes and had no complications, and the Vatican did not detail the recovery outlook or the course of treatment, according to Al Jazeera.
Pope Leo XIV was admitted on Tuesday morning to the Gemelli hospital in Rome for surgery to remove a nodule in his lung, according to G1. The Vatican did not say whether the nodule is malignant or benign, but said it is “well controlled and at an early stage”. Cardinal Piero Parolin said he is “worried” about the surgery “because no one expected something like this”, but that the pontiff is “serene”. The surgery was scheduled for 11 a.m. Brasília time, according to sources at the Holy See.
Yemen's Ministry of Public Health and Population said on Saturday that medicines, intravenous fluids, medical supplies and fuel at Taiz health facilities were “nearing depletion”. The ministry said emergency care, surgery, intensive care, dialysis and neonatal services could be forced to stop if the situation continued. Middle East Eye reported the alert over the “near depletion” of medical and fuel supplies in the city.
Iran's Medical Council called on the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the World Medical Association (WMA) to take immediate action against the use of patients' lives as a tool of political and military pressure, according to the Tehran Times. In an official letter to the three organizations, the council said the United States violates international humanitarian and criminal law through an economic blockade and pharmaceutical sanctions. Council head Mohammad Raiszadeh urged the leaders of health organizations to respond promptly and responsibly to what he described as inhumane acts and the weaponization of medical resources in armed conflicts.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the Alimbongo health zone, in North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), reported ebola cases for the first time, with four confirmed cases and two deaths as of October 6, according to Al Jazeera. The WHO also recorded 8,728 confirmed cases and 4,205 deaths in the DRC as of October 6. The same day, Kenya confirmed its first imported case of Bundibugyo virus disease, also according to the WHO.
Hundreds of doctors protested outside the World Medical Association (WMA) summit in Rotterdam, calling for the suspension of the Israeli Medical Association (IMA), according to Al Jazeera. On Saturday, 81 healthcare workers removed their scrubs and hung them in a line facing the WMA assembly in Rotterdam, each bearing the name of a Palestinian healthcare worker held in Israeli detention. The IMA OUT! campaign said it delivered a petition with more than 6,500 signatures from health workers around the world calling for the suspension.
Russia has still not publicly identified the pathogen that killed a researcher, according to the New York Times. The World Health Organization (WHO) is still trying to understand the causative agent, the newspaper said.
Turkey banned the use of social media by children under 15 on Saturday, October 10, with the decision published in the Official Gazette. The measure takes effect on November 1.
The United States State Department reiterated on Tuesday its Level 4 (Do Not Travel) advisory for US citizens travelling to Russia, amid fears of pneumonic plague, according to the Hindustan Times. The US embassy said it was aware of reports from the Irkutsk region of suspected pneumonic plague resulting in one death and of associated quarantine measures in, and closures of, hospitals in Irkutsk. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the possible case of pneumonic plague in Russia presents very low risk outside Russia.
Kenya announced on Tuesday the country’s first death from Ebola, according to DW. The patient travelled overland to Kampala, Uganda’s capital, and then took a flight to Nairobi on October 3. The health minister said 28 people who came into contact with the patient, including relatives and health workers, had been identified and would be quarantined. The case makes Kenya the fourth country to record an Ebola case in the current outbreak, declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in mid-May.
About 200 people who came into contact with the dead researcher have been quarantined, and parts of the hospital in Shelekhov where she died have been cordoned off. Igor Kobzev, the governor of Irkutsk, said she died of “pneumonia of unknown aetiology” and that no new cases have been identified among institute staff. Russia's public health authority Rospotrebnadzor said two commissions investigating biosafety procedures at the institute found no evidence of an accident involving pathogenic microorganisms, according to DW, citing TASS.
Russian authorities imposed restrictions on hospital access and are keeping about 200 contacts under surveillance, according to El País. The public health agency Rospotrebnadzor attributes the case to a “pneumonia of unknown etiology” and says it has not found microorganisms linked to her professional activity.
Kenya has confirmed its first case of Ebola, a Kenyan citizen who had been living in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past seven years, the BBC reported. The patient died days after arriving in Nairobi. Health Minister Duale said 28 contacts have been identified so far, including family members and health workers. The DRC has recorded more than 8,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths, according to The Guardian.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the country is closely monitoring the case of the technician who died at a plague research centre in Siberia, with a risk of pneumonic plague, but no cause for alarm, according to the BBC. Irkutsk’s governor announced the cause of death as “pneumonia of undetermined etiology” and said no microorganisms linked to her work had been found in her biological samples. Rospotrebnadzor inspected the Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East and found no emergency situation there.
Several hospitals in Irkutsk imposed three-week quarantines, according to the outlet People of Baikal, in a text cited by Meduza on October 4. The measure followed a case of “pneumonia of unknown cause” in an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, according to Meduza. About 200 people at the hospital where the worker was taken were placed under observation, according to The Telegraph.
Gaza is facing worsening shortages of medical equipment for diagnosing and monitoring thousands of patients, according to medical sources cited by the Palestinian agency Wafa. According to the sources, 52 percent of medical laboratory equipment, including chemical analysis equipment, has been destroyed, making it impossible to maintain essential daily services.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which represents nearly 600,000 nurses, ended its commercial partnership with Teva UK and withdrew the company from sponsoring the RCNi nursing leadership summit on 30 October 2026, according to Middle East Eye. Teva said it was disappointed and accused the union of allowing healthcare to become politicised, according to Middle East Eye.
Gaza's Health Ministry said on September 26, 2026, that the Palestinian death toll had risen to 74,016, with 175,068 wounded, according to The Hindu. Since the ceasefire, 1,145 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants and says women and children account for around half the total.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, September 25, 2026, that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached two new health zones: Bulu, in South Ubangi governorate, on the border with the Central African Republic, and Dungu, in Haut-Uele province, on the border with South Sudan. The additional cases bring the number of affected health zones to 63 across seven provinces, as authorities struggle to control the outbreak. As of September 23, the DRC had reported 7,890 confirmed cases and 3,799 deaths, according to the WHO.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) held on September 25, 2026, its second High-level Meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, three years after the first, staged in 2023 in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and gaps in global health security. Leaders recognized the progress made in the past three years in systems to detect, prepare for and respond to pandemic threats, including adoption of the WHO Pandemic Agreement and amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005). Countries also stressed the urgent need to finalize negotiations on an annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement establishing the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system.
Wildfires in West Kalimantan province, on Borneo, are among the worst in 11 years under “super-El Niño” conditions driving up temperatures and causing severe droughts, according to Reuters. More than 12.5 million people have been exposed to haze across seven provinces on Borneo and Sumatra, and wildfire-related respiratory cases more than doubled to 113,336 by September 9, from 50,891 on September 1, according to Indonesian health ministry data. The transboundary smog has turned the air unhealthy in neighboring Singapore and Malaysia.