WHO sounds alarm on maternal and newborn health crisis, and other top health stories

This year’s World Health Day, on 7 April, will centre on maternal and newborn health with the theme “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures”. The World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for urgent action to tackle the preventable deaths of mothers and babies, improve healthcare access and invest in life-saving interventions.

The key issues the WHO is focusing on this year are:

To address these challenges, the WHO is:

The UN's health agency is also pushing for long-term health protections for women and babies, including paid maternity leave, workplace rights and access to essential healthcare services.

“The focus of this campaign comes at a crucial moment, aiming to help countries regain lost progress while showcasing new research and evidence that will enhance the health of women and babies globally,” said Dr Anshu Banerjee, WHO’s Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health.

Life expectancy improvements have slowed across Europe, with England seeing the largest decline, according to a new study in The Lancet Public Health.

Between 2011 and 2019, annual growth fell to 0.15 years, down from 0.23 years in the previous two decades. Experts cite poor diet, inactivity, obesity and heart disease as key factors.

While countries like Norway, Iceland and Sweden managed to maintain or even boost life expectancy, the UK nations faced significant setbacks.

Professor Nicholas Steel, lead researcher from the University of East Anglia, told The Guardian: “We're not doing so well with heart disease and cancer. We have high dietary risks in England and high levels of physical inactivity and high obesity levels. These trends are decades long – there isn’t a quick fix.”

Sarah Price, NHS England’s public health director, added, “Prevention is the cornerstone of a healthier society.”

The study calls for stronger government action on public health reforms across Europe.

The USAID freeze – a freeze on tens of billions of dollars of overseas aid from the US – has affected programmes to tackle HIV, polio, mpox and bird flu in 50 countries according to the WHO, as reported by the BBC.

A mass polio vaccination campaign will run in Gaza from 22–26 February 2025, targeting over 591,000 children under 10 with the novel oral polio vaccine type 2. This follows the detection of poliovirus in wastewater, signalling ongoing circulation and risk to children, the WHO says.

A woman remains cancer-free 19 years after CAR-T treatment for neuroblastoma, the longest reported remission. The case, published in Nature Medicine on 17 February, offers hope for treating solid tumours.

Up to half of cancer patients in England and Wales may not receive the right treatment due to NHS failings, warns the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre. Findings shared with the BBC highlight major gaps in prostate, kidney and colon cancer care.

"Migraine is more than a headache." Research published in Nature highlights advances in migraine treatment, including newly developed medications offering relief for many sufferers. Experts are calling for broader research into the condition’s brain-based origins.

Norovirus hospital cases in England have reached a record level, with 1,160 patients a day during the week of 10 February – double last year's numbers.

A two-and-a-half-year-old girl, treated in the womb with a gene-targeting drug, shows no signs of spinal muscular atrophy, Nature reports. The groundbreaking treatment, detailed in the New England Journal of Medicine, successfully prevented the condition, which causes progressive muscle weakness.

Healthspan – the period of life lived in good health – is just as crucial as lifespan when it comes to longevity, with early childhood nutrition playing a key. To ensure equitable health outcomes as populations age, governments, businesses and NGOs must prioritize childhood nutrition, two experts write.

Learn more here about 5 key healthcare breakthroughs:

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