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The health and safety of our community is our top priority. We know that many people are understandably concerned about the current pandemic situation. MCAST is taking increased health and safety measures to address these concerns while ensuring that learning can continue. As the situation continues to develop, please stay updated by visiting mcast.edu.mt/covid19 for the latest information. You can also visit the circulars section for all the official messages sent to staff and students.

 

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  • Communicable disease threats report, 4 -11 October 2025, week 41
    by ECDC on October 10, 2025 at 1:37 pm

    This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 4 -11 October 2025 and includes updates on respiratory virus epidemiology in the EU/EEA, chikungunya, West Nile virus, dengue, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever, Ebola, measles, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV).

  • Weekly respiratory virus update, week 40, October 2025
    by ECDC on October 10, 2025 at 1:19 pm

    In the EU/EEA, widespread but decreasing circulation of SARS-CoV-2 is observed, with limited impact on hospitalisations. Respiratory syncytial virus and influenza circulation remain at low levels.

  • The European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary (ERVISS)
    by ECDC on October 10, 2025 at 12:09 pm

    This interactive dashboard provides a weekly integrated epidemiological summary for influenza, RSV and SARS-CoV-2.

  • Communicable disease threats report, 27 September - 3 October 2025, week 40
    by ECDC on October 3, 2025 at 2:19 pm

    This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 26 September - 3 October 2025 and includes updates on respiratory viruses, SARS-CoV-2, Mpox, rabies, West Nile virus infection, dengue, chikungunya, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever and Ebola.

  • Reporting Protocol for integrated respiratory virus surveillance
    by ECDC on September 24, 2025 at 9:32 am

    This Reporting Protocol describes data collection for influenza, COVID-19, and other respiratory viruses (such as RSV or new viruses of public health concern) in the EU/EEA and wider WHO European Region. Data collection is integrated for most datasets in line with the operational considerations for respiratory virus surveillance in Europe.

News (English) - World Health Organization Corporate news releases, statements, and notes for media issued by the World Health Organization.

  • WHO and the European Union launch collaboration to advance digitized health systems in sub-Saharan Africa
    on October 14, 2025 at 12:27 pm

    The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Union (EU) announced today a new agreement to support the digital transformation of health systems and wider adoption of WHO’s Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN) in sub-Saharan Africa. This EU–WHO partnership will improve pandemic preparedness and accelerate progress towards better health and well-being for all.

  • WHO upgrades its public health intelligence system to boost global health security
    on October 13, 2025 at 2:50 pm

    Today, the World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with key partners and supporters, launched version 2.0 of the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) system, used globally for the early detection of public health threats.

  • 11 million lives lost each year: urgent action needed on neurological care
    on October 13, 2025 at 9:41 am

    The World Health Organization (WHO) today warns that less than one in three countries around the world has a national policy to address the growing burden of neurological disorders, responsible for over 11 million deaths globally each year. The WHO’s new Global status report on neurology released today shows that neurological conditions now affect more than 40% of the global population – over 3 billion people.

  • Maldives becomes the first country to achieve ‘triple elimination’ of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B
    on October 13, 2025 at 9:19 am

    In a landmark public health achievement, the World Health Organization (WHO) has validated the Maldives for eliminating mother-to-child transmission (EMTCT) of hepatitis B, while maintaining its earlier validation (in 2019) for EMTCT of HIV and syphilis.

  • WHO warns of widespread resistance to common antibiotics worldwide
    on October 13, 2025 at 7:22 am

    One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections causing common infections in people worldwide in 2023 were resistant to antibiotic treatments, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) report launched today. Between 2018 and 2023, antibiotic resistance rose in over 40% of the pathogen-antibiotic combinations monitored, with an average annual increase of 5–15%. Data reported to the WHO Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) from over 100 countries cautions that increasing resistance to essential antibiotics poses a growing threat to global health. The new Global antibiotic resistance surveillance report 2025 presents, for the first time, resistance prevalence estimates across 22 antibiotics used to treat infections of the urinary and gastrointestinal tracts, the bloodstream and those used to treat gonorrhoea. The report covers 8 common bacterial pathogens – Acinetobacter spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, non-typhoidal Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae – each linked to one or more of these infections.The risk of antibiotic resistance varies across the world WHO estimates that antibiotic resistance is highest in the WHO South-East Asian and Eastern Mediterranean Regions, where 1 in 3 reported infections were resistant. In the African Region, 1 in 5 infections was resistant. Resistance is also more common and worsening in places where health systems lack capacity to diagnose or treat bacterial pathogens. “Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine, threatening the health of families worldwide,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “As countries strengthen their AMR surveillance systems, we must use antibiotics responsibly, and make sure everyone has access to the right medicines, quality-assured diagnostics, and vaccines. Our future also depends on strengthening systems to prevent, diagnose and treat infections and on innovating with next-generation antibiotics and rapid point-of-care molecular tests.”Gram-negative bacterial pathogens are posing the greatest threatThe new report notes that drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria are becoming more dangerous worldwide, with the greatest burden falling on countries least equipped to respond. Among these, E. coli and K. pneumoniae are the leading drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria found in bloodstream infections. These are among the most severe bacterial infections that often result in sepsis, organ failure, and death. Yet more than 40% of E. coli and over 55% of K. pneumoniae globally are now resistant to third-generation cephalosporins, the first-choice treatment for these infections. In the African Region, resistance even exceeds 70%. Other essential life-saving antibiotics, including carbapenems and fluoroquinolones, are losing effectiveness against E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Salmonella, and Acinetobacter. Carbapenem resistance, once rare, is becoming more frequent, narrowing treatment options and forcing reliance on last-resort antibiotics. And such antibiotics are costly, difficult to access, and often unavailable in low- and middle-income countries.Welcome progress in AMR surveillance – but more action neededCountry participation in GLASS has increased over four-fold, from 25 countries in 2016 to 104 countries in 2023. However, 48% of countries did not report data to GLASS in 2023 and about half of the reporting countries still lacked the systems to generate reliable data. In fact, countries facing the largest challenges lacked the surveillance capacity to assess their antimicrobial resistance (AMR) situation. The political declaration on AMR adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in 2024 set targets to address AMR through strengthening health systems and working with a ‘One Health’ approach coordinating across human health, animal health, and environmental sectors. To combat the growing challenge of AMR, countries must commit to strengthening laboratory systems and generating reliable surveillance data, especially from underserved areas, to inform treatments and policies.WHO calls on all countries to report high-quality data on AMR and antimicrobial use to GLASS by 2030. Achieving this target will require concerted action to strengthen the quality, geographic coverage, and sharing of AMR surveillance data to track progress. Countries should scale up coordinated interventions designed to address antimicrobial resistance across all levels of healthcare and ensure that treatment guidelines and essential medicines lists align with local resistance patterns.The report is accompanied by expanded digital content available in the WHO’s GLASS dashboard, which provides global and regional summaries, country profiles based on unadjusted surveillance coverage and AMR data, and detailed information on antimicrobial use.