Latest news with #EasternMediterranean
Zawya
3 days ago
- Health
- Zawya
Strengthening surveillance systems for vaccine-preventable diseases in Egypt
The World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in Egypt and the Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, together with the Ministry of Health and Population's Expanded Programme on Immunization, conducted a training workshop to strengthen surveillance systems for vaccine-preventable diseases in Egypt. The training, held from 20 to 23 July 2025 with support from the Pandemic Fund, was attended by surveillance officers from 13 governorates. Surveillance systems are essential for detecting, tracking and responding to diseases. They provide reliable, evidence-based data that informs public health decision-making, particularly in responding to diseases that can be prevented through vaccination. Through interactive discussions, simulation exercises and hands-on activities, participants enhanced their skills in detecting and reporting health threats and supporting disease surveillance and response activities as well as reviewing the latest updates to Egypt's vaccine-preventable disease surveillance guidelines. With ongoing humanitarian crises and disease outbreaks in neighbouring countries and territories, where health systems and surveillance mechanisms have been severely disrupted, strengthening Egypt's surveillance system is more important than ever. The training reflects WHO's continued commitment to supporting Egypt in building a stronger, more responsive surveillance systems to ensure early action to protect the health of all people living in the country. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization - Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Express Tribune
3 days ago
- Express Tribune
Gutka sales continue amidst police complicity
For any illegal activity, be it extortion, theft, or drug smuggling, strict enforcement of laws through the police is crucial to delineate the boundary between acceptable and deviant behaviours. However, when the law enforcers themselves are complicit in the crimes, little can be done to fix society. Recently, the Inspector General (IG) Sindh Police issued a circular to all divisional and district police officers, expressing concern over the widespread addiction to gutka among police personnel and instructing the initiation of rehabilitation efforts. The circular called for action against those who failed to comply, including potential dismissal from service. Syed Atif Ali, a resident of New Karachi, felt that the sale of gutka in the city was impossible without the complicity of local police. "Gutka is freely available at shops and paan stalls, and even Indian gutka is sold in the city," said Ali. Gul Muhammad Baloch, a social activist working in Karachi's Baldia Town, opined that although gutka was banned by the law, it was not yet perceived as a social evil. "As a result, its use remains common in homes and neighborhoods. Adults consume gutka in front of children, while people offer it to each other at social gatherings. Gutka should be recognized as a social vice. For this, an effective public awareness campaign should be launched with the involvement of schools, mosques, and community organizations," stressed Baloch. According to a report published by the World Health Organization (WHO), Pakistan ranks highest among countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region for the use of smokeless tobacco, which includes gutka, paan, betel nut (chhalia), and naswar. This widespread usage has contributed to a dangerous rise in cases of oral cancer, which has become the second most common cancer after breast cancer in Pakistan. Karachi is the most affected city in terms of the number of cases of oral cancer, with the majority of gutka users belonging to the lower middle-class areas of the city. The WHO report further claimed that after paan, gutka was the second most commonly used form of chewable tobacco in Karachi. Although the preparation, sale, and use of gutka is legally banned under the Sindh Prohibition of Preparation, Manufacturing, Storage, Sale and Use of Gutka and Manpuri Act, 2019, the law appears to be ineffective in practice. Even though a special task force consisting of police officials from various departments was established in March last year, its impact has been limited. Taha Ahmed Khan, Deputy Parliamentary Leader of MQM-Pakistan in the Sindh Assembly, revealed that the Sindh Assembly had passed a law against gutka however, there has been no meaningful enforcement. "It seems that there is no government presence in Karachi and the city is being run by mafias, including the water mafia, builder mafia, hydrant mafia, and gutka mafia," said Khan. Sadia Javed, a member of the Sindh Assembly from the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and spokesperson for the Sindh government, claimed that the Sindh government was considering amending the law to impose stricter penalties against the sale of gutka. "Tackling major gutka dealers is essential for curbing its spread. IG Sindh Police is personally monitoring the issue," said Javed. The Express Tribune attempted to contact Superintendent of Police (SP) Samiullah Soomro, a member of the task force, to inquire about the number of offenders arrested and punished over the past one year, however, he did not respond. Similarly, Sindh Police spokesperson Syed Saad Ali was also sent several questions via WhatsApp but he too did not send a reply.
New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Ziad Rahbani, Composer Who Defined a Tragic Era in Lebanon, Dies at 69
Ziad Rahbani, an era-defining Lebanese composer, playwright and musician whose songs forged a new sound for the Arab world and whose plays leveled biting critiques of his country's corrupted politics, died on Saturday in Lebanon after a long illness. He was 69. His death was reported by Lebanon's government-run National News Agency. Since Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war, from which it has never fully recovered, generations of Lebanese have grown up learning Mr. Rahbani's Arab-meets-Western songs by heart and quoting his satirical plays, such as 'A Long American Film' and 'What About Tomorrow?' Those who came of age during the war, like Mr. Rahbani, saw in his pensive, sardonic lyrics the brutalities and contradictions of their tiny country on the Eastern Mediterranean as it tore itself apart. He remained beloved by Lebanese who grew up later, in the war's long shadow, when sectarian divides, corruption and economic malaise came to haunt Lebanese life. Mr. Rahbani came from Lebanese music royalty. His mother, Fayrouz, is a living icon, considered one of the Arab world's greatest singers. His father, Assi Rahbani, was a pioneering composer, who, with his brother Mansour, wrote many of Fayrouz's songs. After his father's death, Ziad Rahbani later assumed the mantle of Fayrouz's chief composer, shifting her style late in her career. In her earlier music, Fayrouz and the Rahbani brothers cast a golden-hued, nostalgic spell, weaving an idyllic vision of life in Lebanon's mountain villages in the prosperous days before war, displacement and upheaval tore the Middle East apart. Ziad Rahbani's compositions for his mother and others were a departure in style and substance. In albums like 'Houdou Nisbi' and 'Abu Ali,' he blended the quarter tones and instruments of traditional Arab music with Western-style jazz and funk, once describing his music to an interviewer as 'Oriental jazz,' or 'something like a hamburger that tastes of falafel.' Yet while he admired Western musicians like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, he said, his music was Lebanese. It was music that spoke to Lebanon's distinctive position as an Arab society that embraced Europe and the West. Unlike his mother's earlier work, his songs hewed closer to the reality Lebanon's people lived. 'He left the so-called image of a unified Lebanon or the state of an ideal homeland for the state of a real, divided and fragmented Lebanon,' said Jad Ghosn, a journalist and filmmaker who made a 2019 documentary about Mr. Rahbani. 'He came after Fayrouz to say, 'Enough with the romantic art and enter into realistic art with jazz, contemporary music and realistic poetry.'' The ethereal Fayrouz floated above politics, a difficult feat in a country where most people are identified, and divided, for life by their religious and ethnic backgrounds. But her son Ziad was avowedly political, though not in the way his Greek Orthodox Christian identity might have predicted. An avowed Communist, Mr. Rahbani long supported the Palestinian quest for rights and statehood. His ideas took shape, he said, after right-wing Christian militiamen besieged and massacred Palestinians in Lebanon's Tal el-Zaatar refugee camp in 1976, early in the civil war. He lived with his parents across from the camp during the 53-day siege, and he later told an interviewer that he had surreptitiously recorded meetings between Syrian intelligence officers and right-wing Christian officials that took place at his parents' house so he could report them to pro-Palestinian groups. Because he 'could not bear the situation,' he later told an interviewer, he decided to move to Muslim-dominated West Beirut and leave the family home in Christian-dominated East Beirut, where his pro-Palestinian stance made him unwelcome. Ziad Rahbani was born in 1965 and grew up in Antelias, a coastal town north of Beirut. He began composing when he was around 7 years old, Mr. Ghosn said. By the time he was a teenager, he had already launched a career as a songwriter and musician. The plays he wrote starting in his teens became famous for their sardonic takes on Lebanese politics and society, with humor dark as ink. In 'What About Tomorrow?' (or 'Belnesba Libokra Shou?' in Arabic), which Mr. Rahbani wrote, directed and starred in, in 1978, when he was 22, he depicted a couple struggling to run a bar in the trendy Hamra neighborhood of Beirut. A grainy collage of footage taken during performances of the play was released in 2016 as a film, breaking box-office records in a Lebanon still struggling with many of the same roadblocks. 'They say tomorrow will be better, but what about today?' one character says, one of a number of Rahbani quotes that circulated among Lebanese on social media on Saturday after his death. Lebanese politicians across the political spectrum paid tribute to Mr. Rahbani on Saturday. President Joseph Aoun called him 'a living conscience, a rebellious voice against injustice and an honest mirror for those who suffered and were marginalized,' adding, 'He wrote about people's pain and played on the strings of truth, without ambiguity.' Yet many Lebanese social media users pointed out that such authority figures were exactly the type Mr. Rahbani spent his career skewering. Later in life, Mr. Rahbani openly aligned himself with the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah, celebrating the 2006 war with Israel in which the Iranian-backed militia fought the much better-armed Israelis to a draw. He also voiced support for former President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the dictator who brutally repressed his own people during Syria's civil war, which began in 2011 and ended with Mr. al-Assad's overthrow in December. Such attitudes alienated some fans. But Mr. Rahbani was growing more bitter and alienated himself, despairing of Lebanon's prospects and increasingly socially isolated as he grew older. He had stopped answering most calls, Mr. Ghosn said, and had developed a liver condition. Besides his mother, Fayrouz, he is survived by a brother, Haly, and a sister, Rima.
Qatar Tribune
5 days ago
- Health
- Qatar Tribune
WHO renews HMC's Tobacco Control Center as collaborating facility until 2029
The World Health Organization (WHO) has renewed the designation of the Tobacco Control Center as a collaborating center for treating tobacco dependence for the second consecutive time for a new four year-round ending in 2029. This step reflects the leading position for Qatar in its efforts in tobacco control across the region. This international recognition, which is one of its kind in the Eastern Mediterranean region, is a confirmation of the leading position of the center across the region, which was initially designated as a collaborating center by the WHO in 2017. (QNA) page 2
Qatar Tribune
5 days ago
- Health
- Qatar Tribune
WHO renews HMC Tobacco Control Centre's designation as a collaborating centre until 2029
Tribune News Network Doha The World Health Organization renewed the designation of the Tobacco Control Centre as a collaborating centre for treating tobacco dependance for the second consecutive time and for a new four year-round ending in 2029. This step reflects the leading position for Qatar in its efforts in tobacco control across the region. This international recognition, which is one of its kind in the Eastern Mediterranean region, is a confirmation of the leading position of the centre across the region, which was initially designated as a collaborating centre by the WHO in 2017. In her official letter of designation, Dr. Hanan Belkhy, the regional director of WHO in the Eastern Mediterranean region, praised the efforts of the Tobacco Control Centre at HMC and its services, which comply with best international standards and stated that the centre presents a model in tobacco cessation. Dr. Ahmad Mohammad Al Mulla, director of the Tobacco Control Centre at HMC, expressed his pride in the renewed redesignation, stating: 'This recognition is a testament to the tireless efforts of our dedicated team, who have spared no effort in providing comprehensive support to individuals seeking to quit smoking, within Qatar and the Eastern Mediterranean region, in an effort to curb the global tobacco epidemic.' Dr. Al Mulla affirmed that the centre will continue to implement the terms of its agreement with the WHO to deliver tangible benefits to the community. This includes a series of awareness and training programs aligned with international health agendas, such as raising awareness of the risks of tobacco use in all its forms, and training healthcare professionals to help reduce tobacco use rates and promote healthier lifestyles in Qatar and the Eastern Mediterranean region. The Centre extended its gratitude to Dr. Fatima Al Awa, regional advisor for the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative, and her team at the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office for their close collaboration in executing a high-quality joint action plan. Finally, the Centre encouraged those who wish to quit smoking to take advantage of its specialized tobacco cessation services, which include one-on-one consultations as well as behavioural and medical treatment options. To book an appointment at the Smoking Cessation Clinic, please call or send a message via WhatsApp to: 50800959.
