Guinea worm fell to 10 human cases in 2025; infected dogs are the barrier
Human cases are a rounding error against the 3.5 million of the 1980s. But 684 animal infections, most of them dogs in Chad, now stand between the programme and eradication.
Bhutan becomes first South-East Asia country validated free of dog-borne rabies
WHO validated Bhutan's elimination of dog-transmitted human rabies, a disease almost always fatal once symptoms appear. The country has recorded zero such deaths since June 2023.
Italy reports Europe's first imported human case of H9N2 avian flu
The patient had spent months in Senegal and was found to carry the poultry-adapted virus alongside tuberculosis. WHO rates the public risk as low and traced no onward spread.
One fatal Nipah case in Bangladesh, and a seasonal exposure route that keeps repeating
The patient drank raw date palm sap through most of January. Thirty-five contacts are under monitoring, and the six who developed symptoms have tested negative.
Rift Valley fever has killed 42 people in Mauritania and Senegal since September
WHO reports 404 confirmed human cases across the two countries in six weeks. The case fatality ratio is 30% in Mauritania and 7.8% in Senegal — a gap that says more about detection than about the virus.
Four unlinked Nipah deaths in Bangladesh, and one that broke the seasonal pattern
Three of the four cases drank raw date palm sap in the usual December-April window. The fourth, a child who fell ill in August, did not — and the source remains under investigation.