The UNHCO tries to raise awareness of the need for blood donation. On 14 February 2012, the Secretary General of UNHCO, H.E. Mr. Hamit MANAR, met therefore representatives of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to talk about blood collection, testing and research in Switzerland and other international health issues.

NEW YORK / BANGUI, February 10, 2012 The UNHCO is urging governments and humanitarian groups to combat high mortality rates in the Central African Republic. UNHCO has described the Central African Republic (CAR), a former French territory, as a forgotten crisis. Residents in this country of 4.4 million have a life expectancy of just 48 years. According to UNHCO surveys, mortality rates exceed the “emergency threshold” of one death a day per 10,000 residents and two deaths a day for

Wounded individuals in Somalia are having extreme difficulties getting to medical facilities due to the fighting that continues in the Middle Juba Region. During the last round of fighting more than 100 individuals, many of them civilians, were able to get to facilities according to the intertnational organizations in Somalia. “Unfortunately, not all that need care are able to get to the proper facilities” says UNHCO-Director of African Affairs, H.E. Mr. Abdallah Djoudi. There are a limited number of clinics

Molecular biology researchers at Simon Fraser University are beginning to piece together a puzzle that may help doctors and scientists save more than a million lives a year. Christian Frech, lead author of a newly published study on malaria parasites announced that researches at SFU have isolated 44 genes unique to the malaria parasites that infect humans. Frech said these genes provide a new target for drugs to cure malaria and vaccines that can prevent it altogether. “We know from the past,” Frech explains, “that genes that are good vaccine targets are also species specific.”