Aspartame is one of the world’s most popular sweeteners, used in products from Coca-Cola diet sodas to Mars’ Extra chewing gum.

In a press conference ahead of the announcement on Friday, the WHO’s head of nutrition, Francesco Branca, suggested consumers weighing beverage choices consider neither aspartame nor sweetener.

“If consumers are faced with the decision of whether to take cola with sweeteners or one with sugar, I think there should be a third option considered – which is to drink water instead,” Branca said.

In its first declaration on the sweetener, announced early on Friday, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), based in Lyon, France, said aspartame was a “possible carcinogen”.

A carcinogen refers to something that can cause cancer.

The announcement does not take into account how much a person would need to consume to be at risk, which is considered by a separate panel, the WHO and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Joint Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), based in Geneva.

After undertaking its own comprehensive review, JECFA said on Friday that it did not have convincing evidence of harm caused by aspartame, and continued to recommend that people keep their consumption levels of aspartame below 40mg/kg a day.

The WHO said the existing consumption levels meant, for example, that a person weighing 60-70kg would have to drink more than 9-14 cans of soda daily to breach the limit, based on the average aspartame content in the beverages – around 10 times what most people consume.

“Our results do not indicate that occasional consumption could pose a risk to most consumers,” said Branca.

Several scientists not associated with the reviews said the evidence linking aspartame to cancer is weak. Food and beverage industry associations said the decisions showed aspartame was safe and a good option for people wanting to reduce sugar in their diets.

The IARC panel said on Friday it had made its ruling based on three studies in humans in the United States and Europe that indicated a link between hepatocellular carcinoma, a form of liver cancer, and sweetener consumption, the first of which was published in 2016.

Some doctors expressed concern that the new classification of “possible carcinogen” might make drinkers of diet soda switch to caloric sugar beverages.

Therese Bevers, medical director of the Cancer Prevention Center at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, said “The possibility of weight gain and obesity is a much bigger problem and bigger risk factor than aspartame could ever be.”

The statement read: “Persons who are unwell or at risk of developing severe COVID-19 disease and dying, including people 60 years of age or older or those with comorbidities (e.g. heart disease, cancer, and diabetes), should be advised to postpone travel.”

However, blanket travel bans will not prevent the global spread of the Omicron variant – the WHO has warned in their latest advice.

It added: “Blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods. In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data.

“All countries should ensure that the measures are regularly reviewed and updated when new evidence becomes available on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Omicron or any other VOC

“Essential international travel –including travel for emergency and humanitarian missions, travel of essential personnel, repatriations and cargo transport of essential supplies–should continue to be prioritized at all times during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In addition, all travellers should be reminded to remain vigilant for signs and symptoms of COVID-19, to get vaccinated when it is their turn and to adhere to public health and social measures at all times and regardless of vaccination status, including by using masks appropriately, respecting physical distancing, following good respiratory etiquette and avoiding crowded and poorly ventilated spaces.”

Outlining three key steps to achieving this – vaccination, screening and treatment, the WHO noted successful implementation of all three could reduce more than 40 percent of new cases of the disease and 5 million related deaths by 2050.

Tuesday’s development represents a historic milestone because it marks the first time that 194 countries commit to eliminating cancer – following adoption of a resolution at this year’s World Health Assembly.

Meeting the above targets by 2030 will ensure that 90 percent of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by 15 years of age, 70 percent of women are screened using a high-performance test by age 35 and again by 45, and 90 percent of women identified with cervical disease receive treatment (90 percent of women with pre-cancer treated and 90 percent of women with invasive cancer managed).

The strategy also stresses that investing in the interventions to meet these targets can generate substantial economic and societal returns. An estimated US$ 3.20 will be returned to the economy for every dollar invested through 2050 and beyond, owing to increases in women’s workforce participation. The figure rises to US$ 26.00 when the benefits of women’s improved health on families, communities and societies are considered.

According to the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “Eliminating any cancer would have once seemed an impossible dream, but we now have the cost-effective, evidence-based tools to make that dream a reality.

“But we can only eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem if we match the power of the tools we have with unrelenting determination to scale up their use globally.”

The WHO Assistant Director-General, Dr Princess Nothemba (Nono) Simelela, added, “The huge burden of mortality related to cervical cancer is a consequence of decades of neglect by the global health community. However, the script can be rewritten.

“Critical developments include the availability of prophylactic vaccines; low-cost approaches to screening and treating cervical cancer precursors; and novel approaches to surgical training. Through a shared global commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and leaving no-one behind, the countries of the world are forging a new path to ending cervical cancer.

“The fight against cervical cancer is also a fight for women’s rights: the unnecessary suffering caused by this preventable disease reflects the injustices that uniquely affect women’s health around the world. Together, we can make history to ensure a cervical cancer-free future.”

The pandemic is raging months after it broke out, with infections soaring past 54 million and claiming more than 1.3 million lives.

“A vaccine will complement the other tools we have, not replace them,” director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “A vaccine on its own will not end the pandemic.”

The WHO’s figures for Saturday showed that 660,905 coronavirus cases were reported to the UN health agency, setting a new high water mark.

That number, and the 645,410 registered on Friday, surpassed the previous daily record high of 614,013 recorded on November 7.

Tedros said that supplies of the vaccine would initially be restricted, with “health workers, older people and other at-risk populations (to) be prioritised. That will hopefully reduce the number of deaths and enable the health systems to cope.”

But he warned: “That will still leave the virus with a lot of room to move. Surveillance will need to continue, people will still need to be tested, isolated and cared for, contacts will still need to be traced… and individuals will still need to be cared for.”

Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Programme, speaking during a news conference in Geneva on Monday, said in order to completely stop the virus it is important to identify where the human-animal barrier was breached.

“This is not an easy virus and not an easy virus, either, to detect. It’s not an easy virus to stop. If you follow the data and the science, you will find, hopefully, the point at which the disease crossed the species barrier. It is important that we find that because as long as the animal-human breach has not been discovered, there’s always a chance that that barrier can be breached again. The world is at greater risk for these species breaches. We are pressuring the biologic system. We live in a biome. We live in a world of biology. And we are creating – actively creating – the pressures that are driving the breaches of those barriers. And we need to do better at managing the risks associated with that.”

WHO’s Chief Scientist, Soumya Swaminathan revealed this in an interview with DPA on Sunday.

According to him, COVID-19 vaccination was currently undergoing research processes and could be ready by the middle of next year.

“We have now over 20 candidates in clinical studies.

“So we are hopeful that a couple of them will work. It would be very unlucky if all of them fail.

“So if we are very practical, then we are looking at the middle of 2021 when we will have a vaccine that can be widely deployed.

“Of course, it’s impossible to predict,” she said.

The WHO official stated that the global race to develop a vaccine had been “the fastest timeline we have ever seen.”

Reca that COVID-19 was first discovered in Wuhan Province of China and has now spread throughout the globe.

Since its first outbreak, the virus has killed over 600, 000 people and infected over 14 million across the world.

In a four-page letter addressed to WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, the US President criticized the stages of the body’s response to the outbreak of the disease since December.

The US President, who disclosed that talks on reforming the WHO had already begun, had earlier called the UN health body a “puppet of China”.

The letter read in parts “It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China. My administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization. But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste. It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world. The only way forward for the World Health Organization is if it can actually demonstrate independence from China. My administration has already started discussions with you on how to reform the organization. But action is needed quickly. We do not have time to waste.”

This is coming after Trump temporarily halted funding to the organization last month.

Here is the full letter

Ryan while speaking in an online briefing on May 13, said the virus may just become one of the known viruses that kills people annually around the world.

He said “This virus just may become another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away. HIV hasn’t gone away. I’m not comparing the two diseases but I think it is important that we’re realistic. I don’t think anyone can predict when or if this disease will disappear.
I think there are no promises in this and there are no dates. This disease may settle into a long problem, or it may not be”

According to documents posted on the organization’s website on Thursday, eight of the potential vaccines have been approved for clinical trial.

According to the WHO, China’s vaccine clinical trial request was accepted today as the WHO only had seven vaccine requests four days ago.
Of the groups approved by WHO for clinical trials on humans, four are from China, one is from England, one is American and another is a combined American and European group. No African request has been approved.

Four million jobs have been furloughed in the UK alone, over 3 million people in the US have become unemployed while countries in Africa have been plunged even into more economics misery as the Coronavirus pandemic has affected small and large scale enterprises.

Switzerland will allow some businesses to reopen today, while Italy plans to loosen some measures on May 4 but the WHO has warned such countries that the pandemic isn’t over.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “The pandemic is far from over. We continue to be concerned about the increasing trends in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and some Asian countries. As in all regions, cases and deaths are underreported in many countries in these regions, because of low testing capacity. This virus will not be defeated if we are not united, if we are not united, the virus will exploit the cracks between us and continue to create havoc. Lives will be lost,”