Salvador Peiró

The Ministry of Health has announced that Spain will receive the MV Hondius in the Canary Islands “in accordance with international law and the spirit of humanitarianism”. The government is thus responding to a request from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Union for the cruise ship, which is travelling from Argentina and has an outbreak of hantavirus on board, to dock in the Canary Islands, in the port of Granadilla, Tenerife. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has assessed which passengers should be evacuated from the ship to Cape Verde, where it is currently located, and which will continue on to the Canary Islands. Once there, they will be examined and transferred to their home countries in accordance with safety protocols. The cruise ship is expected to arrive in the archipelago in three or four days.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported a public health event involving a cruise ship sailing in the Atlantic Ocean that departed from Argentina. To date, two cases of hantavirus infection—generally acquired through exposure to the urine or feces of infected rodents—have been laboratory-confirmed, and there are five additional suspected cases. Of these seven individuals, three have died, and one is currently in intensive care in South Africa. “The risk to the general population remains low. There is no reason to panic or impose travel restrictions,” said Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe.

An international report led by the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) warns that there is a serious risk of a ‘lost’ generation emerging in Gaza, due to the combination of educational, physical and psychological impacts after more than two years of the Israeli invasion. As of 1 October 2025, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the deaths of 18,069 students and 780 education personnel in Gaza, with 26,391 students and 3,211 teachers injured. The study estimates that children in Gaza will have lost the equivalent of five years of education due to repeated school closures since 2020, first due to COVID-19 and then due to the Israeli invasion.

Through surveys of 78 healthcare workers in Gaza between August 2024 and February 2025, an international team has documented patterns of injuries among the civilian population during Israel's ongoing invasion. The most common traumatic injuries were burns, followed by injuries to the lower and upper limbs. Explosion damage accounted for most of the weapon-related trauma, which particularly affected the head, while gunshot wounds were mainly located in the lower limbs. The study is published in The BMJ.

Today the Spanish Parliament rejected the creation of the State Public Health Agency, a proposal that had been envisaged since the Public Health Act of 2011 and whose idea of implementation had resurfaced after the pandemic. 

The new US president, Donald Trump, announced on his first day that the country will leave the World Health Organisation (WHO) within the next twelve months. The reasons behind the decision, according to him, are the ‘mismanagement of the covid-19 pandemic and other global health crises’, as well as ‘disproportionate payments compared to other countries’ dues’.

A study has used geospatial data and satellite imagery to analyze the number of MK 84 bombs dropped by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip between October 7 and November 17, 2023 that detonated near hospital infrastructure. Of the 36 existing hospitals, 30 of them had suffered at least one explosion within 800 meters. According to the authors of the paper, which is published in PLOS Global Public Health, the research “reveals concerns about indiscriminate shelling near hospital infrastructure, which enjoys special protection under international humanitarian law.”

Since mid-October, northern China has reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared to the same period in the previous three years. On 21 November, the media and the ProMED system reported outbreaks of pneumonia of undiagnosed cause in children in northern China. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is unclear whether these are related to the overall increase in respiratory infections previously reported by the Chinese authorities or are separate episodes. In a statement, the WHO has officially requested detailed information from China on this increase in respiratory illnesses and outbreaks of childhood pneumonia.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Emergency Committee met on 4 May to assess whether covid-19 could continue to be considered a health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). The organisation's director general, Tedros Adhanom, has followed its recommendation and ended the emergency declared on 30 January 2020. "It is with great hope that I declare that covid-19 has ended as a global health emergency. However, this does not mean that covid-19 is no longer a threat to global health. Last week, it claimed one life every three minutes, and that's just the deaths we know about," he told a press conference.

The World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Health Regulations Committee on Emergencies has decided to maintain the covid-19 pandemic as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) after meeting last Friday.