How AI sees humanity: where are we heading, and are we doing it well?
Kenya's Health Ministry said on 23 October 2026 that a 65-year-old woman, a close relative of the country's first Ebola patient, has died after developing symptoms in quarantine.
The World Health Organization has warned that Africa faces a "complex" Ebola outbreak after the virus spread from east Africa to Nigeria, which France 24 and the South China Morning Post describe as the first case in the west of the continent.
A modelling study estimates that heat killed about 50,000 people in European cities in summer 2026 and attributes about two-thirds of the deaths to climate change, but the estimates come from models, not recorded deaths.
French health authorities say the virus has been detected in a human for the first time, according to Reuters, and that they see no risk to the general population at this stage.
Nigeria's Health Ministry on 20 October 2026 confirmed an Ebola case in Abuja in a woman who had arrived on an international flight from Uganda, and said contact tracing had begun.
A joint government statement says 408 people in Tshwane, mostly children under four, fell ill between 7 and 18 October 2026 after exposure to contaminated tap water; no deaths have been reported.
Kenya has confirmed four more Ebola cases, three of them health workers, bringing its total to seven, and Al Jazeera reports that the cases are linked to the epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Bangladesh has recorded 1,147 measles deaths, mostly young children, according to WHO figures, as reports cite vaccination gaps, unreliable data and a hastily prepared emergency campaign.
According to CDC figures reported by Al Jazeera and Reuters, US measles cases reached 4,410 in 2026 as of 15 October, and the agency is reportedly sending an investigator to Pennsylvania, the site of the country's largest outbreak.
Ahead of International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week, the World Health Organization called on countries to step up prevention of lead exposure, which it estimates kills more than 3.5 million people a year, according to UN News and AllAfrica.
Germany is moving to tax sugary soft drinks, and according to The Local Germany the cabinet approved a two-tier draft law on 14 October 2026 that still needs parliamentary approval.
Kenya's Ministry of Health says a 39-year-old man, already in quarantine, has Ebola, that both cases are linked and that there is no evidence of wider community spread.
Two news agencies report that Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo have passed 9,000, a figure Reuters attributes to government data released on 13 October 2026.
New World Health Organization guidelines on obesity in younger children favour diet and exercise over weight-loss drugs, and strongly advise against medicines, surgery and devices for under-10s.
A possible case of pneumonic plague in Russia follows the death of a worker at a Siberian research institute, and US President Donald Trump says he will discuss it with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian officials played down Friday reports that plague killed a 28-year-old woman who worked at an anti-plague institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region, while Washington said it was closely monitoring the situation.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a statewide measles emergency on 5 October 2026, as Pennsylvania's health department reported 1,004 cases this year and five deaths among people who contracted the disease.
Russian authorities say a 28-year-old laboratory worker in the Irkutsk region died of pneumonia of unknown origin, deny any link to plague and have placed her contacts under quarantine or observation.
Health Ministry figures put deaths from Congo's Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak at more than 4,000, and an Ebola transit center at a displacement camp near Bunia burned down after a security operation.
An unvaccinated Lancaster County resident with measles has died, Pennsylvania health officials said, as the state's outbreak reaches 943 confirmed cases and a dispute with US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr over how such deaths are counted continues.