News – Page 2 – NYU GPH Journal of Public Health Disasters

April 21, 2025April 21, 2025

Trapped at Birth: The Unlawful Detention of Newborns in Nigerian Hospitals

Nigeria’s healthcare system faces a troubling crisis as hospitals unlawfully detain newborns and their mothers over unpaid medical bills. This practice, which disproportionately affects low-income families, raises serious ethical concerns and exposes vulnerable infants to severe health risks. Despite efforts to expand health insurance coverage, gaps in implementation continue to leave many without protection, allowing this issue to persist.

April 21, 2025April 21, 2025

South Korea Experiences Worst Wildfires in Nation’s History

On March 21, 2025, a fire fueled by abnormally dry conditions and high winds started in South Korea’s Sancheong County. Over 20 wildfires have raged across over 88,000 acres of the country since then, with at least 30 deaths and 300 destroyed structures in early April.

April 21, 2025April 21, 2025

Greece Faces Flash Floods After Unprecedented Rainfall

In just two hours, extreme storms caused flooding to take over the islands of Paros and Mykonos and many islands in Greece. In early April, the heaviest rainfall in 20 years led to tremendous flooding, leading to school and road closures. The lives of both citizens and tourists were affected, and their health was put at stake.

April 3, 2025April 3, 2025

Myanmar Earthquake Death Toll Continues to Rise

This is a developing story.

A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck Mandalay, Myanmar, at noon on March 28, followed by a 6.4-magnitude aftershock. At the time of publication, reports say that over 3,000 people have died and over 4,700 were injured.

April 3, 2025April 3, 2025

Tornadoes in Missouri Leave 12 Dead

In March, a severe thunderstorm and multiple tornadoes touched down in Missouri, with wind speeds of over 70 miles per hour and hail damaging neighborhoods and businesses and leaving 12 dead. At least 40 people have died as a result of these tornadoes sweeping through the Midwest, with deaths also reported in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama.

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025

UNICEF Highlights Global Challenges Facing Children in 2025

In a new report, Prospects for Children 2025: Building Resilient Systems for Children’s Futures, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has identified the main worldwide trends that will affect children’s lives over the next year and beyond: conflict, economic instability, and climate change.

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025

Toxic Air Threatens Children’s Lives, UNICEF Warns

A new UNICEF analysis estimates that more than 100 children below the age of five die every day in East Asia and the Pacific from air pollution, which it classifies as a major child survival threat. More than 325 million children are exposed to PM2.5 levels that are more than five times higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, while 373 million are exposed to nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) at dangerous levels, leading to UNICEF classifying air pollution as a major threat to child survival.

March 17, 2025March 17, 2025

Hunger Crisis Looming in Chad

Ongoing conflicts in Chad, combined with dire conditions, have left the country with a catastrophic lack of food security. An assessment found a staggering 2.4 million people do not have enough to eat, and the number is expected to rise to 3.7 million during the lean season from June to August. Continued conflict in Sudan is expected to worsen the food crisis, as more than 2 million children under the age of five are suffering from acute malnutrition. The combination of malnutrition and worsened food insecurity will place these children at an increased risk of dying in the coming months if conditions are not improved.

March 12, 2025March 12, 2025

USAID’s Fate Sees Elimination of Global Survey Data

The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has led to the elimination of necessary tools for tracking health indicators in other countries. Trump’s cuts include the Demographic and Health Surveys program, also regarded as the DHS program, which collected data in 90 low- and middle-income countries, including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, and Cambodia.

March 10, 2025March 10, 2025

Red Cross Files First-Ever Insurance-Backed Payout

In November 2024, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) used its disaster insurance policy for the first time to respond to a series of natural disasters in Asia and Africa. The alarming increased frequency and severity of such extreme weather events and disasters comes with the paralleled increased cost of emergency response mechanisms.