Fifty million people are trapped in modern slavery – and experts now fear that the mounting cost of living crisis could exacerbate the problem further.

@sneweyy reports ⬇️🧵

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph According to the International Labour Organisation, compounding crises including the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and conflict have heightened the risk of modern slavery.

🚨 Wet market disease warning: Scientists say pathogens are ‘ubiquitous’ in wildlife trade and markets could spark a new pandemic.

@niccijsmith reports ⬇️ 🧵
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Wet markets, ranging from roadside stalls to sprawling warehouses full of live produce, are infamous for keeping stressed wild animals in crammed conditions.

While they have long been considered “disease incubators”, Covid has thrown a fresh spotlight on the threat they pose.

Somalia is descending into a “repeat of the 2011 famine”, as livestock die en-masse and crops wither away in the worst drought to hit the region for 40 years.

Story by @sneweyy, video by @Harrietmbarber 🧵 @sneweyy @Harrietmbarber Three consecutive years of little or no rainfall have devastated harvests and led to major shortages of food and water across the country, plunging markets into turmoil.

Ethiopia is "no longer a safe place" for Eritrean refugees.

New images show how thousands of shell-shocked men, women and children displaced after attacks on refugee camps.

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Eritrean refugees have a long and tangled history in northern Ethiopia. They first arrived in 2000, when a border war between the two countries was killing tens of thousands.

Over the last two decades, tens of thousands kept arriving, fleeing the rule of Eritrea's dictator.

Photographed below, a man lifts his shirt to show the foot-long scar from selling his kidney; his son, brow furrowed, looks at his father’s face.

As extreme hunger tightens its grip on Afghanistan, parents are sacrificing their bodies to feed their young.
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… Illegal organ trading existed before the Taliban takeover in August 2021, but the black market has exploded after millions more were plunged into poverty due to international sanctions.

Pictured: Afghan men who scars from selling kidneys. Credit: @kohsar

Decrypting the unthinkable: Inside the new nuclear war games.

@PaulNuki and @sneweyy report ⬇️

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Few born since the Soviet Empire collapsed in 1989 have had reason to contemplate the machinations of nuclear deterrence.

The clash of great powers was thought to be over; the “end of history” reached.

Bodies are piling up in Hong Kong’s mortuaries as the city grapples with its worst outbreak since the pandemic began.

Report by @Harrietmbarber ⬇️

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Officials announced that hospital and public mortuaries have reached maximum capacity, following a record number of Covid-19 deaths, with officials warning that a city-wide lockdown has not been ruled out.

Today, the city of 7.4m reported 34k new infections and 87 fatalities.

🚨 Europe is in its pandemic 'endgame', says WHO chief, as more countries remove Covid restrictions.

#Thread

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Dr Hans Kluge, regional director of WHO’s Europe office, said that in many European countries there was now an opportunity to “take control” of transmission.

🚨 The online STI industry is a ‘complete nightmare’ and must be regulated, experts say, amid concerns people are being 'ripped off', a lack of follow-up care and the unmonitored prescribing of antibiotics.

@Harrietmbarber reports – free to read 🔓

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… While STI tests are available for free on the NHS, some online companies are cashing in and charging hundreds of pounds for screening and treatments – but often not providing care in line with national regulations.

🚨 The Indian govt is blocking a new law which would criminalise marital rape.

Women’s rights organisations have reacted with fury, describing the current law as a colonial era “relic” that has no place in modern India.

#Thread

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph India is one of around 30 countries in the world where it is still legal for a husband to sexually assault his wife.

The High Court in Delhi is expected to deliver a judgement later this month on whether marital rape should be made a criminal offence.

🇩🇰 The land where Covid is now no worse than a cold.

Denmark has scrapped its Covid laws, deeming the virus no longer a critical threat – cases remain high but the country has moved on.

#Thread

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph @PaulNuki @sneweyy The Scandinavian nation has become the first country in Europe to put an end to all coronavirus-related laws.

In the eyes of the Danish government and, crucially, the vast majority of its 5.8m citizens, the virus is no longer deemed a “critical threat to society”.

🚨 BA.2: omicron subvariant 'substantially' more transmissible than original.

Stud finds people infected with it were roughly 33pc more likely to infect others, compared to those infected with the original omicron strain.

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph @annegulland @Telegraph @annegulland 🦠 Worldwide, the "original" BA.1 subvariant accounts for more than 98pc of omicron cases, but BA.2 has quickly become the dominant strain in Denmark, which has the highest rate of genetic sequencing in the world.

Tonga volcano: Experts have warned that Tonga’s future “looks grim” and health impacts after the volcanic eruption will be felt for years to come.

@niccijsmith reports, video by @Harrietmbarber 📽️

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @TelegraphWorld Tonga was hit by a powerful volcanic eruption and tsunami at the weekend.

Islands have been covered in a thick blanket of toxic ash that shot 30km into the air.

The ash delayed rescue efforts by creating treacherous flying conditions and smothering the airport’s runway.

🦠 More than one million people died from superbugs in 2019 – almost double previous estimates of the death toll from untreatable infections, a review has found.

#Thread

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Once treatable diseases – such as respiratory tract infections, bloodstream infections and stomach bugs –are now killing hundreds of thousands of people a year.

Tonga volcano: Scientists warn of 'unprecedented' environmental disaster with acid rain and ash.

@niccijsmith reports ⬇️

telegraph.co.uk/world-news/202… @TelegraphWorld Tonga’s massive underwater volcanic eruption could result in years-long damage to coral reefs and fisheries that are vital to the local economy, scientists have warned.

An oil spill caused by Tonga's waves has killed wildlife and severely damaged beaches in Peru.

🚨 Across the world, more than 11.2bn coronavirus doses have now been distributed.

Just under 10pc of these have come via Covax.

#Thread

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Despite hopes that Covax would help tackle “vaccine nationalism”, there are vast imbalances in access to shots.

While more than 60pc of Europe’s population have had 2, this figure falls to just 10pc across Africa – where just 1 in 4 healthcare workers are fully vaccinated.

Silenced with violence: doctors paid a heavy price for treating Covid patients in Nicaragua.

The world’s least-restricted country has a bad case of Covid denialism – and its scepticism comes from the top.

@Harrietmbarber reports 👇

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Throughout the pandemic, Daniel Ortega’s government has promoted mass public gatherings, denounced lockdowns, refused mask mandates and kept schools open.

It is the only country in the world to not have cancelled public events, at any time, in the face of Covid.

Moving mountains: The women scaling new heights to deliver safe abortion care.

Abortion pills are already saving lives in Nepal – and represent a potential health revolution for women worldwide.

Watch our dispatch by @jriggers, produced by @Harrietmbarber. @jriggers @Harrietmbarber Every morning, Pragati Soti Khanal, a midwife, packs her huge grey and blue rucksack, ready to trek through Nepal’s famous mountains.

She delivers medical abortion drugs, which enable women to have safe terminations during the first trimester of pregnancy.

🚨 From prison threats to fines: How the world is turning up the heat on the unvaccinated.

As the Novak Djokovic saga has shown, politicians across the world are losing patience with the unvaccinated.

#Thread

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph @devisridhar said: “Governments are frustrated. If all adults were vaccinated who were offered it, [the] pandemic would be over.

“ICUs are full of people who chose not to get vaccinated. Is that fair to doctors & nurses? To those who need care for life-threatening conditions?”

📸 Coronavirus pictures from around the world 📸

Jan 13, 2022 / @Telegraph

India: Hindu pilgrims ahead of the Makar Sankranti festival at Sagar Island. (Credit: Rupak De Chowdhuri) China: People line up at a testing site after cases of omicron were detected in Tianjin. (Credit: China Daily)

🚨 The world faces an omicron ‘tsunami’ as a quarter of countries report record Covid infections

@sneweyy @bienbutcher and @benfarmerDT look at the data 🔽

#Thread

telegraph.co.uk/global-health/… @Telegraph Omicron has driven Covid infections to record-breaking levels in a quarter of countries across the globe.

In areas with high immunity, hospitals are coping, but in countries including the US and India, there are signs that intensive care unit capacity could be overwhelmed.