{"id":30678,"date":"2026-04-03T08:08:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T06:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30678"},"modified":"2026-04-03T08:08:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T06:08:56","slug":"who-warns-respiratory-diseases-remain-global-threat-despite-milder-variants","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/who-warns-respiratory-diseases-remain-global-threat-despite-milder-variants\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO warns respiratory diseases remain global threat despite milder variants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The World Health Organisation (WHO) says influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses continue to place a significant burden on global health.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO\u2019s technical lead, noted that while current variants may be less severe, countries worldwide should remain vigilant and prepared for potential outbreaks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She emphasised that ongoing monitoring, vaccination, and public health measures remain key to preventing serious illness and protecting vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30679,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-30678","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"WHO says influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses continue to place a significant burden on global health","published_date":"2026-04-03 07:26:37","news_description":"WHO says influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses continue to place a significant burden on global health","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30680,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30678\/revisions\/30680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}