The World Health Organization no longer classifies being trans as a 'mental illness.'

A massive win for transgender people everywhere!


The United Nations health agency said the change would improve social acceptance.

Being transgender will no longer be classified as a mental illness by the World Health Organization (WHO), USA Today reported.

WHO adopted the eleventh edition of its International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) on May 25 in which "gender incongruence" — the organization's designation for people whose gender identity is separate from the gender they were assigned at birth — will now be classified as a sexual health condition.

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The World Health Organization's latest update is a big win for trans people — and science.

We're learning a lot more about gender.

The World Health Organization recently announced a big change to its International Classification of Diseases database, and that's good news for trans people.

The ICD is a centuries-old catalog tracking pretty much every medical condition you could possibly think of. With the release of its 11th edition, the WHO moved gender incongruence — the diagnostic term applied to trans people — from the catalog's mental health section to its new home under sexual health conditions.

In a video explaining the decision to reclassify the condition, Dr. Lale Say, the coordinator of the WHO's Department of Reproductive Health and Research, explains that recent discoveries helped inform the action.

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Heroes

Share this with anyone who doubts vaccines. The U.K. just eliminated measles.

37 years ago, vaccines drove smallpox into extinction. Polio is about to be on death's doorstep. Now the U.K. can say it has added one more name to its personal kill list — measles.

According to a new report from the World Health Organization, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom in 2016 successfully eliminated the measles virus.

The secret behind this achievement is something simple: vaccines and herd immunity.

It's important to note that, as the WHO defines it, "elimination" doesn't mean "completely wiped out." There were still about 1,600 cases in the United Kingdom last year.

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