The working group negotiating amendments to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Health Regulations (WGIHR) has extended its seventh meeting, which was supposed to end last Friday, to include a special session on equity. The resumed WGIHR 7 will be held within the first two weeks of March, finally acceding to member state’s requests – […] Continue reading ->
Negotiations at the World Health Organisation (WHO) about how to amend the International Health Regulations (IHR) to make them fit to tackle the next pandemic will be extended until as far as May 2024. This was resolved at the Working Group on the IHR amendments, which ended on Friday following a week-long meeting with a […] Continue reading ->
It’s likely to be a mad sprint to submit amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) by the World Health Assembly (WHA) next May, according to the working group overseeing this process, which is meeting for the fifth time this week. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) is expected to release a new draft of the pandemic […] Continue reading ->
Negotiations to tighten up the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR) to make them pandemic-ready made “excellent progress” – but it still faces enormous obstacles. WHO member states spent four days last week addressing 100 of the 300 proposed amendments to the IHR, dealing particularly with compliance, implementation, and public health response.  In […] Continue reading ->
The disengagement of both USAID and the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from the WHO-led global polio eradication initiative, threatens efforts in the world’s poorest countries with about  $233 million more in a year in budget shortfalls, WHO’s Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, Hanan Balkhy, said on Friday.  This, in a year […] Continue reading ->
Welcome to the fifth issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot. This issue provides critical insight into the past six months of negotiations over a World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement, examining whether a meaningful agreement can be achieved this year.  It addresses remaining contentious issues such as Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) and One […] Continue reading ->
“Words must now be matched with deeds,” Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya said after the official declaration. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has officially declared the surging mpox outbreak a “public health emergency of continental security” – the first time it has made such a declaration on its own. […] Continue reading ->