Bangladesh is the world’s most polluted country and Delhi is the most polluted capital. But India also has the most air quality monitors in South Asia – while some wealthy petro-nations have virtually none. The air quality global ranking of cities for 2023 has been released by a Swiss firm, IQAir, which has been reporting […] Continue reading ->
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus deplored renewed fighting Monday and Tuesday in and around northern Gaza’s Shifa Hospital, the largest medical compound in the besieged enclave, saying that “hospitals should never be battlegrounds.” He also noted that the hospital, originally the largest and most advanced in Gaza, had only “recently restored minimal health […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization (WHO) member states abandoned careful diplomatic language at the start of the final round of negotiations for a pandemic agreement on Monday (18 March), exposing deep divisions between countries from the global North and South. An unprecedented 11 African countries spoke during the two-hour opening session, largely expressing support for the latest […] Continue reading ->
Sudan will resume immunising children against polio after detecting circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in its waster water, as six other African countries have reported either cases or positive environmental samples over the past two weeks. Mali and Nigeria reported one case each, Yemen reported three cases and Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and Sierra Leone […] Continue reading ->
Two final – and likely sleepless – weeks of negotiation on the pandemic agreement begin on Monday, and negotiators have been urged to bring in their principals to ensure speed up decision-making. The negotiations may well be extended but, for now, this ninth meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO) intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) is […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported drug resistance to the world’s gold-standard antiretroviral medicine, dolutegravir “exceeding levels observed in clinical trials” – with resistance ranging from 3.9% to 19.6%. This was potentially very bad news as dolutegravir has been the recommended first- and second-line HIV treatment for all population groups since 2018 – but […] Continue reading ->
As many as one in 20 patients experience avoidable side effects from medication that they use, with this figure rising to 7% in developing countries. The causes range from taking the medication at the wrong time, which could result in minor side effects, to taking an inappropriate drug, which might result in unpredicted harm as […] Continue reading ->
Average concentrations of small and fine particulates (PM2.5 and PM10) decreased across Europe between 2003-2019 – with the largest reductions in PM10,according to a new study published in Nature on trends over the past two decades. Despite air quality improvements, more than 98 of the European population lives in areas exceeding the WHO recommended annual […] Continue reading ->
Women perform an estimated 76% of all unpaid healthcare activities, according to a new WHO report on gender-based discrimination in healthcare. Globally, it has been estimated that women spend between two and ten times more time on unpaid health care work than men, amounting to a total of 16.4 billion hours per day. Further, in […] Continue reading ->
A leading Geneva-based global health organization has decried the lack of tests available for mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – where an outbreak declared in 2023 continues unchecked – saying that children are the main victims. “The mpox situation in the DRC is deeply alarming and the lack of tests for […] Continue reading ->