As donors withdraw from HIV, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has chosen to focus on the importance of community-led interventions to end the AIDS pandemic for World AIDS Day on 1 December. “There has been an unprecedented backsliding in financial commitments to community-led organisations, and it is costing lives,” according to UNAIDS […] Continue reading ->
Negotiators at the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) must accelerate the end of fossil fuels, eliminate trillions in fossil fuel subsidies, and swiftly transition to clean, renewable energy to reap the health benefits of climate action, senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials urged at a press briefing on Tuesday. Despite the absence of explicit […] Continue reading ->
LUSAKA, Zambia – Ensuring that Africa can manufacture its own vaccines will represent “the second independence of Africa”, Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General of the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said at the start of the Conference for Public Health in Africa 2023 (CPHIA) on Monday. “Many African countries got their […] Continue reading ->
On her first visit back to Geneva since leaving her post as WHO Director-General in 2017, Dr Margaret Chan urged public health students to recognize “the power of collaboration” and to  “use their voice” to hold policymakers accountable for the changes that the promises that they make.  “When I was in WHO, there were a […] Continue reading ->
Unusual outbreaks of respiratory illness and pneumonia in Chinese children have prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to ask the country for detailed information.  Children’s hospitals in Beijing and Liaoning Province, some 800km apart, are “overwhelmed with sick children, and schools and classes were on the verge of suspension”,  according to local Chinese media, as […] Continue reading ->
One-third of people in 14 countries in the Western Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia used antibiotics without a medical prescription, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) European Region. The survey involved 8221 participants, half of whom reported taking oral antibiotics in the past 12 months.  Participants came […] Continue reading ->
Almost all countries (91%) have included health considerations in their latest climate-mitigation plans – called nationally determined contributions (NDCs) – but those that have already felt the effects of extreme weather events appear more likely to have more detailed plans. This is according to an analysis of countries’ 2022 NDCs, the main policy instrument to […] Continue reading ->
The third round of international negotiations over a global plastics treaty has ended in a stalemate, leaving nations no closer to an agreement to stem the tide of plastic pollution that is choking the planet and endangering human health.  The week-long talks at UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi marked the halfway point towards […] Continue reading ->