The World Health Organization (WHO) isn’t talking about it publicly, but behind the scenes WHO is planning a meeting for 12 January to evaluate next steps, Health Policy Watch has learned, as the absence of new cases in the Uganda outbreak makes it impossible to begin a clinical trial based on a ring vaccination of […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended shifting from a two-dose to one-dose vaccine regimen against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) – something that could help expand vaccine coverage amongst millions of girls and young women in lower-income regions where HPV is most prevalent, as well as saving costs. According to the new WHO recommendation, based […] Continue reading ->
China should make full use of all available COVID-19 vaccines to combat its current Omicron surge, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) – including mRNA vaccines that are more effective than China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines. “Vaccination is the exit strategy from the impact [of Omicron],” Dr Mike Ryan, WHO head of health emergencies, […] Continue reading ->
Along with a pledge to conserve 30% of the world’s biodiversity, the sweeping new deal reached in Montreal on Monday also etches a way forward to create an open-access platform for sharing gene sequences (digital sequence information) as part of new benefit-sharing arrangements. But some observers worry these policy advances still aren’t keeping up with […] Continue reading ->
Schools in Shanghai closed on Monday, as did the US Embassy in Beijing while the streets of major Chinese cities are reportedly deserted as residents retreated from a wave of COVID-19 cases. In the past week, the country has officially reported over 148,000 new cases – but this is likely to be much higher as […] Continue reading ->
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania – For Khadija Kambi, the country’s water shortage presents a tricky moral dilemma for her family: either she lets her children drink murky water and fall sick or she lets them suffer from extreme thirst. “I don’t have the money to buy clean piped water. Well water is the cheaper option […] Continue reading ->
The US-Africa Leaders’ Summit ended last week with a strong commitment to strengthen Africa’s health systems, tackle food insecurity and climate change. Meanwhile, top African health officials and scientists meeting at a public health conference in Kigali, Rwanda, at the same time as the summit, vowed to bolster inter-country collaboration to build healthier nations post-COVID. […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organization (WTO) TRIPS Council agreed to recommend to the General Council, WTO’s highest-level decision-making body, that it extend Saturday’s deadline for deciding on whether to extend an intellectual property rights waiver for COVID-19 vaccines to diagnostics and therapeutics. The panel’s recommendation on Friday at a formal meeting chaired by Ambassador Lansana Gberie […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations has described it as “the most important conference on biodiversity in a decade,” aimed at creating a Paris Agreement-style agreement for biodiversity. Negotiations amongst more than 100 environment ministers and 196 governments at the Conference on Biodiversity in Montreal on the world’s 15th attempt to come to an agreement to protect the […] Continue reading ->
This month, world leaders gathered in Montreal for a major UN conference on biodiversity, aiming to reach an agreement on how to stop species loss. The Fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – COP15 for short– has drawn tens of thousands of people. Delayed several times, it is the first […] Continue reading ->