Routine childhood immunisation across 57 low income countries declined slightly for the second consecutive year in 2021, following massive pandemic-related interruptions in vaccine coverage in 2020, according to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Vaccine coverage stood at 77%, one percent less than in 2020. Preliminary data between January and May 2022, however, shows signs of improvement […] Continue reading ->
At a World Trade Organization Public Forum this week, public health advocates argued for the creation of a new WTO framework to stimulate voluntary offers by countries to supply more ‘public goods’ to trading partners and the world, including investments, assets and know-how critical to protecting the world against future pandemics and other health or […] Continue reading ->
“This is really a historic meeting,” said Dr Ilona Kickbusch, co-chair of the European Health Forum at Gastein (EHFG). “Twenty years ago was the very first time there was any talk of a European global health strategy, and it took place right here at Gastein.” “It was in 2003 that global health first became a part […] Continue reading ->
From bedrooms in China to boardrooms in Geneva, people offered their views on how to protect the world against future pandemics during the second round of public hearings called by the World Health Organization (WHO). The public hearings are part of the WHO intergovernmental negotiating board (INB) process to develop a pandemic “convention, agreement or […] Continue reading ->
Africa’s most powerful countries need to ratify the African Medicines Agency (AMA) to ensure its credibility – and civil society organisations can lobby them to do so , said Dr Michel Sidibe, the African Union’s (AU) Special Representative on the AMA. “It is important to have countries like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, the DRC, […] Continue reading ->
Budgetary efficiency and innovative ways to finance health emerged as key solutions to the problems plaguing the European health systems, according to a panel at the European Health Forum in Bad Gastein on Tuesday. Europe’s healthcare system is faced with several bottlenecks, said panelists. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated problems such as a lack of […] Continue reading ->
Practices implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as flexible working arrangements and teleworking, could help to reduce work-related mental health challenges, according to a first-ever set of Guidelines on Mental Health at Work released Wednesday by the World Health Organization (WHO). The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a 25% increase in what was already a high percentage […] Continue reading ->
European finance ministers need to recognise that the “permacrisis” of the pandemic, climate change and the war in Ukraine pose as big a danger as a nuclear threat, and double their investment in the health workforce, according to World Health Organization (WHO) Europe director Dr Hans Kluge. This, added Kluge, was his “moonshot” for a […] Continue reading ->
Infectious diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria have long been the biggest public health challenges in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) but over the past decade, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have risen at an alarming rate. While every country faces a growing NCD burden, low- and middle-income countries are seeing the fastest increase. This epidemiological shift […] Continue reading ->
NEW DELHI – When India’s Aam Admi Party (AAP) won elections in the northern state of Punjab in March, decisively wresting power away from the Indian National Congress (INC) and defeating the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, clean air advocates and activists were optimistic that the burning of crop stubble by Punjab farmers – the biggest […] Continue reading ->