TEL AVIV – Ninety percent of drug candidates fail in clinical trials because of unexpected safety issues or lack of efficacy in human subjects, according to Noga Yerushalmi, Investment Director at M Ventures, the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck. There have been dramatic improvements in omics technologies – that is the collective technologies […] Continue reading ->
Global health leaders have repeatedly called for stepped up investments to both slow down climate change and recognize the health co-benefits of more climate action. But political leaders, including those in low and middle-income countries, still need to do more, Prof. Guéladio Cissé, Coordinating Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) told […] Continue reading ->
In a highly symbolic visit to Lviv, Ukraine, World Health Organization Regional Director Hans Kluge reaffirmed WHO’s commitment to rebuilding the country’s war-torn health system. Speaking in a press briefing staged directly from Lviv, Kluge said, “We are committed to work through a decentralized footprint [in Ukraine], both during the current humanitarian response but also […] Continue reading ->
Nearly two-thirds of Africans have already been infected with SARS-CoV-2 — the virus responsible for COVID-19, WHO said, announcing the release of a new assessment of virus seroprevalence on the continent. The analysis, a systematic review of some 150 studies, was published on the pre-print server, medRXiv.org. Addressing a press briefing on Thursday, Dr Matshidiso […] Continue reading ->
China’s COVID-19 situation is getting worse, and strategies to control the spread of the Omicron variant are getting stricter as the country registered 20,472 daily cases on Wednesday – the highest-ever infection rate. The epicentre of the outbreak is Shanghai, which recorded 17,007 cases on Wednesday and municipal authorities are conducting mass testing in the […] Continue reading ->
Just as members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol were released on Tuesday by Russian forces, the humanitarian organisation warned that its resources are going to be strained in the coming months as it deals with the crisis in that country. Dr Micaela Serafini, ICRC’s […] Continue reading ->
Although the world is facing multiple simultaneous challenges including the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic is not over and it is essential for countries to invest in systems to address this pandemic as well as future pandemic threats. This is a key message of a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) paper, which is calling […] Continue reading ->
Global greenhouse emissions need to peak before 2025, at the latest, and decline by 43% by 2030 if the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C is to be achieved, warned the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment report on Climate Change Mitigation (AR 6) launched on Monday. More aggressive investments to replace […] Continue reading ->
Amid huge global contestation over abortion, the Kenyan High Court recently affirmed that women’s “access to safe abortion services is a human right” as enshrined in the country’s Constitution, and directed parliament to enact laws in this regard. Malindi High Court Judge Reuben Nyakundi made the ruling late last month in a case involving a […] Continue reading ->
In its largest release of data on air quality ever, WHO has found that most of the world’s population are breathing unsafe levels of air pollutant – particularly fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) – which cause excess illness and premature death from respiratory disease, as well as from cardiovascular disease and cancers. […] Continue reading ->