The United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) on Friday gave its greenlight to the mass rollout of both Pfizer and Moderna COVID booster shots to all adults over the age of 18, from six months after a person’s second vaccine dose. J&J vaccine boosters would be authorized after just two months of the […] Continue reading ->
While the world was focused last week on the Glasgow Climate Conference (COP26), officials from 160 countries and the European Union gathered virtually to address another urgent global crisis – the crisis in tobacco consumption that is one of the largest causes of death worldwide, year after year. Otherwise known as COP9, the ninth Conference […] Continue reading ->
People living with HIV in England and Wales may be eligible for injectable antiretroviral treatment every two months, rather than daily pills. Two injectable drugs, cabotegravir and rilpivirine, were recommended for use by the UK National Institute for Health and Care (NICE) on Thursday after trials proved they work as effectively as daily tablets, according […] Continue reading ->
Over four million Africans a year could die as a result of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by 2050, according to WHO’s Africa Region at the start of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week on Thursday. And if global action isn’t taken to head off risks, nearly nine million of the estimated 10 million people dying around the world […] Continue reading ->
Some two-thirds of deaths of women from cervical cancer are happening in low- and middle-income countries that have not yet included human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for girls and young women into their immunization regimes, said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheybresus on Wednesday. He was speaking at a high level event that saw First […] Continue reading ->
In a bid to better respond to both domestic and global needs, as well as future threats, the Biden Administration plans to spend billions of dollars to expand US vaccine manufacturing capacity enabling production of 1 billion vaccine doses a year by mid-2022, two top White House officials told US media on Wednesday. The announcement […] Continue reading ->
The number of tobacco users globally has dropped from 1.32 billion in 2015 to 1.3 billion, and is expected to decline to 1.27 billion smokers by 2025, according to the fourth World Health Organization (WHO) global tobacco trends report. The report, released on Tuesday, revealed that 60 countries are now on track to achieving the […] Continue reading ->
Pfizer has signed a voluntary license with the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) to share the patents and knowledge to manufacture its new COVID-19 treatment drug, Paxlovid. According to the agreement, the MPP will be able to granting sub-licenses to qualified generic medicine manufacturers to supply the medicine in 95 countries, once regulatory authorization or approval […] Continue reading ->
While it pales in comparison to tobacco industry marketing, two new capital investment funds worth some $75 million to support low- and middle-income countries in their fight against tobacco are being created by signatories to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and a related Protocol on illegal sales. Together, the funds would yield an estimated […] Continue reading ->
While China and India’s last-minute refusal to commit to an end to fossil fuel at COP26 has caused depression and despair amongst many developing country delegates and climate activists, the mental health of millions is already severely affected by what climate disasters have done to their lives. Humidity and heatwaves are linked to increased suicides, […] Continue reading ->