When I first stepped into a maternity unit in a government hospital in Sierra Leone as a Seed Global Health midwife educator, I was met by a group of student midwives from different training institutions. Mostly women, some held onto their notebooks and avoided eye contact. Many were transitioning from nursing into midwifery, while others […] Continue reading ->
LAGOS – On 6 January, literary icon Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie lost one of her 21-month-old twin boys at Euracare, an elite private hospital in Lagos, Nigeria. Adichie alleges “criminal negligence”, specifically an overdose of propofol and oxygen deprivation, leading to the death of her son, Nkanu Nnamdi. The hospital maintains it followed “international standards” and […] Continue reading ->
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have jointly established new AI principles in drug development to reduce regulatory divergence between the major markets of the European Union and the United States. Industry associations have applauded the landmark accord, as it strengthens harmonisation across the regions – but emphasise […] Continue reading ->
A controversial clinical trial on the effects of the hepatitis B vaccine on babies in Guinea-Bissau has been “cancelled”, according to Dr Yap Boum of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, this has been contested by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is funding a Danish group to […] Continue reading ->
The $9.4 billion package agreed to by the US Senate and House Appropriations Committees, is more than double the $3.7 billion requested by the Trump Administration, and signals bipartisan support for maintaining significant global health aid – although the package still must be approved by both Senate and House, and could also be vetoed by […] Continue reading ->
The year 2025 was among the top three warmest years on record, according to the latest update from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Depending on the data set being used, the year was either the second or third warmest year on record. The UN agency for monitoring the atmosphere also confirmed that the past 11 […] Continue reading ->
Fears over the side effects of COVID-19 jabs, which led to initial vaccine hesitancy, mostly gave way to acceptance in the course of the pandemic, with only a small minority remaining unvaccinated due to deep-seated mistrust, a new major study published in The Lancet finds. For the first time, the study “Profiling vaccine attitudes and […] Continue reading ->
When and how the United States withdraws from the World Health Organization (WHO) is an “open question” for member states to discuss, according to Steven Solomon, the body’s legal officer. This is because the US has failed to pay its WHO membership dues of $260.6 million for the past two years (2024-2025) in violation of […] Continue reading ->
While the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will still consider the health benefits of emissions regulations, it will no longer publish estimates of the economic costs of deaths, illness and disability from unsafe air pollution levels. The US EPA, whose path-finding work on air pollution’s health impacts helped set standards internationally, will no longer put […] Continue reading ->
Governments should “significantly strengthen” taxes on alcoholic and sugary drinks as these products are getting cheaper, fueling obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancers and injuries. This is according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which issued two reports on taxing sugary drinks and alcohol on Tuesday, including how countries are implementing these. “In most countries, these […] Continue reading ->