When the South ‘Swings’ Together on Health Equity New Possibilities Emerge

01/07/2024 Elaine Ruth Fletcher

While this week’s CARICOM summit in Grenada has been postponed due to Hurricane Beryl, when it does convenes, a key item on the agenda will be the new ‘HeDPAC’ initiative to deepen South-South partnerships to meet shared global health challenges – from pandemic threats to climate change. In remote communities of Guyana, the introduction of […] Continue reading ->

Sudan Conflict Leaves 25.6 Million People in Acute Food Insecurity

30/06/2024 Sophia Samantaroy

Fourteen months into its devastating civil war, one-half of Sudan’s 25.6 million population faces levels of food security ranked as “crisis,” emergency, or “catastrophic,” according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis. The IPC analysis of Gaza also found that a “high and sustained risk” of famine persists across the entire occupied […] Continue reading ->

Food and Drug Administration Expands Testing for Avian Flu in Dairy Products

29/06/2024 Zuzanna Stawiska

Amid the growing avian influenza epidemic in American cattle, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched new research Tuesday to ensure dairy products available in the market do not contain the virus in its active form. The research will involve a series of studies to test pasteurised milk samples collected from store shelves. The […] Continue reading ->

‘Forever Chemicals’ Absorbed by Skin, Increasing Health Risks

28/06/2024 Stefan Anderson

Human skin can absorb ‘forever chemicals’, University of Birmingham researchers discovered, revealing a new pathway for these toxic substances to enter the body. The finding amplifies health concerns as researchers increasingly detect per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in people worldwide. PFAS are man-made chemicals that persist in nature and human bodies for a millennium before […] Continue reading ->

UNAIDS Urges Other Countries to Follow Namibia’s Example and Repeal anti-LGBTQ Laws

27/06/2024 Kerry Cullinan

UNAIDS has welcomed the recent ruling by Namibia’s High Court that its laws prohibiting same-sex acts between men are unconstitutional as they unfairly discriminate against gay men. Namibian citizen Friedel Dausab, supported by the Human Dignity Trust, sought to have laws prohibiting sodomy and “unnatural sex acts” and sections of the Immigration Control Act and […] Continue reading ->

Nearly a Third of Adults Fail to Meet Global Physical Activity Recommendations

27/06/2024 Sophia Samantaroy

Physical inactivity levels have jumped to 31%, meaning that around 1.8 billion people did not meet the recommended levels of physical activity in 2022 , according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). This is an increase of 10% since 2000, mostly driven by data from lower-middle income countries. Lack of physical […] Continue reading ->

Critics Blast ‘Inward, Technocratic’ MSF Leadership for Closing Access Campaign

26/06/2024 Kerry Cullinan

The leadership of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) is under significant global pressure to reverse its decision to close its Access Campaign, with indications that the issue may be raised at the organisation’s general assembly that begins in Geneva on Thursday (27th). The decision has been described as a triumph for technocrats within MSF, who want […] Continue reading ->

Framework to Help Curb Visceral Leishmaniasis in East Africa

26/06/2024 Zuzanna Stawiska

WHO framework to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a deadly disease most prominent in East Africa, was launched Thursday. It can play an important role in eliminating VL as a public health problem by 2030: a goal key countries of the East African region committed to in last year’s Nairobi Declaration. “The VL elimination framework will offer […] Continue reading ->

Urgent Global Action is Needed to Address Alcohol and Drug Consumption

25/06/2024 Kerry Cullinan

Romania, Georgia and Czechia have the highest alcohol consumption rates in the world while, in the best-case scenario, only 14% of those who abuse alcohol have access to treatment. These are some of the insights from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global status report on alcohol and substance use disorders, based on 2019 data from […] Continue reading ->

Health and Finance Leaders Call for Strengthened Primary Health Care to Tackle NCDs and Mental Health

25/06/2024 Sophia Samantaroy

When Felicia Knaul met Tonya Rosa, a Mexican woman undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, “she was there with a big smile on her face…even though her cancer had recurred.” But Rosa told Knaul that her first round of treatment had impoverished her family, “they had to sell their business, their home, their assets to be […] Continue reading ->