Significant portions of health care budgets across Africa have vanished. Countries across the continent are grappling with the unprecedented scale and speed of recent reductions in development assistance for health. In 2021, external financing supported more than a third of health expenditures in half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa. While multilateral and bilateral development assistance […] Continue reading ->
Three key issues feature in the United Nations zero draft of the political declaration on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health, published on Thursday in preparation for the High-Level Meeting on 25 September. Tobacco control, hypertension and improving mental health care are the cornerstones of proposed action to contain NCDs. The draft proposes 2030 global […] Continue reading ->
The final draft of the pandemic agreement for the World Health Assembly (WHA) next week was published by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday – along with a document outlining the long road member states still have to travel before it is enforced. This follows the historic agreement reached on the text in the […] Continue reading ->
A brand-new World Health Organization (WHO) leadership team has been announced, including a dramatically reduced number of leaders and a major shake-out of longstanding faces including Dr Mike Ryan, the Deputy Director General and emergencies director, and Dr Bruce Aylward, who helped the Director-General steer the organization through the COVID-19 crisis but also got the […] Continue reading ->
All 2.1 million people in Gaza face hunger and diseases while life-saving supplies sit just beyond the borders, denied entry after nine weeks of a total blockade, Dr Hanan Balkhy, World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, told a media briefing on Tuesday. “The Israeli authorities propose to shut down the UN-led […] Continue reading ->
Access to insulin remains elusive and expensive for many children and young people (CYP) living with type 1 diabetes (T1D) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), according to a report released Tuesday by the Access to Medicine Foundation. The report evaluates 11 company-supported initiatives targeting children and young people by the market’s three dominant insulin […] Continue reading ->
Although the international nurse workforce has increased by about two million between 2018 and 2023, there is still a huge global shortage concentrated in poorer nations, according to the State of the World’s Nursing 2025 report published on Monday. There was a global shortage of around 5.8 million nurses in 2023, an improvement on 2018 […] Continue reading ->
A Nigerian Health Tech firm, Codix Bio, has been awarded a license to develop and manufacture a new generation of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) royalty-free for African consumers, using technology transferred from a South Korean firm. The deal is a breakthrough for WHO’s new Health Technology Access Programme (HTAP) and the non-profit Medicines Patent Pool […] Continue reading ->
With declining global spending on health, as the world prepares to observe International Nurses Day, Monday 12 May, there is renewed urgency to build health systems that respond to the needs of nurses and the people they serve. Investing in nurses yields high returns. It improves maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS prevention, and outbreak response […] Continue reading ->
Women’s groups and human rights organisations have raised the alarm about an African anti-rights conference taking place this weekend in Uganda, followed by another next week in Nairobi, featuring prominent US conservatives, aimed at developing “an African charter on family sovereignty and values”. Previous conferences have been used to mobilise for anti-LGBTQ laws and promote […] Continue reading ->