Indonesia’s parliament passed a new criminal code that bans extramarital sex and criminalises abortion except for rape survivors on Tuesday, Reuters reports. The code applies to both citizens and visitors, and those who have sex outside marriage face up to a year in prison. Indonesia’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism and its tourism industry […] Continue reading ->
Keep the momentum to negotiate a pandemic instrument, urged Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) at the start of the third meeting of the intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) on Monday. “The conceptual zero-draft that your bureau has developed is a true reflection of the aspirations for a different paradigm for […] Continue reading ->
A candidate drug for people with early Alzheimer’s disease slowed cognitive decline by about 27% over 18 months, according to a report on a phase 3 trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday. Lecanemab is a monoclonal antibody that is given as an intravenous infusion every two weeks, and targets a […] Continue reading ->
Stronger international rules and cooperation mechanisms on health are at the heart of the European Union’s new global health strategy, which was launched on Wednesday.  The strategy is based on three priorities: ensuring that people stay well throughout their lives, strengthening health systems particularly by advancing universal health coverage, and applying a ‘One Health’ approach […] Continue reading ->
Professor Hanan Balkhy will step into the shoes of Dr Mariângela Simão, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Assistant Director-General for access to medicines and health products, when she leaves on Thursday, according to WHO sources. Currently WHO Assistant Director-General of antimicrobial resistance, Balkhy served as executive director of infection prevention and control in Saudia Arabia […] Continue reading ->
The term monkeypox will be replaced by mpox within the next year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This follows “racist and stigmatizing language” being used in relation to the large outbreak of mpox for the first time in Europe and the US. The WHO said it had been approached by a number of […] Continue reading ->
Almost three years of harsh lockdowns, enforced quarantines in state facilities and daily testing have tried the patience of many Chinese people, who since Friday have taken to the streets from Shanghai and Nanjing in the east, to central Chengdu and Wuhan and Urumqi and Korla in the north and west. While scores of people […] Continue reading ->
Little agreement emerged from an informal World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting on Tuesday about whether an intellectual property (IP) waiver should be extended to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics. But low and middle-income countries (LMIC) that qualify for free COVID-19 anti-virals Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir) and Molnupiravir have shown so little interest in accepting donations that some question […] Continue reading ->