Taiwan and the World Health Assembly: Smoke but No Fire Yet

12/05/2023 Stefan Anderson & Elaine Ruth Fletcher

Despite a forceful message from the US calling for its inclusion, Taiwan appears set to be shut out once more from the World Health Assembly (WHA) as Chinese diplomats continue to block chances of a personal invitation by WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that would allow Taipei to attend as an observer. In […] Continue reading ->

WHO Declares End to Mpox Global Health Emergency

11/05/2023 Stefan Anderson

The World Health Organization (WHO) has ended the global health emergency for mpox, marking the end of a 10-month juggling act by the UN health agency as it scrambled to deal with concurrent global pandemics. The announcement arrives just days after WHO declared the end of the global health emergency for COVID-19 last Friday, three […] Continue reading ->

A Lost Decade: Zero Progress in Reducing Premature Births Since 2010, UN finds

10/05/2023 Stefan Anderson

Zero gains have been made in any region of the world in reducing premature births in the past decade, a major UN report found. In a perfect storm of flatlining progress in maternal and newborn health, preterm birth has become to the leading cause of child mortality worldwide, responsible for the deaths of over one […] Continue reading ->

Gavi Pledges $142 Million in New Funding to Prevent 1.4 Million Deaths from Cervical Cancer

28/04/2023 Stefan Anderson

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has pledged $142 million in additional funds to expand global coverage of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, increasing its total investment to $600 million by the end of 2025, the organization has announced. Gavi said it expects its new investment to help reach 86 million adolescent girls by 2025, preventing over […] Continue reading ->

Powerful Partnership to Address Backslide in Childhood Vaccinations – But No Extra Funds

24/04/2023 Stefan Anderson

The world’s largest global health organizations have announced a partnership to reverse the years-long backslide in global childhood vaccination rates caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. An estimated 67 million children missed at least one essential vaccination between 2019 and 2021 and 50 million of these didn’t receive any vaccines – setting back childhood vaccination rates […] Continue reading ->

Sudan Hospital Closures Leave Injured Civilians With Nowhere to Go

21/04/2023 Stefan Anderson

As the new moon marking the beginning of Eid festivities rose on Thursday evening, people in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum sheltered from bullets and explosions as prayers that a ceasefire to honour the end of the holy month of Ramandan would take effect went unanswered. At least 400 people have been killed in a […] Continue reading ->

WHO Launches Largest Global Collection of Health Inequality Data

20/04/2023 Stefan Anderson

Did you know

The WHO Health Inequality Data Repository is the largest global collection of inequality data about health and its determinants. How can inequality data save lives? By identifying who is being left behind

https://t.co/bxtt1TPnVu #HealthForAll pic.twitter.com/UM2Ns9RppC — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 20, 2023 The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched the […] Continue reading ->

As Evidence Mounts That ‘War on Drugs’ Has Failed, Harm Reduction Advocates Call for New Policies

19/04/2023 Stefan Anderson

Fifty years into the world “war on drugs”, the drugs are winning. Global levels of drug use and production, as well as drug-related deaths and incarcerations, are at all-time highs. Leading proponents of drug-policy reform who have gathered at the International Harm Reduction Conference in Melbourne this week say the evidence is in that it […] Continue reading ->

Pharmaceutical CEOs to G7: Protect Intellectual Property Rights and Pathogen Access in WHO Pandemic Accord

14/04/2023 Stefan Anderson

CEOs from the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies issued a call to G7 leaders on Friday to oppose the inclusion of intellectual property rights waivers and pathogen benefit sharing in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) pandemic treaty. In meetings with Japanese Prime Minister and chair of next month’s G7 summit Fumio Kishida this week, a delegation […] Continue reading ->

China Records First Human Death from H3N8 Bird Flu

13/04/2023 Stefan Anderson

A Chinese woman has become the world’s first person to die from the H3N8 strain of bird flu, the World Health Organization reported. No human-to-human transmission appears to have occurred, and the risk of the virus spreading is considered to be “low”, officials said. The 56-year-old woman from China’s southern Guangdong province is the third […] Continue reading ->