The Global Diabetes Compact aims to improve diagnosis, care, and access to life-saving medications for those with diabetes. Already, countries in high-burden regions have improved along these key metrics. But as the number of people living with diabetes is projected to increase nearly 50% globally by 2050, much more needs to be accomplished. In a […] Continue reading ->
Artificial intelligence promises huge efficiency gains for strained health systems, but algorithmic surveillance in long-term care systems also introduces profound ethical dilemmas. In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) has unveiled a comprehensive consultation draft on global long-term care standards to ensure digital innovation is balanced with fundamental human rights. Across the world, countries are […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA – The 79th World Health Assembly closed last Saturday after a long week of negotiations over the globe’s most pressing health crises: financing gaps, rare diseases, a workforce shortage counted in the millions, a string of wars and humanitarian emergencies, and dozens of other resolutions. Yet one policy area affecting half of the global […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA — Hundreds of hours of formal negotiations and corridor-side bargaining in the halls of the United Nations (UN) Palais des Nations and World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters this week ended on Saturday afternoon – more or less on schedule, an outcome rare enough at the UN to be cause for celebration. The sunshine, Mont […] Continue reading ->
Three emerging threats to health: the commercial, digital, and climate determinants of health played centre stage at an event 40 years after a WHO charter shifted the focus of health from individual lifestyle choices to broader social and environmental determinants. Commercial formula company practices are just one case study of how structural factors like marketing […] Continue reading ->
WHO Member States approved a new 10-year global action plan to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on Friday after a months-long fight over how the world should share AMR-related medical technologies. The plan, which runs through 2036, maps out strategies for countries to implementing the ambitious targets set at a UN High Level Meeting, including reducing […] Continue reading ->
The world is in the last stretch of polio eradication, but closing this gap will require political commitment, the World Health Organization (WHO) told member states at the ongoing 79th session of the World Health Assembly (WHA). Polio virus has shown resurgence in conflict-hit or hard-to-reach areas like northern Yemen, Gaza, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Conflict […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA — The Ebola outbreak unfolding in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda poses a “low” risk globally, according to an expert committee of the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the national and regional risk is “high”, according to the International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee. Last Sunday, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom […] Continue reading ->
As Europe grapples with shifting demographics and an influx of migration, researchers are mapping how undocumented migrants navigate the administrative cracks of the continent’s healthcare systems – helping to fill a critical data gap identified by the World Health Organization. Inside the neoclassical venue of La Pastorale in Geneva, around 30 participants from six European […] Continue reading ->
The world is on course to miss every one of the 52 health-related Sustainable Development Goal targets by 2030, the World Health Organization has warned, as ministers from its 194 member states gather in Geneva for an assembly tasked with reversing that trajectory. With malaria cases rising, maternal deaths still occurring at nearly three times […] Continue reading ->