Being vaccinated against COVID-19 this week was a “bittersweet” moment, reflecting both a “triumph of science” and a “gross distortion” in vaccine access, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyusus told the body’s media briefing on Friday. Thanking health workers at the Geneva Emergency Hospital for vaccinating him on Wednesday, Dr Tedros […] Continue reading ->
World Trade Organization’s (WTO) director general Ngozi Onkonjo-Iweala on Thursday hailed the United States government’s decision to support the suspension of intellectual property rules on COVID-19 vaccines – while also emphasising the urgency of even more immediate actions to increase vaccine supplies to lower-income countries.   In a statement after a two-day closed-door WTO General […] Continue reading ->
Low-and-middle-income countries have made significantly less progress than high-income countries in implementing hand hygiene and infection prevention programmes that can stop deadly diseases, from diarrhoea to COVID-19, according to a recent A World Health Organization survey of 88 countries.  And one in four health care facilities in poorer countries do not have basic water services […] Continue reading ->
Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, has secured half a billion doses of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine for the COVAX global vaccine facility in a landmark agreement that will deepen vaccination coverage in poor countries around the world, Gavi said on Monday. Meanwhile, Sweden announced that it will donate one million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the […] Continue reading ->
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a “silent pandemic” of drug resistance to mutated bacteria, viruses and parasites is gaining ground and requires major government investments in antibiotic research and development (R&D), a group of experts has warned. “People are dying across the world from drug-resistant infections. This is a problem of today, and […] Continue reading ->