Amid huge global contestation over abortion, the Kenyan High Court recently affirmed that women’s “access to safe abortion services is a human right” as enshrined in the country’s Constitution, and directed parliament to enact laws in this regard. Malindi High Court Judge Reuben Nyakundi made the ruling late last month in a case involving a […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the scientific community to start to implement a ‘One Health’ approach – encompassing people, animals, plants and the environment – to ensure the early identification of infectious diseases and make the world a healthier place. The issues that “One Health” may tackle are diverse. They can range from curbing deforestation […] Continue reading ->
In some of his most forceful remarks to date, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other senior WHO officials slammed both Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Ethiopia’s blockade of Tigray for both withholding vital health and humanitarian aid – as well as deliberately targeting civilians or putting them in harms way. Speaking from […] Continue reading ->
The flu shots that are being administered in the United States, as well as elsewhere in the northern hemisphere, are not reducing the risk of catching the dominant strain of the influenza virus (H3N2) that is circulating this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a March edition of its Morbidity and […] Continue reading ->
The weekend of 12-13 March was a glorious time to be in the Swiss mountain resort of Villars-sur-Ollon post-pandemic. Special Olympics Switzerland had organized the regional games sporting competition with skiing, bowling, tennis and boccia, drawing dozens of keen athletes and supporters. My son joined the other 46 skiers and snowboarders from the region to […] Continue reading ->
A Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announcement Thursday that it has signed agreements with 35 companies to manufacture generic versions of Pfizer’s life-saving COVID-19 Paxlovid treatment for distribution in 95 low- and middle-income countries came fire almost immediately from medicines access groups as too little, too late. The MPP-brokered sublicences follow on from an agreement between […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic has killed 6 million people so far, but the next pandemic threat could emerge unnecessarily from pathogen resistance to life-saving antibiotics and other anti-microbial drugs. What steps do we need to take now to head off this growing threat? For decades, antibiotics have been hailed as “wonder drugs” for their ability to […] Continue reading ->
The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) raised over $1.5 billion to develop vaccines against emerging diseases in as little as 100 days over the past two days at a pandemic preparedness summit co-hosted by the UK government. CEPI’s total budgetary ask is for $3.5 billion to implement its five-year plan to prepare and protect […] Continue reading ->
A four-year-old girl from Jerusalem has been diagnosed with polio, Israel’s Health Ministry said Sunday – the first case in the country since 1989. The source of the girl’s infection is vaccine-derived polio virus, according to Israel’s head of Public Services Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis, speaking to reporters on Monday evening. “We are not talking about […] Continue reading ->
Women in Africa will feel the disruptive force of the pandemic for many years to come – with upticks in maternal deaths and prolonged disruptions in maternal, child and reproductive health services issues the continent must grapple with now. About 40% of African countries are reporting continued disruptions to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and […] Continue reading ->