While substantial progress has been made in driving down the global burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), trends are “uneven and fragile”, and several diseases are off course to meet 2030 targets. This is according to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Report on Neglected Tropical Diseases 2026, a mid-term evaluation of the 2021-2030 road […] Continue reading ->
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first generic version of lenacapavir, the highly effective twice-yearly injection to prevent HIV, developed by Dr Reddy’s Laboratories based in India. Dr Reddy’s was one of six pharmaceutical manufacturers that was granted a non-exclusive, royalty-free voluntary licensing agreement from Gilead, which developed lenacapavir. The agreement, […] Continue reading ->
This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian. Switzerland’s federal government is freezing some funding to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) due to the agency’s handling of a sexual abuse scandal that saw staff victimise refugees in Chad. Officials from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, or SDC, appear to have been blindsided by […] Continue reading ->
The levels of major greenhouse gases reached record highs in 2025, locking in more long-term temperature rise for the planet, according to a new bulletin from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Among the greenhouse gases, the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) continue to dominate. In its latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, the WMO […] Continue reading ->
Nigeria’s first Ebola Bundibugyo patient may have crossed paths with Kenya’s recently deceased index patient at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport on 3 October, according to Dr Wessam Mankoula, head of health emergencies at Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Mankoula told a media briefing on Thursday that this was one of the possibilities being […] Continue reading ->
Countries should watch for spikes in preterm births, stillbirths and child deaths during heatwaves, four UN agencies said on Wednesday, launching what they called the first global set of indicators to help governments track the health toll of extreme heat on mothers and newborns. The 19 indicators from the World Health Organization (WHO), the World […] Continue reading ->
Nigeria’s lone Ebola patient was only diagnosed almost two weeks after showing symptoms – and is reported to have travelled to the capital, Abuja, from Uganda. She entered Nigeria on October 3rd, started showing symptoms on October 7th and was admitted to hospital two days later – but was only diagnosed on Tuesday (20 October), […] Continue reading ->
BERLIN – A new $100 million initiative to halve stillbirth rates across select countries over the next decade launched at the World Health Summit on Monday (12 October). Backed equally by the Gates Foundation and Wellcome Leap, a spin-off of the UK-based Wellcome Trust, the effort will test and deploy a package of diagnostic technologies […] Continue reading ->
The Kenyan man who died of Ebola this week travelled extensively through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda and sought medical care from mid-September – passing through several airport health screenings without detection, even two days before he died. Dr Wessam Mankoula, head of health emergencies for Africa Centre for Disease Control and […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 dropped out of the world’s 10 leading causes of death in 2023 for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020, and only two years after it topped the list, according to new World Health Organization estimates released Friday. The virus directly killed an estimated 0.9 million people in 2023, ranking 14th, as […] Continue reading ->