As fresh data reveals that tobacco products kill over 2 million people a year through coronary heart disease, tobacco control advocates are more determined than ever to protect the world against a product that kills half its users, not only from heart attacks but stroke, lung cancer and other diseases as well. Comprehensive, but simple […] Continue reading ->
This weekend, over 16 million people from all over the globe came together for the WHO’s third Walk the Talk: The Health for All Challenge. The two-day virtual event began Saturday in the Philippines and concluded on Sunday, with a 5-hour jam-packed virtual programme broadcast from Geneva – and boasting a vibrant range of physical […] Continue reading ->
In normal times, Diego Zapata, undersecretary in the City of Medellin’s Mobility Department, worries about how to advance better public transit systems, cycling and pedestrian networks – to get more people moving around the city. But recently, he and his boss Carlos Cadena began supporting the City’s Health Department in its scramble to reduce travel […] Continue reading ->
As the COVID-19 crisis seeps into financial markets, corporate board rooms, and global health systems, there may be one silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud. The 21st century era of digital health, virtual meetings and teleworking is upon us. Countries as far-flung as the Republic of Korea, Israel and even some forward-looking US health […] Continue reading ->
SINGAPORE – Last Saturday, a day after Singapore raised its disease outbreak response alert for COVID-19 from yellow to orange as the first cases of local transmission of the virus were confirmed, supermarkets found themselves besieged by customers piling carts full of instant noodles, rice and toilet paper, among other essentials. “As there are now […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK CITY (September 20, 2019) – Thousands of people have flooded streets here today as part of a worldwide movement to demand climate action. 4 million people in over 150 countries around the world took to the streets in a global Climate Strike. The New York Climate Strike is one of over a thousand […] Continue reading ->
NEW YORK – As heads of state and international organisations gather for the 74th United Nations General Assembly, Monday’s High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is one of the key events of this session. It aspires to elevate access to quality healthcare for the global population by 2030, and one billion more people by […] Continue reading ->
This year’s World Health Assembly will provide perhaps the best measure to date of the World Health Organization director-general’s policies since taking office nearly two years ago. But it will also reflect changing times for country relationships and for the state of global health. Image Credits: Photo: WHO/Antoine Tardy, WHO/Antoine Tardy, WHO, WHO/J. D. Kannah. Continue reading ->
Drummers, dancers, and speakers blasting Lady Gaga for a crowd of five hundred people linking hands and doing the wave is not the image typically conjured up when one hears of a World Health Organization event. A crowd gathered beneath a small stage decorated with slogans championing universal health coverage. Despite the morning’s chill lingering […] Continue reading ->
When historians look back, will this year mark a turning point in global health? Certainly some of the big issues on the agenda in 2019 might suggest that we are at a crossroads. We can expect to see an intensification of the push for universal health coverage (UHC), culminating with a first-ever high-level United Nations meeting, and a shift away from disease-specific interventions towards more integrated approaches. Health Policy Watch spoke with a range of leading global health policy experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), NGOs, industry and foundations to get their take on the top issues, and here is what they said to watch for in 2019 in five priority areas. Continue reading ->