A special session of the World Health Assembly is under way this week with just one item under consideration – Pandemic Treaty. Will a pandemic treaty be able to help address deficiencies in global solidarity, and improve access to essential lifesaving medicines, vaccines, and tools? The short answer is no. Not without the political will […] Continue reading ->
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis mortality has started to increase for the first time in a decade. In 2020 alone, more than 1.5 million people died from TB. Every year, about half a million people develop a drug-resistant form of TB (DR-TB). The vast majority of people with TB live in low- […] Continue reading ->
While the world was focused last week on the Glasgow Climate Conference (COP26), officials from 160 countries and the European Union gathered virtually to address another urgent global crisis – the crisis in tobacco consumption that is one of the largest causes of death worldwide, year after year. Otherwise known as COP9, the ninth Conference […] Continue reading ->
As the Glasgow Climate Conference winds to a close, the final COP26 declaration appears destined to contain watered-down language on fossil fuel phase-out, and no clear way forward for the $100 billion in finance needed by low-income countries. Against that landscape, Médecins Sans Frontières Dr Maria Guevara talks about why health is the elephant in […] Continue reading ->
October is Liver Cancer Awareness month, and Europe has a liver cancer problem. Over the past two decades, there has been a 70% increase in liver cancer-related mortality in the region. In 2020, 87,000 Europeans were diagnosed with liver cancer while 78,000 died from the disease in the same year. Late diagnosis is a serious […] Continue reading ->
In the US, cases of dogs infected with the rabies virus being brought into the country are significant enough to warrant national headlines and a year-long dog importation ban on dogs from hundreds of countries worldwide. Yet, in India, rabies does not get much media attention but it accounts for a shocking total of 20,000 […] Continue reading ->
Long months of pandemic lockdown have only exacerbated the harms due to alcohol experienced by billions of people worldwide. Now, WHO is in the process of developing a new alcohol action plan, in an effort to re-energize a stagnant process and overcome a “lost decade” of little progress on alcohol policies. Can it make a […] Continue reading ->
In the coming months, 600 million doses of single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines, manufactured in Hyderabad, are likely to be exported to Europe or the United States, at a time when India grapples with vaccinating its own citizens. Civil-society organisations are concerned that millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine may end up in the […] Continue reading ->
Home-cooked food is a serious matter in the Middle East and family mealtimes are sacrosanct. We are known for our hospitality. We go all out for our guests. People have strong and definite opinions about food, and family recipes are secrets handed down from generation to generation. As a child, I took our cuisine for […] Continue reading ->
The Results Report published by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria last week illustrates how COVID-19 has pushed us off track in significant ways – particularly with respect to access to tuberculosis (TB) and HIV diagnoses and treatment. But at the same time, there is better news with respect to the battle […] Continue reading ->