Iconic places across the world will be lit up in orange on World Patient Safety Day on Friday to highlight the global campaign to reduce preventable deaths in childbirth and pregnancy and deliver safe maternal and newborn care. The International Alliance of Patients’ Organisation (IAPO), which I lead, and the alliance we are a member […] Continue reading ->
The 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) opens today (Tuesday 14 September). The UN’s roots lie in determination that the horrors of World War II – millions of lives lost, economic devastation and genocide – should never happen again. This year’s General Assembly session is considering multiple global catastrophes, from climate change […] Continue reading ->
Imagine you run a country and someone comes to you and says, “I have an idea for how you can make people healthier, reduce cancer by 20%, protect women and children, and even put money in your coffers for COVID-19 response, vaccines and recovery efforts.” It sounds implausible, even absurd. And yet, there is one […] Continue reading ->
In the midst of the tragedy and turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is gratifying to see work continuing in Africa to find new ways of fighting malaria, a very old disease that has been a formidable foe for thousands of years and still kills 400,000 people every year, most of them African children […] Continue reading ->
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) pose a threat to more than 1.5 billion people worldwide, making them one of the biggest health problems in the developing world. In sub-Saharan Africa, these diseases are found “at the end of the road” in the most rural and poor communities where an estimated 600 million people are at risk […] Continue reading ->
More than a year after the start of the global coronavirus pandemic, and the release of openDemocracy’s investigation into childbirth during COVID-19, we know that there have been too many violations of women’s pregnancy and childbirth rights during this crisis, including outright suspensions of services. Too often, the response of governments and health facilities to […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – The two men at the centre of Africa’s COVID-19 response – John Nkengasong and Strive Masiwiya – vowed that the pandemic would not follow the same pattern as for HIV, where millions of Africans died because they could not get access to the life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) medicine available in wealthy Western countries. […] Continue reading ->
As an official partner of the COVAX Facility, UNICEF is responsible for procurement, logistics and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. PRITI PATNAIK spoke with Gian Gandhi, who coordinates COVAX operations for UNICEF, to get a sense of the challenges faced by the organization during the pandemic in the context of production shortages and realities at the […] Continue reading ->
Over the past several decades, the tobacco industry has tried to influence policy by partnering with various United Nations (UN) agencies. Many of these agencies, however, have since cut ties with the industry, thus safeguarding their initiatives and policies from Big Tobacco’s commercial interests. One notable exception remains and must be addressed: the continued membership […] Continue reading ->
In preparation for the next pandemic, the COVAX global vaccine facility “needs a pot of money, where they can be early movers” in competing for, and securing, vaccine doses. That could help scenarios like the ones seen recently, in which rich countries cornered the market on the first available COVID-19 vaccines, leading to severe shortages […] Continue reading ->