WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus unveiled a bold new WHO Healthy Recovery Manifesto – including an unprecedented call to governments to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry to the tune of US$ 400 bilion annually – driving both climate change, air pollution, and an epidemic of chronic diseases that also sharply increased mortality risks […] Continue reading ->
As global COVID-19 cases topped 5 million this past week, Latin America has surpassed Europe and the United States in terms of new cases being reported everyday, said WHO Regional Director for the Americas, Carissa Etienne, at a Pan American Health Organization press conference on Tuesday. There have been almost 32,000 new cases of COVID-19 […] Continue reading ->
More than 40 million health professionals from 90 countries worldwide have issued an open letter to G20 leaders and their chief medical advisors, urging them to support climate smart  development in their plans for economic recovery from COVID-19.  The appeal to the Group of 20  of the world’s most industrialized countries, supported by some 350 […] Continue reading ->
Due to COVID-19, polio and measles campaigns have been suspended in 27 countries, and polio vaccination campaigns have been put on hold in 38 countries,  UNICEF’s Executive Director Henrietta Fore has warned.  Some 80 million infants in at least 68 countries are likely to be affected by the suspension of routine immunization services, said Fore […] Continue reading ->
This story was updated 4 June to reflect the Lancet study’s retraction. Enrollment of new patients in the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) arm of the World Health Organization’s Global COVID-19 Solidarity Trial will be put on pause, as the trial’s oversight committee reviews all available data on COVID-19 and hydroxychloroquine, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said […] Continue reading ->
Even as Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa are facing unprecedented flooding and locust swarms, a cyclone that has hit Southeast Asia, is presenting new challenges there in the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Torrential rain, fierce winds of up to 180 km per hour, and a 16-foot tall storm surge cut off road […] Continue reading ->
Low and middle-income countries urgently need affordable personal protective equipment, diagnostics, treatments and vaccines to ward off even bigger waves of COVID-19 infection and mortality – and global production capacity is failing to ensure timely supply even of those products now on the market. Now, more than ever, producers in poor countries need to be […] Continue reading ->
A COVID-19 vaccine candidate made by Chinese researchers successfully induced the development of neutralizing and binding antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to early results from a non-randomized phase I clinical trial published Friday in The Lancet.  The trial results follow on to results announced by Moderna earlier this week, which found […] Continue reading ->
This story was updated 4 June to reflect the paper’s retraction. New research published in The Lancet on Friday found that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine has ‘no benefit’ for coronavirus patients, and could even increase the risk of heart arrhythmias and mortality.  The study was retracted by three of its authors on June 4, due to […] Continue reading ->