The novel coronavirus has been officially named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19, in the first day of a global consultation with about 400 researchers and public health experts charged with designing a coherent way forward to confront the expanding epidemic. However, as the case count rose by Tuesday afternoon to 42,747 people with […] Continue reading ->
“We all have a vested interest to stop this epidemic,” says Thomas Cueni, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). As WHO on Tuesday convenes a Global Research & Innovation Forum to rapidly ramp up R&D, Cueni spoke with Health Policy Watch  about what he describes as  “the extraordinary willingness […] Continue reading ->
“Containment” remains the main objective of the battle against the coronavirus, said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday, following a weekend where reports of new virus clusters in the United Kingdom and France raised fresh concerns about the virus capacity to spread rapidly beyond China’s borders. The WHO Director General spoke to […] Continue reading ->
[STAT News] As China struggles to contain an epidemic caused by a new coronavirus, science is racing to develop vaccines to blunt the outbreak’s impact. Central to the effort is CEPI — the Oslo, Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations — a global partnership created to spearhead development of vaccines in just this type of […] Continue reading ->
The world is facing a “severe disruption” in stocks of personal protective equipment vital for health workers to fight the novel coronavirus  raging through China’s Hubei Province and threatening other countries worldwide, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a Friday press briefing. The Director-General spoke as cases of the new (2019-nCoV) virus continued […] Continue reading ->
After a total of 12.5 hours of consultations in five informal meetings, a bloc of countries led by Thailand won WHO Executive Board approval for a landmark decision to develop a new ten year-action plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. Representatives of Norway and the European Union joined as co-sponsors in a compromise […] Continue reading ->
As the number of novel coronavirus infections rose again on Thursday – to 28,060 confirmed cases in China and 225 abroad – a US Centers for Disease Control official raised the possible spectre that the epidemic could become a global “pandemic” – if countries fail to take assertive action now. “While unclear how the situation […] Continue reading ->