In a powerful ruling that could increase transparency and thus, industry compliance, India’s National Green Tribunal has directed state and central pollution control boards to chart and openly share with the public detailed data from online continuous emissions/effluents monitoring systems (OCEMS) operating in the country’s highly-polluting industrial sector. These powerful industrial interests – ranging from […] Continue reading ->
In the past year, across all non-COVID conditions, routine health care has changed. GPs feel that acute care has been compromised due to their own changed focus, and because patients consult less frequently for non-COVID conditions. For HIV and TB communities, both diseases exacerbated by poverty and marginalisation, these impacts are particularly acute. The World […] Continue reading ->
Pune – Despite ramping up its coronavirus vaccination drive and amidst a deadly second wave of infections, India is wasting 6.5% of its vaccines, data released by the country’s government shows. Experts this week told Health Policy Watch that while the high vaccine wastage is also a sign of vaccine hesitancy – particularly among poor […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization on Wednesday urged governments in the Americas Region to take decisive action to slow a surge of COVID-19 cases after recording more than 1.3 million new cases and 37 000 deaths in just the past week. Describing the new rate of infections as “worrisome”, Carissa Etienne, director of the WHO’s regional […] Continue reading ->
Following a second meeting of the EMA’s safety committee in as many weeks, the European Medicines Agency said that there appears to be a link between receipt of the AstraZeneca vaccine and very rare cases of blood clots being seen in some people – mainly younger women – within two weeks of their jab. The […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization’s new road map for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) 2021–2030 is a turning point in our fight against NTDs. It provides us with a clear route forward and the opportunities to effectively control and eliminate these debilitating diseases. On World Health Day 2021, dedicated to the theme of building a healthier, fairer […] Continue reading ->
A new study published by the journal Lancet Psychiatry estimates that one in three COVID-19 survivors received a neurological or psychiatric diagnosis within six months of infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The study, conducted with researchers from both the United States and United Kingdom, analyzed the electronic health records of 236,379 COVID-19 patients primarily from […] Continue reading ->
Some of the world’s smallest countries joined the World Health Organization (WHO) to appeal for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines on the eve of World Health Day – as the pipeline of global vaccine supplies to low- and middle-income countries risk drying up for the coming few months. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley told […] Continue reading ->
In what may be a first for the African continent, the Ugandan government has decided to allow private sector health providers to import and distribute their own COVID-19 vaccines amidst strict regulations – in an effort to expedite the country’s vaccination drive, which is caught in the crosswinds of vaccine supply shortages plaguing the entire […] Continue reading ->
Kenya’s family planning services experienced a 5% increase in the uptake of modern contraceptives at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, possibly contributing to a decline in unwanted pregnancies in the country, a new survey has shown. The survey, conducted by Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA), shows that the use of family planning […] Continue reading ->