In the wake of COP28, WHO will press ahead with calls for fossil fuel phase out, stepped up commitments for health sector decarbonization, and a new resolution on Climate and Health, set to go before the World Health Assembly in May 2024. Those were key takeaways from an end-year WHO global press briefing by WHO […] Continue reading ->
In a fragile show of unity, the World Health Organization Executive Board approved a draft resolution calling for “immediate, sustained and unimpeded” humanitarian relief to beleaguered Gaza, including safe passage of health personnel and supplies, as well as ambulances and patients. The WHO EB move, which will clear the resolution for approval by the May World […] Continue reading ->
The global health community must stop treating water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) as a little issue because it is not, according to Annie Msosa, the advocacy advisor for WaterAid in Malawi. Speaking to Garry Aslanyan on the most recent episode of the Global Health Matters podcast, she said that “governments are spending on WASH… They […] Continue reading ->
Fierce gun battles between Israeli and Hamas forces raged in the vicinity of several strategically located hospitals in northern Gaza over the weekend and into Monday – leaving the fate of the remaining patients hanging in the balance. At Al Shifa hospital, hospital staff were reportedly trying to keep some 37 premature babies warm by […] Continue reading ->
There has been a massive rise in diarrhoea, respiratory infections and skin conditions and in Gaza since Israel’s siege and bombing of the territory began in early October, disrupting supplies of clean water, sanitation, food, fuel and leaving thousands homeless. Since mid-October, over 33,551 cases of diarrhoea have been reported in the area, over half […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus repeated calls for a “humanitarian pause” in the fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza to allow for the resupply of Palestinian hospitals in Gaza, and treatment of injured and ill, saying “we are running out of words to describe the horror.” Speaking at a press briefing Thursday, […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) is poised to begin the transfers of medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip on Friday as part of a humanitarian convoy of 20 trucks, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Thursday. But he and other senior WHO officials said the corridor needs to remain open permanently in order […] Continue reading ->
Israel on Wednesday confirmed that it would agree to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza via its Rafiah crossing from Egypt, where truckloads of food, water and medicines have already been positioned in the hopes that a humanitarian corridor could soon be opened to reach some 2.3 million Gazans in a deepening humanitarian crisis. The Israeli […] Continue reading ->
Health workers in Gaza face “agonising choices” in the face of Israel’s order that all people evacuate the north of the territory: “abandon ill patients amid a bombing campaign, put their lives at risk while remaining on-site to treat patients or endanger patients’ lives while attempting to transport them to facilities that have no capacity […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization has called for the end of hostilities between Hamas and Israel, and the opening of a humanitarian corridor from Egypt to Gaza Strip for vital medical supplies – along with the release of over 100 Israeli and foreign hostages seized when thousands of Hamas militants first crossed the border on Saturday, […] Continue reading ->