Governments have been advised to impose ‘sin taxes’ on tobacco, alcohol and other unhealthy products to offset the severity of cuts to official development assistance (ODA), World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a tuberculosis meeting on Thursday. His statements came two days after the administration of US President Donald Trump […] Continue reading ->
For the first time since the 1990s, the World Health Organization has been asked by member states to update its assessment on the health impacts of nuclear war, although not without significant resistance, led by Russia and North Korea, but also including many other major nuclear states. The resolution calling for an updated assessment of […] Continue reading ->
Essential research on tuberculosis and HIV cancelled. Clinical trial participants in limbo. Young researchers’ careers halted – and billions of dollars invested and expertise developed over 30 years potentially down the drain. These are some of the impacts on South Africa of the decision by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) barely a week ago […] Continue reading ->
All 2.1 million people in Gaza face hunger and diseases while life-saving supplies sit just beyond the borders, denied entry after nine weeks of a total blockade, Dr Hanan Balkhy, World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, told a media briefing on Tuesday. “The Israeli authorities propose to shut down the UN-led […] Continue reading ->
Bibi Sharifa’s grandmother died of tuberculosis when there was no medicine available in her village in central Afghanistan and visiting shrines of the dead holy men was the only healing they could get. That was two decades ago when the country’s entire healthcare system was in shambles under the first term of a brutal Taliban […] Continue reading ->
Merging WHO and UNAIDs, and combining the “operational” component of WHO’s Emergencies response with that of other agencies are just two among the several dozen ideas pitched by the UN80 Initiative Task Force – in the full text of options for interagency budget cuts and efficiencies, obtained by Health Policy Watch. The list of over […] Continue reading ->
Heads of six UN agencies including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme issued a desperate warning that blockades of aid, food, medicine and life-saving supplies to Gaza since Israel resumed its attack on the enclave show “utter disregard for human life.” “For over a month, no commercial or humanitarian supplies have […] Continue reading ->
Myanmar’s health system was collapsing. Then the earthquake hit. “The houses, which were all built on the water, were gone — all flattened,” 15-year-old Myat Nyein from Inle Lake in Shan State, recalled in testimony to Save the Children. His mother died in the disaster, her body found covered in bruises with stitches on her […] Continue reading ->
Over 2,600 people are now reported to have died in the two powerful earthquakes that devastated central Myanmar last Friday, while thousands have been injured or are missing, trapped under the rubble. The 7.7- and 6.4 strength quakes hit regions of Mandalay, Nay Pyi Taw, Sagaing, Bago, and Shan regions, which are also where most […] Continue reading ->
Civil society organisations (CSOs) globally face investigation, restrictions and harassment in dozens of countries after US President Donald Trump claimed that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was run by “radical left lunatics” and Elon Musk claimed that several grantees supported terror organisations. This is according to a recent survey carried out by the […] Continue reading ->