From barriers to treatment for people with hearing disabilities to preconceptions about albinism and inaccessible COVID testing for wheelchair users, participants in the Global Disability Summit took a fresh look at the wide range of discriminatory practices that an estimated 1 billion people – 15% of the world’s population – living with disabilities have to […] Continue reading ->
WHO needs to reform lines of authority and responsibility across all aspects of its emergencies response operations in order to effectively prevent, report, and take measures against sexual exploitation and harrassment. Those were the highlights of a final report by an Independent Oversight Advisory Committee (IOAC) of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, examining the claims […] Continue reading ->
Some two-thirds of deaths of women from cervical cancer are happening in low- and middle-income countries that have not yet included human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for girls and young women into their immunization regimes, said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheybresus on Wednesday. He was speaking at a high level event that saw First […] Continue reading ->
A WHO independent commission concluded that 83 emergency responders to DR-Congo’s 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, including some 21 WHO employees and consultants, had likely abused dozens of Congolese women, obtaining sex in exchange for promises of jobs – also raping nine women outright. But the panel’s findings, which validate reports first published in September 2020 in […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – Prior to the dwindling of foreign aid, a network of hundreds of Afghan midwives was delivering much-needed support to women at their doorsteps in the devastated nation that now faces breakdown. Now, as Afghanistan grapples with the freeze of its assets in international institutions and shortages of foreign funds with the rise to […] Continue reading ->
Afghanistan’s health system is on the brink of collapse and the country faces “an imminent humanitarian catastrophe,” the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday. Only 17% of the facilities of the country’s largest health project, Sehetmandi, are still fully functional as they have run out of funds for supplies and salaries for health staff. […] Continue reading ->
Unvaccinated pregnant women infected with the Delta variant run a greater risk of contracting severe COVID-19, according to a UK study of 3371 pregnant women admitted to the hospital with symptomatic COVID-19. The study, conducted by the UK Obstetric Surveillance System (UKOSS), found that 24% of pregnant women admitted in the first wave had moderate […] Continue reading ->
As the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change exacerbate global food insecurity, African countries are committed to giving more support to small farmers – particularly women. This emerged at the United Nations Food Systems Pre-Summit in Italy, which opened on Monday as a precursor to a formal UN summit planned for September. Rwandan President Paul Kagame […] Continue reading ->
In the wake of COVID-19, both the needs and the skills of frontline healthcare workers need to be made integral to the design of global mental health services, said experts at a Wednesday webinar, sponsored by the Geneva-based Global Self-Care Federation (GSCF). While mental health issues have come more to the forefront during the COVID […] Continue reading ->
Global health experts expressed their frustration with the lack of research and attention towards neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and vulnerable populations, calling for health systems to address NTDs in a more sustainable and holistic way. Speaking at the launch of a new strategic plan for the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) on Tuesday, […] Continue reading ->