Senior WHO officials sounded a cautiously optimistic note Tuesday about the prospects for WHO member states to somehow wrap up down-to-the-wire negotiations on a landmark Pandemic Accord in time to submit a final agreement to the World Health Assembly, which begins next Monday, 27 May. Meanwhile, they heralded the milestone agreement “in principle” to amend […] Continue reading ->
In a ground-breaking move, global leaders on Tuesday made an unprecedented financial pledge to tackle the dirty cooking fuels crisis, which silently claims millions of lives across Africa. The Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa, chaired jointly by the leaders of Tanzania and Norway, alongside the African Development Bank, secured financial commitments from governments, development […] Continue reading ->
Heatwaves across Asia this April that sent temperatures soaring above 40℃ were made hotter and more likely by human-induced climate change, according to an analysis by an international team of leading climate scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group. The group has done more than 70 studies on a range of extreme weather events […] Continue reading ->
The Novo Nordisk Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Wellcome Trust have announced a new partnership, committing $300 million over three years to stimulate innovative research in developing countries into three of the world’s most critical global health challenges and their interlinkages – including climate change, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). An additional […] Continue reading ->
Although cows have been infected with avian influenza subtype H5N1 for the first time and viral remnants have been found in milk, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) characterise its current risk to humans as “low”. The risk for people exposed to infected birds and other […] Continue reading ->
Most H5N1 infections spreading through US dairy cattle and other animal populations are likely going undetected despite stepped up surveillance by the US Department of Agriculture, Michael Osterholm, director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), told Health Policy Watch on Wednesday. Osterholm spoke as a growing number of infectious experts were […] Continue reading ->
The fourth session of the UN intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution ended in Ottawa on Tuesday with “an advanced draft text of the instrument and agreement on inter-sessional work ahead”, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Delegates engaged in text-based discussion on the revised draft […] Continue reading ->
Over 70% of the world’s workforce faces potential health risks due to climate change, according to the latest report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) released earlier this week. Nearly 1.6 billion outdoor workers are also at risk from high levels of air pollution. “More than 70% of our workers are exposed to excessive heat […] Continue reading ->
Planet well-being and human health are interconnected issues – one cannot be achieved without the other, according to Kinari Webb, an American medical doctor, public health innovator and thought leader interviewed on the most recent episode of the Global Health Matters podcast. During the special “Dialogues” episode, Webb speaks with host Dr. Garry Aslanyan about […] Continue reading ->
A new report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) warns that the Asian continent is the world’s most disaster-prone region, and extreme heat is becoming more severe. The warming trend in Asia has nearly doubled over the last three decades, the UN’s meteorological agency reports. In its State of the Climate in Asia 2023, the […] Continue reading ->