Pandemic treaty negotiations need to be completed by member states and there’s just one year left to meet that deadline, warns the World Health Organization’s Director General. As the World Health Assembly closed its doors on it’s 75th Anniversary edition (WHA 76), which had to be extended by an extra day due to the prolonged […] Continue reading ->
When Elvis Ndikum Achiri, a long-time veteran of tobacco control campaigns, began collecting data on air pollution in his community in Cameroon, he was surprised to discover how many people around him, both young and old, suffered from related illnesses even though they had never smoked – including a beloved high school teacher who had […] Continue reading ->
An impossibly long list of member states lined up to address universal health coverage (UHC) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at the World Health Assembly on Thursday afternoon, indicating the centrality of these issues for countries. There was near-universal support for primary health services to be the backbone of UHC, with disease prevention as the other […] Continue reading ->
More lives are being lost to climate change every year than in the Holocaust and World War II, warned US Special Climate Envoy in an address before World Health Assembly delegates In a precedent-setting move, the UN’s annual Climate Conference of Parties (COP28) scheduled for 30 November – 12 December in Dubai will have a […] Continue reading ->
As a wave of cholera outbreaks spreads around the world, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance said it expects the global shortage of oral cholera vaccines to continue until the end of 2025. Supply of oral cholera vaccines for preventative use could catch up to demand by 2026, but “urgent action is needed,” according to a vaccine […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for focused action to address global warming and climate change to promote health outcomes. Recommendations include concerted efforts to reduce carbon emissions, build climate-resilient and sustainable health systems and protect health from the impacts of climate change. There is also a decline in the treatment coverage for tuberculosis […] Continue reading ->
Zero gains have been made in any region of the world in reducing premature births in the past decade, a major UN report found. In a perfect storm of flatlining progress in maternal and newborn health, preterm birth has become to the leading cause of child mortality worldwide, responsible for the deaths of over one […] Continue reading ->
GEITA, TANZANIA—As the morning breeze sweeps across a rugged mining site at Tanzania’s northwest Sabora village, Judith Nyakeke sits under a huge acacia tree, briskly sorting pieces of rock with her bare hands ready to wash. “This is a tough job but it can be quite rewarding,” she says. The 39-year-old mother of four, who […] Continue reading ->
Nearly a year after his appointment to a second term as WHO’s Director General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has finished a revamp of his senior leadership team – keeping key loyalists in place, while adding new faces that are a clear nod to powerful member states such as China, France and Japan. But the new team […] Continue reading ->
Seventy-five years ago on Friday – World Health Day – the World Health Organization’s (WHO) founding constitution became the first document to formally recognize health as a human right. Three-quarters of a century later, a WHO battered by the COVID-19 pandemic is juggling how to adapt to new health threats with achieving its most basic […] Continue reading ->