From Indonesia and the Seychelles, to Chile and China itself, there are some worrisome indications that the Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac COVID vaccines sold by the hundreds of millions to vaccine-strapped low- and middle-income countries may not be performing as well as expected – particularly against rapidly spreading variants of SARS-CoV-2. At the same time, […] Continue reading ->
Children’s rights activists and anti-tobacco campaigners called on governments this week to implement stricter laws, impose hefty fines and carry out public campaigns to eradicate child labor in tobacco value chains. With an estimated 1.3 million children working in tobacco fields around the world, Adriana Blanco Marquizo, head of the Secretariat of WHO’s Framework Convention […] Continue reading ->
Uganda is suffering an acute shortage of oxygen and intensive care beds as the country grapples with a deadly second wave of the pandemic that is being fuelled by five different virus variants. Regional referral hospitals and the country’s biggest hospital, Mulago National Referral Hospital, have run out of oxygen or have reported acute shortages, […] Continue reading ->
Tanzania, which for months denied the existence of COVID-19 until vaccine-sceptic President John Magufuli finally succumbed to the virus in March – is now trying to belatedly join the WHO co-sponsored COVAX facility to acquire COVID vaccines. The news comes as the African continent experiences a deadly third wave of COVID-19 infections – affecting eastern […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – Faced with one of the sharpest increases in HIV/AIDS rates in Asia, Pakistan will ban the manufacture and import of conventional syringes from next month, government officials have told Health Policy Watch. The move is in an effort to stem a three-year increase in HIV cases – 39% of which are estimated to […] Continue reading ->
In a “groundbreaking” trial conducted in Indonesia, lab-grown mosquitoes infected with Wolbachia bacteria reduced the rate of symptomatic dengue infections by 77%, and hospitalizations by 86%, in communities where the bacteria-armed mosquitoes were released. The three-year study, which was led by the World Mosquito Program, provides compelling evidence for a new method of controlling dengue. […] Continue reading ->
Electronic waste (e-waste) is increasing at three times the pace of the world population, impacting badly on the health of those wading through electronic dump sites, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) landmark report – Children and Digital Dumpsites – released on Tuesday. Led by Marie-Noël Bruné Drisse, a children’s health expert of the […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) is planning to study the public health and social measures that countries have used to keep COVID-19 at bay successfully – in case there is no quick vaccine for the next pandemic. A special working group has been set up with the support of Norway to study these measures, WHO […] Continue reading ->
Biotech manufacturer Novavax announced on Monday it would be able to manufacture 100 million doses of its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine every month by the end of the third quarter of 2021 and 150 million doses per month by the end of the year – once it has secured regulatory approval for its vaccine. This follows […] Continue reading ->
Over the past several decades, the tobacco industry has tried to influence policy by partnering with various United Nations (UN) agencies. Many of these agencies, however, have since cut ties with the industry, thus safeguarding their initiatives and policies from Big Tobacco’s commercial interests. One notable exception remains and must be addressed: the continued membership […] Continue reading ->