Violence against women and girls has been neglected during and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and urgent efforts are needed to protect women, UNAIDS has said. One in three women likely to experience violence at least once in their lifetime. Evidence indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant increases in gender-based violence in […] Continue reading ->
New York City. The pandemic has been exacerbated by recent hurricanes in Central America, as a result of outbreaks in overcrowded emergency shelters, as well as travel during the American Thanksgiving season, health leaders said at a Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) press conference. Last week, saw an increase of 1.5 million cases reported in […] Continue reading ->
South Africa is campaigning for the World Trade Organization (WTO) to waiver intellectual property rights on all products related to COVID-19 for the duration of the pandemic. Mustaqeem De Gama, Counsellor at the South African Permanent Mission in Geneva, is leading the campaign. Kerry Cullinan and Elaine Fletcher spoke to him about the reasons why […] Continue reading ->
‘Planetary health’ describes how the limits of natural resources like clean air, water and food production shape our long-term health, with climate change as a “threat-multiplier” for future COVID-19 like crises. Experts at the Geneva Health Forum explored the links, ahead of next week’s launch of the 2020 Lancet Countdown Report on Health and Climate […] Continue reading ->
After catching Europe unprepared, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a window of opportunity to create a “European Health Union”. And what was once a long-simmering initiative has picked up steam with a formal endorsement from the European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen, as well as proposals to strengthen Europe’s health security. But a group […] Continue reading ->
Thirteen African countries and an international network of research institutions have joined forces to launch a multi-country clinical trial of COVID-19 drug treatments in Africa for people who are mild to moderately ill. The new ANTICOV trial, led by the Geneva-based Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) aims to respond to the urgent need to […] Continue reading ->
The tobacco industry has been exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting health sector resource shortages to gain a stronger foothold in the policy corridors of many national governments – making huge donations of PPE and other desperately needed goods, new research has shown. The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2020, released by STOP (Stopping Tobacco […] Continue reading ->
  Nearly 100 World Trade Organization member countries and entities could potentially swing behind a proposal by India and South Africa to enact a wide-ranging waiver of complex World Trade Organization requirements on the use of patented products, trade secrets and copyrights on health products during the pandemic, asserted the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access […] Continue reading ->
The current power dynamics in global health are a barrier to achieving health equity, partly because too many high-profile politicians are simply reluctant to listen to, or act upon, scientific evidence, and partly because of countries and institutions that wield disproportionate influence in today’s global health architecture aren’t willing to relinquish their power: a left-over […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic did not so much create cracks in healthcare systems around the world, as it exposed weaknesses in them, participants at the Geneva Health Forum said Wednesday at a session on how health systems have fared during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have found fragility everywhere,” said Edward Kelley, Director of Integrated Health Services […] Continue reading ->