Medical institutions were the last hope for Afghan girls and women seeking higher education since the Taliban banned schools and universities for women “Why do you torture us every day? Just give us poison and end it all,” a heartbroken Afghan medical student told Taliban forces, expressing the despair of thousands of girls whose dreams […] Continue reading ->
Climate change, unplanned urbanization, sprawling cities, and the El Nino effect all converged to make 2024 a “historic” year for dengue transmission. With increased opportunities for Aedes aegypti mosquitoes–the insects that carry dengue– to breed, cases reached a record 12.7 million cases in the WHO’s Americas Region, nearly three times more than in 2023. This translates […] Continue reading ->
After an early surge of spending during the COVID pandemic, public health layouts by countries at all income levels declined in 2022, on average, as compared to 2021. Meanwhile, there was a 60% increase overall in per-capita health expenditures between 2000 and 2022 – but in low income countries this was largely driven by a […] Continue reading ->
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebryesus urged a ‘wait and see’ attitude Tuesday in his first public comments on US President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services – despite a flurry of fresh criticism by 77 Nobel Laureates over the controversial appointment. “It’s a transition […] Continue reading ->
From being a largely unknown pathogen, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is now almost a household word – and a fearful one for families with infants and young children at risk. But new solutions, such as long-acting monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and maternal vaccination, both recently recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), could dramatically alter the […] Continue reading ->
“Much stronger surveillance” of deadly H5N1 and other avian influenza strains in both domestic and wild animals is needed both in The United States as well as globally so as to head off pandemic risks from variants that could mutate to infect humans more directly. A senior World Health Organization official, Dr Maria Van Kerkkove, […] Continue reading ->
With half of the global population now under the age of 30, the question of how to involve younger adults in global health decision-making is becoming increasingly urgent. In the latest episode of the Global Health Matters podcast, Dr. Garry Aslanyan invites three young leaders to discuss the role of youth in shaping health-related policies […] Continue reading ->
The “Kick Big Soda Out!” campaign launched on July 8, 2024 ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics and ran through the end of the Paralympics. It’s all about holding sugary drinks companies – especially Coca-Cola – accountable for their impact on health and the environment. To discuss the campaign, Health Policy Watch spoke to Trish […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – Warning that the process of negotiating a pandemic agreement has days not months left, talks co-chair Precious Matsoso hopes that a deal will finally be clinched at the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) in early December. “We don’t have six months left to finish negotiations. We only have a […] Continue reading ->
The voices of the children’s choir echoed in the conference hall as a reminder that more than one billion children who experience some form of violence each year. Their performance was part of the historic first high-level ministerial conference to end violence against children in Bogota late last week, which brought together government delegations, children, […] Continue reading ->