BERLIN – If a new treaty that rewrites the global rules for pandemic response is really approved by the World Health Assembly by May 2024, as planned, that will still only be the beginning of the journey. The new international accord will still have to be ratified by a critical mass of WHO´s 194 member […] Continue reading ->
DIGYA, Ghana – Local farmer Precious Amewornu nearly died just before she could give birth to her second child and had to travel almost 500 kilometres for hospital care because her local clinic was not equipped to deal with her high blood pressure – one of the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs). A nurse at […] Continue reading ->
Africa recorded the world’s highest gain in healthy life expectancy over the past decade. But the lack of sustainable finance for health systems is a major threat to the gains recorded. Africa recorded the world’s highest growth in healthy life expectancy—or the number of years an individual is in a good state of health—between 2000 […] Continue reading ->
In a world where health workers are scarce, self-care practices can drastically improve people’s quality of life and alleviate strain on health systems, but depend on a range of factors including patient literacy, fair prices and government stewardship. This is according to a one-of-a-kind global study demonstrating the value of self-care that was launched on […] Continue reading ->
After Dr Garry Aslanyan became an avid follower of podcasts, he realized there was a dearth of material from the genre in his own global health field. So he set out to fill that gap with a new series featuring public health professionals and policymakers from around the world who have made a difference – […] Continue reading ->
The weekend of 12-13 March was a glorious time to be in the Swiss mountain resort of Villars-sur-Ollon post-pandemic. Special Olympics Switzerland had organized the regional games sporting competition with skiing, bowling, tennis and boccia, drawing dozens of keen athletes and supporters. My son joined the other 46 skiers and snowboarders from the region to […] Continue reading ->
From patients lying in the parking lots of hospitals, in the back seats of cars suffocating as their family members searched frantically for oxygen in India during its second wave of COVID last year, to the inability to receive emergency care amidst constant bombing and shelling in current war-torn Ukraine, global health experts and leaders […] Continue reading ->
As the world enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of important efforts are underway to strengthen global health security. However, it is vital that, while strengthening our global health architecture, we do not lose sight of the fundamental role played by national level health systems in tackling global health threats. […] Continue reading ->
As the World Health Organization’s executive board meets this week, two major issues – reforming its finances and pandemic response – continue to defy easy consensus. A handful of powerful countries, including but not limited to the United States, remain hesitant over a plan to bolster the World Health Organization’s (WHO) finances by increasing member […] Continue reading ->
Two new treatments for COVID-19 were recommended on Thursday by the World Health Organization’s Guideline Development Group of international experts – one for severely ill patients and the other for those patients who are not severely ill but most likely to develop severe disease. The recommendations were announced Friday morning in the BMJ. Both drugs, […] Continue reading ->