GENEVA, Switzerland — One in 10 medicines in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified, a pervasive health crisis the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates kills over one million people globally each year. As the cost in millions of lives and billions of public health dollars from falsified medicines rises, member states at the […] Continue reading ->
NEW DELHI – The theme was “Scaling Access to Ensure Health Equity”, but that hardly reflected the intense concerns raised at the first World Health Summit regional meeting with the storm of Trump administration’s cutbacks and closures of global health programmes since January. Traditional medicine, climate and health, data transparency, and the role of artificial […] Continue reading ->
In a breakthrough moment for Africa’s vaccine independence, two landmark deals could help put the continent on a path to becoming a producer, not just a buyer, of life-saving vaccines. For the first time, an end-to-end mRNA vaccine production platform will be built in Africa, with plans to manufacture 100 million doses annually. A separate […] Continue reading ->
With plans underway for a new “Independent Panel” on Antimicrobial Resistance, endorsed at September’s UN High-Level AMR Meeting, the new body must become a strong scientific authority. It should have the power to “challenge” the agencies that create it and address both human and animal health factors driving drug-resistant pathogens. That was a key message […] Continue reading ->
Only 35 countries have submitted the national strategies required by the UN biodiversity treaty showing how they’ll meet its binding nature protection targets. While 33 of these plans recognise links between human health and biodiversity, they offer few specifics on implementation and policy, a Health Policy Watch analysis found. Negotiators in Cali aim to bridge […] Continue reading ->
The Africa CDC has slammed the US government’s recent Level 3 travel advisory for Rwanda as unfair and baseless, arguing it undermines Rwanda’s proactive efforts to contain a Marburg outbreak. With rapid testing, vaccinations, and coordinated emergency response measures in place, Rwanda’s leaders insist the country poses no international threat and warn that travel restrictions […] Continue reading ->
For the first time ever, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that pregnant women be vaccinated against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), or that their newborns receive a dose of monoclonal antibodies to protect them against severe RSV disease, which has seen a global resurgence as the COVID-19 pandemic waned. In 2022-2023, RSV was the […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the risks of over-reliance on global supply chains for essential health products. Disruptions led to severe delays and shortages of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, with low- and middle-income countries bearing the brunt. Vaccine inequality starkly highlighted Africa’s vulnerability. Yet this crisis unveiled a unique opportunity for the continent: a chance to […] Continue reading ->
The Argentina-based biotech firm, Sinergium Biotech, has agreed to share know-how on the production of an mRNA vaccine for Avian influenza (H5N1) with WHO’s Tecnology Transfer Hub so that an affordable vaccine could rapidly be produced for developing countries, WHO said Monday. The agreement marks the first time that a vaccine developer has actually volunteered […] Continue reading ->
While this week’s CARICOM summit in Grenada has been postponed due to Hurricane Beryl, when it does convenes, a key item on the agenda will be the new ‘HeDPAC’ initiative to deepen South-South partnerships to meet shared global health challenges – from pandemic threats to climate change. In remote communities of Guyana, the introduction of […] Continue reading ->
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