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 ->
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, putting communities and countries at the centre in the fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases, which affect some 1.5 billion people globally, is more important than ever before. New digital health tools can help us increase transparent reporting on progress and setbacks in achieving the NTD-related Sustainable Development Goals. […] Continue reading ->
As new malaria cases have increased as a result of COVID-19 and key global targets have been missed by miles, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for new approaches and tools to better implement the current ones in place in the 2021 WHO Malaria Report released on Monday. In 2020, the global malaria case […] Continue reading ->
New research published at the opening of the 52nd Union World Conference on Lung Health has demonstrated that routine breathing can transmit tuberculosis even more effectively than coughing – in a finding that also echoes one of the signature lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic about SARS-CoV2 transmission. While large droplets jammed with bacteria produced by […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent diversion of resources toward battling SARS-CoV2 has also set back global efforts to eliminate the world’s second most deadly infectious killer: Tuberculosis, by 2030. Only a doubling of investments next year can pave the way to attainment of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to eliminate the disease, […] Continue reading ->
The Results Report published by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria last week illustrates how COVID-19 has pushed us off track in significant ways – particularly with respect to access to tuberculosis (TB) and HIV diagnoses and treatment. But at the same time, there is better news with respect to the battle […] Continue reading ->
In the midst of the tragedy and turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is gratifying to see work continuing in Africa to find new ways of fighting malaria, a very old disease that has been a formidable foe for thousands of years and still kills 400,000 people every year, most of them African children […] Continue reading ->
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) pose a threat to more than 1.5 billion people worldwide, making them one of the biggest health problems in the developing world. In sub-Saharan Africa, these diseases are found “at the end of the road” in the most rural and poor communities where an estimated 600 million people are at risk […] Continue reading ->
The Ivory Coast has confirmed this Sunday its first case of Ebola since 1994 – in a case that was apparently imported from Guinea. That is despite the fact that Guinea’s outbreak was formally declared as over by WHO in June – reflecting the way the deadly virus can lie dormant in some individuals, only […] Continue reading ->
On the 100th anniversary of the world’s only vaccine for tuberculosis, the Stop TB Partnership has urged world leaders and other stakeholders to prioritise the development of an effective, safe and affordable tuberculosis vaccine by 2025. But there is a financial shortfall to achieve this goal, with only around a fifth of the target funding […] Continue reading ->