A WHO co-sponsored partnership is laying the groundwork for a worldwide distribution plan of $US 6 billion worth of the most effective COVID-19 drugs, including cutting-edge monoclonal antibodies treatments if proven effective – so as to ensure that high-income countries do not snap up all available new therapies as they arrive on the market. The […] Continue reading ->
There is so far no evidence that the outbreak of mutant SARS-CoV-2 virus strains exploding in Danish mink farms threaten the development of a successful COVID-19 vaccine, said top World Health Organization (WHO) officials on Friday. More than 200 mink farms in Denmark have reported cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections, prompting Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, […] Continue reading ->
BRAZZAVILLE – The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to key health services in Africa, raising worries that some of the continent’s major health challenges could worsen. A preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO) of five key essential health service indicators finds a sharp decline in these services between January and September […] Continue reading ->
As predictions of a difficult winter pour in, projecting rapid increases in COVID-19 infections, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged countries in the northern hemisphere to test for influenza alongside coronavirus. WHO reassrerted today that surveillance systems are in place to help identify which influenza viruses are circulating, and suggested that countries be proactive […] Continue reading ->
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals suspended enrollment of critically ill and hospitalized patients in its COVID-19 antibody cocktail treatment clinical trial on Friday, due to what it said was a safety concern.  The pharma company’s independent data monitoring committee (IDMC) recommended this pause “based on a potential safety signal and an unfavorable risk/benefit profile,” advising on the collection […] Continue reading ->
Third in a series – Cities are major drivers of public health and the COVID-19 pandemic has brought increasing and urgent necessity for effective, innovative leadership and collaboration within and between cities. “The COVID-19 pandemic has upended lives around the globe and nowhere has the impact of this virus been more evident than in urban areas, […] Continue reading ->
Two competing approaches to promote access to medicines were born during the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the year 2000. Today, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, these same approaches are once more on a collision course.  On the one side is the ‘international’ COVID response, led in name by WHO, but in fact by what […] Continue reading ->