Two years after the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic on 11 March 2022, the developed world’s long-time fixation on the SARS-CoV2 virus, which has killed 6 million people, has suddenly shifted away from health to the war in Ukraine and sharply rising geopolitical tensions.  Meanwhile high-income countries have dropped […] Continue reading ->
Amid rising hunger due to COVID-19, conflict and climate change, the African Union (AU) has declared 2022 as the Year of Nutrition. Before 5am, Nigerian fishermen living in Lagos’s floating slum, Makoko, have paddled their wooden boats several kilometers into the main river for fishing activities. Their harvests are largely influenced by how far out […] Continue reading ->
Commercialising the health sector and leaving healthcare up to the markets is “dangerous” and “really amoral” the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the launch of a brief on measuring value in the economy on Tuesday.  The policy brief, produced by the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, […] Continue reading ->
Moderna has committed to permanently waiving its COVID-19 patents in 92 low- and middle-income countries, and is pursuing vaccines for 15 diseases identified as the world’s biggest public health risk, including ebola, tuberculosis and malaria. The company has also offered outside researchers access to its mRNA technology to pursue research on emerging and neglected infectious […] Continue reading ->
Countries need to prevent more SARS-CoV2 infections in wildlife, as this could result in the establishment of animal reservoirs, according to a joint statement by the World Health Organisation, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).   So far domestic animals, free-ranging, captive or farmed wild animals such as big […] Continue reading ->
A four-year-old girl from Jerusalem has been diagnosed with polio, Israel’s Health Ministry said Sunday – the first case in the country since 1989. The source of the girl’s infection is vaccine-derived polio virus, according to Israel’s head of Public Services Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis, speaking to reporters on Monday evening. “We are not talking about […] Continue reading ->
Women in Africa will feel the disruptive force of the pandemic for many years to come – with upticks in maternal deaths and prolonged disruptions in maternal, child and reproductive health services issues the continent must grapple with now.  About 40% of African countries are reporting continued disruptions to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and […] Continue reading ->