Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), has called a meeting of the emergency committee for next Thursday to discuss whether monkeypox should be declared a public health emergency. This follows the spread of the disease in at least 32 new countries outside of the nine African countries where it is […] Continue reading ->
The World Trade Organization’s Director General Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the potential for WTO members to reach long-delayed agreements on issues such as a limited IP waiver for COVID vaccines as well as a decision to curb harmful fisheries subsidies that allow big industrial rigs to plunder the oceans […] Continue reading ->
The first report by the new WHO-convened expert group, Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) has fanned the flames of controversy over evidence about whether a lab leak or a natural “spillover” of the virus from animals to humans was the most likely source from which the COVID pandemic emerged – […] Continue reading ->
Eritrea has yet to start vaccinating its citizens against COVID-19, whereas two African countries – South Africa and Tunisia – are now offering citizens over 50 a second COVID-19 booster vaccine. However, but the vaccination rate on the continent is far behind the global vaccination target of 70%. Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Acting Director of […] Continue reading ->
Fears of cholera have emerged in the ruined and Russian-occupied Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Exiled local officials have voiced concern over the drinking supply in the city, which has been contaminated as a result of decomposing bodies and garbage. “The city has really turned into one with corpses everywhere,” said mayoral aide Petro Andryushchenko […] Continue reading ->
Confirmed cases of monkeypox reported to WHO outside of Africa’s endemic zone have doubled once again since last week, 1 June – with more than 1000 cases now having been reported in some 29 countries that don’t usually see the disease. So far, no deaths have been reported in those countries. But some 66 deaths […] Continue reading ->
As the World Hepatitis Summit 2022 takes place this week, some 354 million people are still living with viral hepatitis, despite the fact that vaccines, treatments and even cures are now available, says Finn Jarle Rode is Executive Director at the Hepatitis Fund. Until now, viral hepatitis elimination has been the neglected child of global […] Continue reading ->
World Trade Organization (WTO) leaders are hopeful that an agreement could be reached on a waiver on intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines at the Ministerial Council starting on Sunday – but the People’s Vaccine Alliance has organised global protests to demand “a real TRIPS waiver” ahead of the meeting. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has […] Continue reading ->
The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970, yet the viral disease is only getting international attention since it has spread outside Africa to 27 non-endemic countries. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Dr Ebrahima Socé Fall described monkeypox as a “neglected tropical disease” when he opened a two-day meeting called by the WHO’s […] Continue reading ->
Scientists and doctors are beginning to eye Paxlovid, the antiviral medicine developed by Pfizer to protect vulnerable people from severe disease, as a potential treatment for lingering COVID-19 symptoms after single patients report that the medicine has helped to reduce their symptoms. Long COVID affects as many as one in five people infected by the […] Continue reading ->