Five male candidates are contesting to be the next regional director for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) African Region. One of them will replace Botswana’s Dr Matshidiso Moeti, who has served two terms in the position and is not eligible for re-election. Moeti, who was appointed in 2015, has overseen WHO’s operations through trying circumstances, […] Continue reading ->
Growing up in Bangladesh where several infectious diseases transmitted by helminths (worms) take a large health toll, Tilak Chandra Nath has always been fascinated with the challenges of addressing diseases of poverty. During his postgraduate training as a TDR-supported fellow at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Indonesia in 2016, he studied parasitic diseases, focusing […] Continue reading ->
When nursing graduates in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) receive their hard-earned diplomas, they’re no longer cheered on only by proud family members and university faculty. “The recruiters pitch up on the nurses’ graduation day in our country,” one delegate told me at the recent World Health Assembly (WHA). It’s a striking image: nurses, newly […] Continue reading ->
Is One Health really an agenda of only the Global North?  Panelists at an event last week, hosted by the Geneva Graduate Institute’s Global Health Center, think otherwise. They talked about how developing countries are putting One Health principles into practice to head off future disease outbreaks. One Health is critical to future prevention of […] Continue reading ->
With the first-ever malaria vaccines rolling out across Africa and a next-generation tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in testing, scientific advances are driving an unparalleled expansion of vaccine development. But vaccines in development don’t become immunizations that protect our health without concerted efforts by global initiatives like Gavi, the vaccine alliance, that help bring these life-saving products […] Continue reading ->
WHA delegates spent over 10 hours in diplomatic maneuvers, debates and painful rollcount votes Friday, finally approving two measures that decried the humanitarian crisis in Gaza in sharply different, and sometimes  contradictory terms.   One motion co-sponsored by a coalition of Algeria, Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, Egypt and other Middle Eastern allies, condemns “indiscriminate attacks” by […] Continue reading ->
After two years of intensive negotiations – including long nights this week – the World Health Assembly (WHA) finally passed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR)  and committed to completing pandemic agreement talks within a year.  After failing to agree on the amendments before WHA opened on Monday, member states have been racing to […] Continue reading ->