The recent CARICOM summit of Caribbean leaders has endorsed a new Afro-Caribbean Health and Development (HeDPAC) initiative aimed at stimulating South-South collaboration on resilient health systems, health worker capacity building, and local medicines and vaccines manufacture. The formal CARICOM Communiqué at the close of the Summit in Grenada invited its 15 member states and five […] Continue reading ->
Without urgent humanitarian assistance, tens of thousands of people in Sudan may die of famine in coming weeks, UN officials warned during a Geneva press briefing Tuesday. Their calls for a ceasefire to enable humanitarian assistance to flow more freely came on the eve of peace talks scheduled to take place in Geneva with the […] Continue reading ->
“Words must now be matched with deeds,” Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya said after the official declaration. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has officially declared the surging mpox outbreak a “public health emergency of continental security” – the first time it has made such a declaration on its own. […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the risks of over-reliance on global supply chains for essential health products. Disruptions led to severe delays and shortages of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, with low- and middle-income countries bearing the brunt. Vaccine inequality starkly highlighted Africa’s vulnerability. Yet this crisis unveiled a unique opportunity for the continent: a chance to […] Continue reading ->
Climate change is endangering children’s health at every stage of development, threatening to reverse decades of progress in reducing child mortality worldwide, according to a new UNICEF report. The U.N. children’s agency’s “Threat to Progress” report released last week consolidates growing evidence of climate change’s effects on children’s health, identifying six major hazards: extreme heat, […] Continue reading ->
As more avian flu cases are detected across the Asia-Pacific region, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is calling for “regional efforts to combat a rise” of the disease. Over the past year, highly pathogenic avian influenza clades, especially H5N1, have gained ground globally, infecting an increasing number of species, including poultry, dairy cows, and […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) vast European region – 53 countries, including the entire European Union, Russia and even Israel – is often excluded from cheaper medicine deals because of member states’ high- and middle-income status. But one of the flagship programmes of WHO regional director Dr Hans Kluge is the Novel Medicines Platform (NMP), […] Continue reading ->
By the time they turn 20 years old, nearly a quarter (24%) of adolescent girls who have been in a relationship will have experienced physical or sexual violence from their intimate partner, according to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) published Monday found. Even though the prevalence of violence among teenagers largely parallels […] Continue reading ->
The Argentina-based biotech firm, Sinergium Biotech, has agreed to share know-how on the production of an mRNA vaccine for Avian influenza (H5N1) with WHO’s Tecnology Transfer Hub so that an affordable vaccine could rapidly be produced for developing countries, WHO said Monday. The agreement marks the first time that a vaccine developer has actually volunteered […] Continue reading ->
Global levels of hunger remain stagnant at the highest rates seen in over a decade, as one in 11 people worldwide (8.9%) faced hunger, or undernourishment, in 2023, according to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report, released on Wednesday. The report, a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International […] Continue reading ->