World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lauded the success of tobacco control measures at the Wednesday evening session of the Executive Board meeting, but expressed concerns about the growing use of harmful products like e-cigarettes among youth. He urged member states, “to take swift action to counter this emerging threat” of children […] Continue reading ->
Universal Health Coverage Has Wide Support But is Undermined by Lack of Financing and Health Workers
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) executive board discussed ways to deliver Universal Health Coverage (UHC) on Wednesday, and while most member states expressed support for UHC, they highlighted bottlenecks of lack of finance and trained healthcare workers for being off track with its implementation. In its report to the board, the WHO estimated that over […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) executive board confirmed the appointment of three new regional directors on Tuesday, which are both controversial and historic. The election of Saima Wazed, the daughter of Bangladesh’s prime minister, to lead the South-East Asia region has already been mired in allegations of nepotism. Tonga’s Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala steps into his […] Continue reading ->
Variation between the six regions of the World Health Organization (WHO) on how their regional directors are nominated – and whether these should be standardised – generated substantial discussion at the body’s executive board (EB) meeting on Tuesday. A report from the WHO’s legal counsel on regional nominations noted key areas where a lack of […] Continue reading ->
By hosting a high-level “investor round” to raise flexible funding for its operations, the World Health Organization (WHO) will address one of its “greatest overall risks, namely dependency on the very few number of donors”. This is according to Germany’s Björn Kümmel, chair of the WHO Working Group on Sustainable Financing, who told the WHO’s […] Continue reading ->
A week long meeting of WHO’s Executive Board kicked off on Monday with plans for a fresh WHO multi-year strategy, a new “Investment Fund” to help finance it – and a warning by Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom that he was “gravely concerned” that WHO member states would fail to adopt a global pandemic accord […] Continue reading ->
There will be close to 10 billion people in the world by 2050, and if the World Health Organization estimates are correct, as many as 22% of them – or 22 billion people – will be over 60. A separate study by American doctors found that by that same year, the number of people living […] Continue reading ->
The final hours of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday saw the launch of a new Global Alliance for Women’s Health which has the broad ambition of, “re-shaping the future of women’s health and the global economy.” So far 42 organizations have expressed interest in joining the alliance, including government leaders and representatives from […] Continue reading ->
As we approach the final months of member-state negotiations over a World Health Organization Pandemic Accord, due to come before the World Health Assembly in May, the efforts to forge a consensus have witnessed modest progress. However, the original divide between developed and developing countries on key issues such as finance, access and benefit sharing, […] Continue reading ->
Improving disease surveillance, strengthening primary healthcare, and being able to expand quickly during a crisis are some of the important lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic that can be applied to ‘Disease X’, according to health experts speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. “Disease X is a placeholder for unknown diseases,” […] Continue reading ->