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 ->
In advance of critical biodiversity negotiations in Geneva, over twenty former headers of state, ministers, and environmental and indigenous leaders urgently called on governments – including their own – to back the protection of at least 30% of the planet by 2030.  Led by former US Senator Russ Feingold and comprised of either former Heads […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to get the 36 metric  tonnes of medical supplies it flew into Poland late last week into the western Ukrainian town of Lviv, some 80 km from the Polish border.  More WHO team members arrived today to expand the team already on the ground in #Ukraine.While travelling from […] 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 ->
The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) will offer certain government-funded coronavirus technologies to WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), top US officials said on Thursday.  The  announcement by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra at a virtual meeting Thursday with other ministers of health, could help bolster support for the […] Continue reading ->
Molnupiravir, an oral COVID-19 antiviral medication, has just been added as a conditional recommendation to the World Health Organization’s living guidelines on COVID-19 therapeutics.  The pill, created by Merck, had already been approved by the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) in January to be distributed and supplied in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).  In comparison […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday appealed for a “humanitarian corridor” to enable it to deliver emergency medical supplies to sick and injured Ukrainians – particularly oxygen, insulin and equipment needed to treat battle wounds.  The WHO appeal at a media briefing Wednesday came just hours before the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a […] Continue reading ->