South Korea became the first country in the world to achieve the highest level, “maturity level 4” (ML4), in regulating medicines and vaccines. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) in the Republic of Korea is the only national regulatory authority to be recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) to have advanced oversight […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has announced the “interim” appointment of five new senior leaders to replace outgoing members of his senior team, whose departure was announced internally just last week, Health Policy Watch has learned. The new appointments were also revealed in a second internal email sent by Tedros to WHO staff […] Continue reading ->
SHARM EL SHEIKH, EGYPT – Ken Henshaw’s story of his Niger Delta community’s experience with fossil fuel extraction reads like the fallout from a war zone without the ready presence of international media to document the devastation. Henshaw lives at ground zero of one of Africa’s earliest and longest-running experiences with oil extraction, a six […] Continue reading ->
¨Loss and damage´ from climate change gains a formal place on the COP27 agenda, as conference gets underway, while the World Health Organization issues urgent appeal to world leaders to negotiate a treaty to phase out fossil fuels altogether. Sharm el Sheikh – In a historic first, the issue of ¨loss and damage¨ finance for […] Continue reading ->
With more cholera outbreaks overstretching the world’s limited vaccine supply, WHO recommends temporarily suspending the standard two-dose regimen to vaccinate more people. Meanwhile, Africa aims to re-energize its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, despite steady decline in public turnout for vaccination. A shortage in the global supply of cholera vaccines has forced the World Health Organization to […] Continue reading ->
The Indian government has halted the Maiden Pharmaceuticals plant that produced the cough and cold syrups that WHO says were tainted with toxic chemicals – possibly linked to the recent deaths of some 66 children in The Gambia. A senior WHO official confirmed that Indian government health authorities had shut down the plant after WHO […] Continue reading ->
The spread of a cholera outbreak to an overcrowded Haitian prison, of Ebola virus to Uganda’s capital city of Kampala, and increased incidence of malaria, dengue, measles and cholera in flood-swamped Pakistan were among the long list of health emergencies needing urgent attention and investments – as compared to the trillions being invested right now […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization Chief Scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan, a respected voice in WHO’s senior leadership is expected to resign within the next month – in the first major leadership shuffle by Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Health Policy Watch has learned. Conversely, Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s […] Continue reading ->
Countries have failed miserably to halt rising obesity, despite goals set by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018. Instead, obesity continues to rise apace. Now, however, a new WHO strategy for accelerating action against obesity, endorsed last week by the World Health Assembly, calls for much tougher policies on food packaging, pricing and marketing […] Continue reading ->
Dental services, including regular check-ups, were among the most disrupted essential health services during the COVID-19 lockdowns. People´s reticence to visit a dentist during normal times was exacerbated by fear of venturing into an open clinic or simply not being able to, due to restrictions. Dental hesitancy has always been around but over two years […] Continue reading ->