Cancer services remain backlogged in many parts of the world due to the effects of the two-year-long COVID pandemic – even as Europe hopes a pandemic “ceasefire that could bring us enduring peace” , said WHO’s European Regional Director Hans Kluge Thursday on the eve of World Cancer Day.   Meanwhile, in Latin America, routine childhood […] Continue reading ->
In a long and winding discussion Thursday at The World Health Organization’s Executive Board, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) pledged to redouble their efforts against noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes and obesity, which are having increasing impacts on health and well-being – in addition to infectious diseases that have been at the forefront of […] Continue reading ->
A $200 million dollar investment – the largest financial commitment to addressing childhood cancer ever – has been announced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and US-based St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The Global Platform for Access to Childhood Cancer Medicines will provide an uninterrupted supply of quality-assured cancer medicines to low- and middle-income countries.  […] Continue reading ->
Some two-thirds of deaths of women from cervical cancer are happening in low- and middle-income countries that have not yet included human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for girls and young women into their immunization regimes, said WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheybresus on Wednesday.  He was speaking at a high level event that saw First […] Continue reading ->
While it pales in comparison to tobacco industry marketing, two new capital investment funds worth some $75 million to support low- and middle-income countries in their fight against tobacco are being created by signatories to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and a related Protocol on illegal sales.  Together, the funds would yield an estimated […] Continue reading ->
Long months of pandemic lockdown have only exacerbated the harms due to alcohol  experienced by billions of people worldwide.  Now, WHO is in the process of developing a new alcohol action plan, in an effort to re-energize a stagnant process and overcome a “lost decade” of little progress on alcohol policies.  Can it make a […] Continue reading ->
In a milestone moment, WHO today issued new guidelines for a range of health-harmful air pollutants – recommending a reduction by one-half in safe levels of fine particulates (PM2.5) – considered to be the benchmark indicator of health impacts that lead to some 7 million deaths a year.  The new standards put most cities of […] Continue reading ->
This article is the second in a three-part series on COVID-19 booster vaccines, which is an evolving discussion as more evidence emerges about the performance of vaccines against variants. Despite heated debates about doling out booster jabs in healthy people who are already fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, there seems to be consensus that at least […] Continue reading ->