A four year WHO-sponsored investigation of the origins of the COVID pandemic by an international group of experts has concluded that “most scientific data and accessible published scientific evidence” support the hypothesis that the novel SARS-CoV2 virus first entered the human population either directly from virus-carrying bats, or from bats to humans via intermediate hosts.   […] Continue reading ->
In a surprise appearance Tuesday before WHO member states via pre-recorded video, new US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr extended a kind of olive branch to the World Health Organization, calling for “a new era of international health cooperation, free from political influence and corporate bias.” While Kennedy did not say […] Continue reading ->
Countries keep increasing their military budgets yet seem unwilling to prepare for an “invisible enemy” – a pandemic-causing pathogen that can be more damaging than a war, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyessus warned at the start of the final negotiations for a pandemic agreement on Monday. The COVID-19 pandemic killed up […] Continue reading ->
Cuts to global immunisation budgets are hitting measles vaccine coverage, disease surveillance, laboratory networks and outbreak response the hardest, according to the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE). SAGE, which advises the World Health Organization (WHO) on immunisation, issued the warning at a media briefing on Tuesday after its four-day biannual meeting. It warned […] Continue reading ->
Tanzania has extinguished a deadly outbreak of Marburg virus, but elsewhere across Africa, an alarming surge of health crises continue to unfold – including expanding mpox infections in Uganda, a cholera outbreak in Angola and a first-ever cholera case in neighbouring Namibia. The Marburg virus outbreak in Tanzania has officially ended, Tanzanian health authorities declared […] Continue reading ->
Encephalitis “remains under-recognized, under-diagnosed, and underfunded”,  according to a new policy report from the World Health Organization (WHO). Climate change, vaccine hesitancy, and the rising burden of vector-borne diseases are also fuelling an increased number of encephalitis cases, a rare but serious inflammation of the brain.  The technical document urges coordinated global action to “confront […] Continue reading ->