February 20, 2020, was the day on which the first COVID-19 case was recorded in Mexico. The infected person was a 35-year-old man from Mexico City, the capital of the Latin American country, who had travelled to Italy. The announcement was made by Hugo López Gatell, epidemiologist and undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion of […] Continue reading ->
Four World Health Organization (WHO) staff or consultants had their contracts terminated as a result of sexual misconduct allegations in the last quarter of 2022 – the most of any year so far. The contracts of another three people had already been terminated between January and March of this year, Dr Gaya Gamhewage, WHO’s Director […] Continue reading ->
Many challenges remain in negotiating an international pandemic treaty, experts tell a committee of the German Parliament. As COVID-19 cases decline, multilateral polarization and a weary public leaves countries at risk should another global pandemic strike, German MP Andrew Ullmann stated on Monday at the German Parliament (Bundestag). The Bundestag’s Global Health Subcommittee held a […] Continue reading ->
CEOs from the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies issued a call to G7 leaders on Friday to oppose the inclusion of intellectual property rights waivers and pathogen benefit sharing in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) pandemic treaty. In meetings with Japanese Prime Minister and chair of next month’s G7 summit Fumio Kishida this week, a delegation […] Continue reading ->
KIGOMA, Tanzania – Mary Akile is still harbouring emotional suffering four years after a rape attack that inflicted both physical pain and untold mental anguish. “I still remember how the attackers invaded my house and raped me, one after another,” says Akile, her voice cracking as she recalled the harrowing ordeal during April 2019 at […] Continue reading ->
International NGOs and activists have called out the US for siding with China to exclude the public from seeing drafts of the pandemic accord as it is being negotiated by World Health Organization (WHO) member states. “The attempt to create a veil of secrecy now surrounding the substantive and technical text-based negotiations on the WHO […] Continue reading ->
Strong primary health care, nurturing the health workforce and legal flexibility emerged as key COVID-19 lessons at a high-level roundtable at the Fifth Global Forum for Human Resources for Health, which opened on Monday. Chile gave its healthworkers life insurance, more holidays and extra pay during the pandemic, said Chilean health official Dr Raquel Child […] Continue reading ->
The fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) to draft a pandemic accord started on Monday with acknowledgement by World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that it faces a very tight timeframe. “There is now only one year until the World Health Assembly in May 2024, which will consider the outcome […] Continue reading ->
Authorities in Equatorial Guinea have confirmed another four cases of deadly Marburg virus disease, bringing the total number of cases for the country’s current outbreak to 13 – although some sources warn that the case count could be much higher, due to the lack of lab capacity and reporting delays. In a Twitter post late […] Continue reading ->
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2019, an explosion of information and misinformation burned across the Internet. Health experts and officials had a choice: To turn a blind eye to the fake news being shared on social networks or to take action themselves and use these portals to disseminate essential information rapidly. […] Continue reading ->