The European Commission announced its long-awaited Global Health Resilience Initiative on Wednesday. While the policy roadmap aims to support partner countries’ transition toward health sovereignty amid historic aid cuts and shifting geopolitical realities, critics are concerned about its heavy reliance on private funding. As global health gains face a severe threat of reversal from stagnating […] Continue reading ->
All passengers were evacuated from the cruise ship, Hondius, by Monday night – and a Spaniard taken to a military hospital in Madrid to quarantine has become the 11th person from the ship to test positive for hantavirus. The evacuation was completed 10 days after the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified about the outbreak […] Continue reading ->
Hantavirus has been confirmed in a French citizen evacuated from the MV Hondius cruise ship on Sunday, while two tests on a US citizen turned up one “weakly positive” and one negative result – but it is still unclear how the virus is being transmitted. The evacuation of passengers from the ship, now docked in […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization has ‘pre-qualified’ Coartem® Baby, the first-ever malaria treatment for young infants of 4.5 kilograms or less. The combination treatment, now being rolled out in Ghana, aims to fill a longstanding gap in treatments available for children under the age of 5, who constitute three quarters of the estimated 610,000 malaria deaths […] Continue reading ->
Two more people linked to the cruise ship Hondius were reported to have fallen ill in Switzerland and France, according to Swiss and European media reports Wednesday. In the Swiss case, the infection and its links to the cruise ship were confirmed by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. On the reported French case, […] Continue reading ->
Colombia has appealed for a new “method” to settle the outstanding annex of the Pandemic Agreement, after World Health Organization (WHO) member states failed to reach agreement last week after almost a year of talks. Talks on a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) system were due to wrap up last Friday night, but have […] Continue reading ->
The final missing piece of the Pandemic Agreement – a pathogen access and benefit-sharing (PABS) system – is unlikely to be agreed on by the World Health Assembly (WHA) later this month. This was the view of civil society observers of the talks taking place at the World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, who […] Continue reading ->
Ghana has become the latest African country to reject the United States’ terms for bilateral health assistance, particularly the requirement to share sensitive health data, according to Reuters. Late last year, Zimbabwe rejected US terms for health assistance, particularly the demand to share pathogen data without any “corresponding guarantee of access to any medical innovations […] Continue reading ->
In an era of big global health budget cuts that often demand tough choices, identifying vaccine needs and priorities at national level is increasingly important. As we observe World Immunization Week, it’s time to recognize the pivotal role that National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) can play in guiding effective, evidence-based decisions – alongside global […] Continue reading ->
Yet another negotiating session on the outstanding annex of the Pandemic Agreement begins at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) headquarters on Monday (27 April) – and developed nations have presented a “hybrid” solution in an attempt to find consensus. The “hybrid” proposal consists of a mix of mandatory and voluntary measures for sharing pathogen information […] Continue reading ->