The World Health Organization has declared an international public health emergency for mpox, its highest level of alarm, as the virus experiences a resurgence across Africa less than two years after ending the previous emergency. The declaration comes as the case total in Africa this year has already surpassed the total from 2023. Over 2,500 […] Continue reading ->
The recent CARICOM summit of Caribbean leaders has endorsed a new Afro-Caribbean Health and Development  (HeDPAC) initiative aimed at stimulating South-South collaboration on resilient health systems, health worker capacity building, and local medicines and vaccines manufacture.  The formal CARICOM Communiqué at the close of the Summit in Grenada invited its 15 member states and five […] Continue reading ->
“Words must now be matched with deeds,” Africa CDC Director General Jean Kaseya said after the official declaration. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has officially declared the surging mpox outbreak a “public health emergency of continental security” – the first time it has made such a declaration on its own. […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to begin a major polio booster vaccination campaign in Gaza next week with the dispatch of over 1.2 million vaccines to the war-torn Palestinian enclave – against a backdrop of spiralling regional tensions.   WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned again on Wednesday that the presence of polio virus […] Continue reading ->
As climate change drives disease outbreaks, the world remains ill-prepared for another pandemic – lacking in collaborative surveillance, diagnostic tools and finance, speakers told the Global Pandemic Preparedness Summit (GPPS) in Brazil. The two-day summit, attended by a global who’s who of pandemic experts, aimed to “reinvigorate the momentum for pandemic preparedness and response” – […] Continue reading ->
Updated: The World Health Organization confirmed Tuesday evening that it had evacuated 85 severely ill and wounded Gazans to the United Arab Emirates for advanced treatment via Israel’s Ramon airfield.  The complex operation occurred as tensions escalated in the region following the deaths of 12 children in a Golan Heights Druze community –  apparently from […] Continue reading ->
Global levels of hunger remain stagnant at the highest rates seen in over a decade, as one in 11 people worldwide (8.9%) faced hunger, or undernourishment, in 2023, according to the latest State of Food Security and Nutrition (SOFI) report, released on Wednesday. The report, a collaboration between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International […] Continue reading ->