Over half a million Gazan children have been vaccinated against the deadly polio virus over the past 12 days, WHO said on Thursday, on the final day of a campaign that began 1 September, and which officials said appears to have attained the goal of reaching over 90% of the population of children under 10 […] Continue reading ->
Hong Kong and London topped the list of 50 cities ranked for their efforts to prevent and address cardiovascular diseases – while Kathmandu and Cairo languished at the bottom. The City Heartbeat Index is a first-of-its-kind initiative of the World Heart Federation (WHF), a Geneva-based non-profit that works on cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. CVD is […] Continue reading ->
With the number of new mpox cases continuing to rise, and many more potentially undetected, African countries affected by the latest outbreak are racing to mobilize funds and urgently deploy medical countermeasures, including vaccines. But as the current epidemic unfolds, there is an undeniable feeling of déjà vu. Global efforts are falling short of what […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization and UNICEF have appealed for ‘humanitarian pauses’ in the grinding Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in August and September to facilitate a massive polio booster campaign – as three suspected polio cases were being investigated by a Jordanian laboratory. The appeal came as the entire region see-saws between the possibility […] Continue reading ->
Bavarian Nordic has no plans to sell or manufacture its vaccines directly to African countries, the company’s Vice President of Investor Relations told Health Policy Watch, saying that donations from rich countries will likely be the main source of supplies. WHO’s announcement of a global mpox health emergency may have sent a wake-up call to […] 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 ->
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 ->
By 2035, nearly three quarters of the 40 million people living with HIV worldwide will be living with one or more chronic disease, also referred to as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). While there are encouraging examples of integrated HIV and NCD healthcare delivery, this is yet to become the norm in low- and middle-income countries. As stakeholders […] Continue reading ->
Childhood immunisation has stalled in the past year, mainly due to increased global conflict, with the number of children receiving no vaccines increasing to 14.5 million in 2023 – up from 13.9 million in 2022. There has also been an almost threefold increase in measles cases in the past year – a sign of inadequate […] Continue reading ->