With plans underway for a new “Independent Panel” on Antimicrobial Resistance, endorsed at September’s UN High-Level AMR Meeting, the new body must become a strong scientific authority. It should have the power to “challenge” the agencies that create it and address both human and animal health factors driving drug-resistant pathogens. That was a key message […] Continue reading ->
Israelis in southern and northern Israel huddled in shelters under missile and rocket fire from Gaza’s Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Palestinians in northern Gaza were being forced to relocate away from yet another incursion of Israeli tanks into densely populated urban areas, including Jabalia refugee camp. Lebanese in southern Lebanon fled at a thickening […] Continue reading ->
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is planning to launch its mpox vaccination campaign in early October, marking a critical step in the fight against the ongoing outbreak across Africa, said Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the African Centres for Disease Control and Protection (Africa CDC), on Thursday.  Kaseya spoke at a press briefing following […] 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 ->
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 ->