The United States National Institute of Health (NIH) has finalized an agreement with WHO’s COVID-19 patent sharing facility (C-TAP) to share the patent rights on 11 government-funded coronavirus medicine and vaccine technologies – in what is perhaps the most significant agreement to date with WHO to share closely-guarded pharma know-how.   The announcement was made today […] Continue reading ->
China has defended its strict “no-COVID” strategy and called WHO “irresponsible” following critical remarks from the head of the World Health Organization. WHO Secretary-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing Tuesday that China’s strategy was no longer sustainable in the face of the more infectious but less lethal Omicron. “When we talk about […] Continue reading ->
Preparing for future pandemics requires us to reuse and share data quickly in order to repurpose that information for improved diagnostics and treatments, proposed data experts and scientists at a high-level discussion at the Geneva Health Forum Wednesday afternoon. “It’s the value of what’s in data that can be reused, repurposed, to create new knowledge […] Continue reading ->
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the level of worldwide investment in respiratory care and now that cases are on the decline, countries need to develop long-term strategies to use oxygen, according to health experts. “Severe pneumonia, sepsis, trauma complications – there are many patients that would benefit from oxygen,” explained Janet Diaz, a team lead […] Continue reading ->
A core group of WHO member states have agreed on a landmark move to boost their annual “assessed” contributions to the global health organization to cover 50% of its core budget needs by 2028-2029 – but contingent on internal WHO reforms to boost efficiency and transparency.   Partly in response to the reform call, a reshuffle […] Continue reading ->
Nearly two-thirds of Africans have already been infected with SARS-CoV-2 — the virus responsible for COVID-19, WHO said, announcing the release of a new assessment of virus seroprevalence on the continent.  The analysis, a systematic review of some 150 studies, was published on the pre-print server, medRXiv.org. Addressing a press briefing on Thursday, Dr Matshidiso […] Continue reading ->
In some of his most forceful remarks to date, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and other senior WHO officials slammed both Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Ethiopia’s blockade of Tigray for both withholding vital health and humanitarian aid – as well as deliberately targeting civilians or putting them in harms way. Speaking from […] Continue reading ->