As African countries baulk at One Health requirements in the draft Pandemic Agreement being negotiated in Geneva, Rwanda’s success in containing its Marburg outbreak underscores the essential role of international partnerships and a strong health system in containing human-animal outbreaks KIGALI, Rwanda – The Egyptian fruit bats look like innocuous little furry grey umbrellas hanging […] Continue reading ->
“It’s now or never,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyussus told the start of the 13th round of talks on a pandemic agreement on Monday morning. Five days of talks are scheduled this week with another five days scheduled in April. Thereafter, the plan is for an agreement to be presented […] Continue reading ->
Responding to health emergencies is at the heart of the work of the World Health Organization (WHO), which assisted almost 90 million people with humanitarian health support in the first nine months of 2024. But the loss of United States funding, which has included the immediate freezing of funds already committed, means that this essential […] Continue reading ->
The world remains unprepared for another pandemic, according to the International Pandemic Preparedness Secretariat (IPPS) which published its Fourth Implementation Report of the 100 Days Mission (100DM) last Friday. The IPPS is an initiative aimed at ensuring global access to diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines (DTVs) within 100 days of a public health emergency of international […] Continue reading ->
After an early surge of spending during the COVID pandemic, public health layouts by countries at all income levels declined in 2022, on average, as compared to 2021. Meanwhile, there was a 60% increase overall in per-capita health expenditures between 2000 and 2022 – but in low income countries this was largely driven by a […] Continue reading ->
WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebryesus urged a ‘wait and see’ attitude Tuesday in his first public comments on US President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F Kennedy Jr as Secretary of Health and Human Services – despite a flurry of fresh criticism by 77 Nobel Laureates over the controversial appointment. “It’s a transition […] Continue reading ->
There will be no pandemic agreement by year-end and, with only 10 days of formal talks set aside in 2025, some parties doubt whether an agreement can be reached by the May 2025 deadline. The week-long extended 12th meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) made progress, particularly on research and development (Article 9) and […] Continue reading ->
“Much stronger surveillance” of deadly H5N1 and other avian influenza strains in both domestic and wild animals is needed both in The United States as well as globally so as to head off pandemic risks from variants that could mutate to infect humans more directly. A senior World Health Organization official, Dr Maria Van Kerkkove, […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – Warning that the process of negotiating a pandemic agreement has days not months left, talks co-chair Precious Matsoso hopes that a deal will finally be clinched at the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) in early December. “We don’t have six months left to finish negotiations. We only have a […] Continue reading ->
The pandemic agreement will not be adopted at a special World Health Assembly (WHA) next month as countries still need “more time” to conclude the complex talks. Co-chairs of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) Ambassador Anne-Claire Amprou and Precious Matsoso broke this news at a media briefing on Monday evening. The […] Continue reading ->