A wide array of stakeholders are looking toward the upcoming World Health Assembly this May to conclude negotiations on a new pandemic accord that seeks to make the world more prepared for the next pandemic. And most would agree that the primary task of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), established by the World Health Assembly […] Continue reading ->
One year after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake wracked Türkiye and Syria, some 690,000 people remain displaced in southern Türkiye, out of the 3 million people that initially lost their homes when the natural disaster hit in the early morning of 6 February 2023. Another 40,000 Syrians remain internally displaced mainly in the northern region of […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s director general says the battle against maternal mortality has stalled; Somalia calls for a new WHA resolution committing to stepped-up action on maternal and child deaths, a leading global health inequality. The battle against maternal mortality has stagnated and high rates of deaths continue to plague sub-Saharan Africa, as well as other low- and […] Continue reading ->
The US government will commit $4 million to tackle lead poisoning, supporting developing countries to curtail lead in consumer goods like paints and toys in which the use of lead is still widespread, USAID administrator Samantha Power announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Power also called for more resources and action towards the […] Continue reading ->
CAIRO, Egypt -Some 70% of countries globally have weak national medicines regulatory systems. But the launch of the African Medicines Agency should help address many of the shortcomings on the African continent, said speakers at the 6th Scientific Conference on Medicines Regulation in Africa (SCoMRA), convened here in mid-December. The conference, organized by the African Union […] Continue reading ->
Incidence of dengue virus has soared in 2023 to near historically high levels, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Friday, with more than 5 million cases worldwide and 5,000 deaths from the virus that still lacks an effective treatment or vaccine. Moreover, formerly dengue-free countries in southern Europe, such as France, Italy and Spain […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has added the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine to its list of ‘prequalified’ vaccines, paving the way for bulk procurement and mass deployment of the new vaccine across malaria-endemic countries by UNICEF and other global health agencies. The prequalification of the world’s second malaria vaccine, developed by Oxford University and manufactured by […] Continue reading ->
Following seven months of fighting in Sudan, there are outbreaks of cholera, measles, malaria and dengue in the country. An estimated 6.2 million people – about one in eight – have been forced to flee from their homes since the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) started in […] Continue reading ->
As the Global North poaches African doctors, healthcare falls to overworked and unmentored interns, some of whom learn medical procedures from YouTube. Fifteen of the world’s (fiscally) richest countries have over 55,000 African doctors in their health systems, a new data analysis by The Continent shows. These are doctors who qualified before entering those countries. […] Continue reading ->
A new Health Technology Access Pool (H-TAP), which aims to broaden the scope of IP and patent-sharing with low- and middle-income countries and a new African Union co-sponsored ‘manufacturing support platform’ were among the initiatives announced this week at the Second World Local Production forum in The Hague. The global forum, the second ever to […] Continue reading ->