The World Health Organization (WHO) is busy electing new leaders in three of its six regions. Previous articles have considered the issues at stake and the candidates competing for the position of regional director in WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) and the South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO). This article, the final one in the […] Continue reading ->
After the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing in indoor spaces raised awareness of the risks of infection in closed spaces and super-spreader events, scientists concerned about human exposure to other indoor contaminants and strategies to reduce risks are hopeful that the time has come for more action. BERN, Switzerland – A dearth of data and […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, explicitly excluded the world’s five largest emitters of greenhouse gasses – China, the United States, Russia, India and Japan – from his Climate Ambition Summit, held Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The United Kingdom, another major polluter, was notably absent from the summit, amid reports […] Continue reading ->
Health systems in Africa are under considerable strain: rapid demographic change, rising non-communicable diseases, and emerging and re-emerging threats such as COVID-19 and Ebola are increasing demands on limited health services. Africa, however, faces a challenging period in health financing to meet these increasing needs. Health spending in most countries remains far short of what is […] Continue reading ->
European air quality activists have won a key victory in the European Parliament, which approved tough new air pollution rules that would require countries to meet stricter WHO air quality guidelines by 2035, and allow EU citizens to sue for financial compensation for air pollution-related health damage. But the draft legislation still faces an uphill […] Continue reading ->
Small Group of Indian Politicians Show Rare Bipartisan Unity to Fight a Common Enemy – Air Pollution
NEW DELHI – In the bitterly divided politics of India there’s an unusual ray of hope. Heading into a major election next year, the national parliament hardly functions, sitting for fewer days and working fewer hours than in years before. Yet a bipartisan group of Members (MPs) has joined hands to tackle one of the […] Continue reading ->
Fewer than 20 countries worldwide still report COVID-19 hospitalization and ICU data to the World Health Organization (WHO), leaving the UN health body blind to the impact and evolution of the virus in most of the world, agency leaders said Friday. The decline in data reporting is a major setback for the WHO’s efforts to […] Continue reading ->
For most people, electing the regional director – or chief health officer – for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) of the World Health Organization (WHO) will not set the pulse racing. Is this just another shuffling of chairs around the world’s bureaucratic table? Even among global health nerds, it will trigger just a faint tremor. […] Continue reading ->
Amidst the vibrant rhythms of Africa, a less audible rhythm beats – an alarming rise in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Between 50% and 88% of deaths in at least seven African countries are due to NCDs, according to the 2022 World Health Organization (WHO) Noncommunicable Disease Progress Monitor. Yet, the realm of […] Continue reading ->
Controversy continues to surround Dr Jean Kaseya, the new Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), although the organisation described the allegations as “unverified and baseless” over the weekend. Last Friday, online platform Devex reported on a letter from a group of Africa CDC staff to the head of the […] Continue reading ->