Shortcomings and failures in the World Health Organization’s internal justice system  –  laid bare during revelations of sexual abuse and exploitation in DR Congo –  require more systematic reform to make the system transparent, fair and equitable, the head of WHO’s Staff Association told WHO’s Executive Board governing body on Wednesday.   “Delays in responding to […] Continue reading ->
Researchers engaged in mosquito gene drive technologies are optimistic that new World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on best research practices will ensure that their work is safe and ethical. Such guidance also helps research results advance from laboratories to be used in the field,  the researchers told Health Policy Watch. Due to limiting regulatory frameworks, […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – Despite the 18-month COVID-19 pandemic, Pakistan and Afghanistan have observed a sharp decline in polio cases which the health authorities attribute to their effective back-to-back anti-polio drives. Officials leading the polio eradication programme believe that the decline occurred due to uninterrupted polio vaccination campaigns, improved security and the polio field teams’ accessibility to […] Continue reading ->
China told the World Health Assembly on Wednesday it will continue to support developing countries’ access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines – but it stopped short of any commitment to supplying its recently-approved Sinopharm vaccine to the WHO co-sponsored Global COVAX vaccine facility.  WHO officials had said they hoped China would join the COVAX facility, following […] Continue reading ->
ISLAMABAD – Pakistan health authorities are struggling to fully implement a World Health Organization (WHO) treaty to help reduce tobacco-related diseases in the country – some 17 years after they ratified it. Furthermore, the country’s health ministry recently announced the termination of the services of a number of staff members in its Tobacco Control Cell […] Continue reading ->
In preparation for the next pandemic, the COVAX global vaccine facility “needs a pot of money, where they can be early movers” in competing for, and securing, vaccine doses. That could help scenarios like the ones seen recently, in which rich countries cornered the market on the first available COVID-19 vaccines, leading to severe shortages […] Continue reading ->