Africa recorded the world’s highest gain in healthy life expectancy over the past decade. But the lack of sustainable finance for health systems is a major threat to the gains recorded. Africa recorded the world’s highest growth in healthy life expectancy—or the number of years an individual is in a good state of health—between 2000 […] Continue reading ->
In light of an unprecedented food crisis in the Horn of Africa, the World Health Organization has launched a $123.7 million funding appeal for urgently needed supplies to treat severe malnutrition and related health conditions. Driven by conflict, changes in climate and the COVID-19 pandemic, this largely arid Eastern African region of some 2 million […] Continue reading ->
Twelve African nations have joined with the United Nations and other international organizations in forming a new alliance that will work to prevent new infant HIV infections and to ensure no child living with HIV is denied treatment by the end of the decade. Proponents of the new Global Alliance for Ending AIDS in Children […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Regional Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, has asked the 53 countries in the WHO region to “act with urgency” in halting the Monkeypox emergency that has hit the region hardest – noting that “vaccines alone won’t end the outbreak”. Kluge’s statement Tuesday followed Saturday’s declaration by WHO of a global public health emergency over […] Continue reading ->
In a global first – over 25,000 people in South Sudan have been vaccinated in the world’s first mass vaccination campaign to contain an outbreak of hepatitis E, a disease especially fatal for pregnant women. The outbreak occurred in Bentiu, the largest internally displaced persons camp in South Sudan. Outbreaks of hepatitis E have been […] Continue reading ->
WHO has issued stiff, dual warnings over a surging global rate of COVID infections alongside a still-expanding outbreak of Monkeypox. The latter is set to be the focus of a discussion by a WHO Emergency Committee meeting Thursday, as the committee reconvenes to decide if a public health emergency should be declared over the virus […] Continue reading ->
Two leading researchers who have raised questions about the reliability of Sputnik V’s vaccine efficacy ratings across age groups shared their concerns with Health Policy Watch. One called the results “impossible” and “very concerning”. More than 70 countries have approved the use of Sputnik V, Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, based on the reported 91.6% efficacy across […] Continue reading ->
With a surge in cases and the rapid rise of new subvariants, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a global health emergency posing significant risks to public health, a WHO committee of public health experts has concluded. The statement by the COVID-19 Emergency Committee, was published Tuesday, four days after experts gathered for their 12th […] Continue reading ->
Ghana has reported two suspected cases of the rare and deadly Marburg virus disease – the first to ever be recorded within its borders. Marburg is a highly infectious viral haemorrhagic fever in the same family as the more well-known Ebola virus disease, said WHO’s Ghana Country Office in making the announcement. It has a […] Continue reading ->
The African Development Bank is establishing a foundation with the aim of spending at least $3 billion over the next decade to boost Africa’s access to technologies needed to make medicines, vaccines, and other pharmaceutical products. The bank’s board approved the establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation with an eye to towards creating what […] Continue reading ->