Global health reaped a weekend windfall of new international and bilateral commitments over the past two days, beginning with the close of the G20 meeting in Argentina on Saturday, followed by the Mandela 100 Global Citizen festival in Johannesburg yesterday, which saw stars like Beyoncé, Jay-Z and others perform in the name of health and development causes, reaping a historic commitment by the United States of more than US$1.2 billion for the fight against HIV/AIDS and some US$ 139 million for the fight against neglected tropical diseases. Continue reading ->
A report launched jointly today by Population Services International (PSI), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the World Health Organization shows that people’s knowledge of their HIV status in sub-Saharan African countries nearly doubled just four years after self-testing programmes were introduced. Separately, a group of French NGOs called on the French President to lead elimination of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by 2030. Continue reading ->
As world leaders attending this year’s Group of 20 (G20) Summit face off on thorny issues of trade, migration and climate change – health was likely to remain on the margins of the maelstrom, observers said. The two-day Summit of the 20 largest global economies opened today in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Continue reading ->
SHANGHAI, China - A surge in demand for better healthcare coverage and outcomes and widespread calls for a reduction in high medical treatment costs are driving structural reforms and market-opening initiatives in China's rapidly expanding healthcare market, industry executives, officials and experts have said. The market is forecast to increase from $761 billion in 2017 to nearly $2.4 trillion by 2030. Continue reading ->
A global index on access to medicine has found that the majority of the medicines needed by the world’s poor are developed by only five companies, and that these medicines are focused primarily on just five diseases. The group behind the index calls on more pharmaceutical companies to join efforts for increased access and to expand the list of medicines, in order to build resilience in treating diseases that affect the poor. Continue reading ->
NAIROBI, Kenya -- “I got married at the age of 20 years seven years ago, just a year after finishing secondary school. My intention was to give birth to only two kids but my husband and his parents could hear none of it. Matters got worse when my second born turned out to be a girl like the eldest kid. My in-laws who live in rural Western Kenya said my husband was their only son so he was supposed to sire sons to inherit their land,” says Judy Akinyi (not her real name), a resident of Korogocho slum in the east of Nairobi. Continue reading ->