As H5N1 avian flu spreads in US dairy cows, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has granted approximately $176 million to Moderna to develop an mRNA-based vaccine for influenza with pandemic-potential. “We have successfully taken lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic and used them to better prepare for future public health crises. […] Continue reading ->
Digital cessation programmes, behavioural support, and medication for tobacco cessation in adults are some of the measures contained in first-ever guidelines to help people quit smoking published recently by the World Health Organization (WHO). One in five adults – 1.25 billion users worldwide – consume various tobacco products such as cigarettes, heated tobacco products, water […] Continue reading ->
UNAIDS has welcomed the recent ruling by Namibia’s High Court that its laws prohibiting same-sex acts between men are unconstitutional as they unfairly discriminate against gay men. Namibian citizen Friedel Dausab, supported by the Human Dignity Trust, sought to have laws prohibiting sodomy and “unnatural sex acts” and sections of the Immigration Control Act and […] Continue reading ->
WHO framework to eliminate visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a deadly disease most prominent in East Africa, was launched Thursday. It can play an important role in eliminating VL as a public health problem by 2030: a goal key countries of the East African region committed to in last year’s Nairobi Declaration. “The VL elimination framework will offer […] Continue reading ->
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, announced last week that it will offer high risk countries the option of obtaining preventative Ebola vaccines, particularly for health workers, as part of the rollout of new vaccine offerings, which also include meningitis, rabies and hepatitis B vaccines. Plans to add the vaccines to the basket of available products were […] Continue reading ->
Five male candidates are contesting to be the next regional director for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) African Region. One of them will replace Botswana’s Dr Matshidiso Moeti, who has served two terms in the position and is not eligible for re-election. Moeti, who was appointed in 2015, has overseen WHO’s operations through trying circumstances, […] Continue reading ->
Seven cases of “severe Mpox” have been confirmed in South Africa, and two of those diagnosed have since died. All cases involve men in their thirties living with co-morbidities – most notably HIV. Five of the seven identified as “men who have sex with men,” according to the South African Department of Health. None of […] Continue reading ->
As many as 65 million people in over a dozen Southern and Eastern African countries from Mozambique to Ethiopia are facing unprecedented challenges with food security, extreme weather events and conflict, UN officials say. The crises disproportionately affect women, who are already in a more vulnerable situation due to their gender, said Lydia Zigomo, UN […] Continue reading ->
Only one in five of the people in need of hearing aids and prostheses worldwide can access them, according to a new report by ATscale, a global partnership for assistive technologies and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). Assistive technology (AT) is any device and related systems that can help with everyday activities, improving or […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA – There were claps and cheers from inside Room XXVI of the UN’s Palais des Nations as World Health Organization (WHO) member states finally agreed on amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) after over two years of negotiations. After failing to reach an agreement on the amendments before Monday’s start of the World […] Continue reading ->