As United Nations (UN) member states meet in New York on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the political declaration to be adopted at the General Assembly’s High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Pandemics in September, there are growing concerns that the current draft is weak and proposes an over-reliance on the World Health Organization (WHO) to manage […] Continue reading ->
WHO is set to release new data on Friday, 14 July on the carcinogenic risks of consuming aspartame, the artificial sweetener that is omnipresent in low-calorie soft-drinks, sweets and other processed foods, its head of nutrition, Dr Francesco Branca confirmed on Wednesday. A full WHO risk assessment on safe levels of exposure to the sugar […] Continue reading ->
Some of the $2.6 billion that remains in a COVID-19 vaccine delivery scheme, COVAX, could be redirected into investment into investigational vaccine candidates for Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) and Ebola Sudan strain virus, as well as over half a dozen other vaccine programmes that were suspended due to the pandemic or delays in product development, […] Continue reading ->
A tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate that has shown modest efficacy rates received a $550 million boost from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and Wellcome Trust, which announced on Tuesday that they will cover its Phase 3 clinical trials. The candidate vaccine, M72, showed modest 54% efficacy in preventing the development of symptomatic TB […] Continue reading ->
The Gambia has mandated pre-shipment quality testing on all pharmaceutical products exported from India. The requirement will come into effect on 1 July 2023. It can be understood as an after-effect of last year’s scandal whereby India-manufactured cough syrups allegedly claimed the lives of 66 children in The Gambia in 2022 . Following the episode, […] Continue reading ->
The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) announced sublicensing agreements with seven manufacturers to produce and distribute generic versions of Japanese pharmaceutical company Shinogi’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment in 117 low- and middle-income countries. Ensitrelvir is an oral antiviral currently only approved in Japan under the country’s emergency regulatory approval system. The drug is being evaluated under a […] Continue reading ->
Peru is experiencing its worst-ever outbreak of dengue fever, with over 172,000 cases by Monday, according to the country’s health department. Of these, over 92,000 are confirmed while almost 80,000 are suspected cases, with countrywide floods and increasing temperatures driving the outbreak. The country has declared a health emergency in 222 districts. The north-western provinces […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its first global research agenda to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that outlines 40 research priorities. An estimated 4.95 million deaths were associated with bacterial AMR in 2019. AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines making infections harder […] Continue reading ->
After almost 20 years of negotiations, the United Nations has adopted a legally binding treaty to protect the marine biodiversity of sea outside national borders known as the high seas, which cover two-thirds of the world’s oceans. The High Seas Treaty was adopted by consensus at the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond […] Continue reading ->
Eight social media influencers were selected earlier this week as winners of the UniteHealth Social Media Awards, showcasing individuals and organisations who used social media to strengthen collective understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic and evidence-based responses. The winners represent eight countries – nominees were recommended from more than 60 countries – and cover six categories […] Continue reading ->