Late-night screaming matches and days of delays dogged the adoption of the budget of the International Labour Organization (ILO) this week after some Arab and African member states objected to a clause related to LGBTQ rights. The single offending clause committed the body to support those “affected by discrimination and exclusion, including on the grounds […] Continue reading ->
There have been 46 attacks on Sudan’s healthcare infrastructure during which eight people have been killed and 18 injured, and two-thirds of the hospitals in affected areas are closed as a result of the heightened attacks, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Clashes erupted in mid-April in Khartoum between the country’s armed forces and a […] Continue reading ->
The African Medicine Agency (AMA) came a small step closer to reality over the weekend when Rwanda signed a Host Country Agreement with the African Union (AU) Commission. The AMA will serve as a continental body that provides regulatory leadership on medicines, enabling a harmonized regulatory system on the continent – but it has still […] Continue reading ->
China will report around 11 million COVID-19 cases per week in June in its second major outbreak, data research firm Airfinity predicts. The current outbreak is caused by the XBB variant of the virus. This outbreak will be much smaller than the numbers reported during the first wave in late 2022, immediately after the country […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) is establishing a global digital health certification network based on the European Union’s COVID-19 certificate to “facilitate global mobility and protect citizens across the world from ongoing and future health threats, including pandemics”, the body announced on Monday. The EU’s digital COVID-19 certificate (DCC), which recorded vaccinations, tests and recovery, […] Continue reading ->
A new collaboration called the “Global Health Policy Lab” (GHPL) aims to develop digital tools that strengthen the available global capacity to identify, benchmark, disseminate and assess the impact of relevant health laws and policies within the field of global health. The lab, a partnership between the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab and the Charité […] Continue reading ->
Tanzania declared the end of its Marburg Virus Disease outbreak on Friday, two months after the outbreak was first detected in the north-western Kagera region. Nine cases (eight confirmed and one probable) and six deaths were recorded in the outbreak, which was declared on 21 March after laboratory analysis confirmed that the cause of deaths […] Continue reading ->
Two different court challenges of Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill have been launched over the past week. The first involves 10 Ugandans and a human rights organisation, which have petitioned the country’s Constitutional Court to prevent the Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law on Monday from being implemented. According to the petition, the law is unconstitutional as […] Continue reading ->
On World No Tobacco Day on Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) appealed to governments to end tobacco growing subsidies and use the savings to support farmers to switch to “more sustainable crops that improve food security and nutrition”. Over three million hectares of land in over 120 countries are being used to grow tobacco […] Continue reading ->
In a milestone decision at the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA76), a resolution aimed at addressing health challenges faced by indigenous peoples worldwide has been approved. With it, the Director-General of the WHO has been directed to develop a comprehensive global action plan dedicated to improving their health outcomes by 2026. Indigenous peoples, encompassing a […] Continue reading ->