Technological advances in Artificial Intelligence applications for healthcare are quickly outpacing regulatory and ethical safeguards, creating a dangerous gap in patient safety, warns a milestone report on AI in Health Systems, published Wednesday by the World Health Organization’s European Region (WHO/EURO).  Paradoxically, the WHO’s urgent call for tighter AI regulation coincided with a far-reaching European […] Continue reading ->
WHO will have terminated, retired or separated by agreement an estimated 2371 staff worldwide by mid-2026 – shedding about 25% of a workforce that numbered 9,457 in December 2024 – a 15-year peak.  That’s according to a new report that is to be presented and discussed with WHO member states on Wednesday.  Despite the huge […] Continue reading ->
Ministries of health, funders, and technical partners need to make regular smart reviews of Essential Medicines Lists the norm. As global health faces unprecedented challenges – from pandemic recovery to a changing political landscape –  resources are disappearing on a massive scale, and every healthcare dollar must work harder than ever before.  Many countries are […] Continue reading ->
The United States government is moving rapidly to secure Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with African countries that offer limited health aid for five years in exchange for 25 years’ access to countries’ data about “pathogens with epidemic potential”. Some commentators have described the terms of the bilateral MOUs as “extractive” as they fail to offer […] Continue reading ->
This week, the world marks World Antimicrobial Awareness Week and malaria parasites, though often forgotten, are part of the range of microbes preventing us from achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Good Health and Well-being. Malaria remains an immense public health burden, especially in Africa. It mainly affects the poor, and remains an immense health […] Continue reading ->
Nations worldwide must finance and implement climate adaptation measures for health systems or risk losing millions of lives as extreme weather, rising temperatures, and intensifying heat threaten healthcare access for nearly half the global population, according to a report published Friday by the World Health Organization and Brazil. The special report, released at the COP30 […] Continue reading ->
Noma Bolani has a clear memory of her abusive father stopping the car in the middle of the highway in Durban, South Africa and asking her mother to get out.  She was just six years old, but Bolani followed her mother out of the car, and together they sought help from a passing motorist.  Bolani […] Continue reading ->
Brazil launched a sweeping climate-health action plan on Thursday, named after the COP30 host city in the Amazon, winning initial endorsements from roughly two dozen countries for a voluntary framework calling on nations to strengthen disease surveillance, build climate-resilient infrastructure, and protect vulnerable populations from the health impacts of rising temperatures and extreme weather. The […] Continue reading ->