A month after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, almost 10 million people have been displaced, 64 attacks on health facilities have been verified – and the situation is set to worsen. This was the grim assessment of World Health Organization (WHO) officials briefing the media on Wednesday. “Nearly a quarter of Ukraine’s population […] Continue reading ->
In the outskirts of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, just beyond where paved roads transition to dirt, an undiagnosed polio infection paralysed a three-year-old girl. From one day to the next, the child’s life was changed forever. Among Africa’s public health community, we had looked at our successes against wild poliovirus as a cause for optimism. In […] Continue reading ->
Speaking in her car from an undisclosed location somewhere in war-torn Ukraine, Yana Teerleva, head of TB in the country’s Ministry of Health, lamented the destruction that she is witnessing every day in hospitals and clinics – including the shelling of three huge dispensaries where the country had stockpiled sufficient TB medications for the remainder […] Continue reading ->
The weekend of 12-13 March was a glorious time to be in the Swiss mountain resort of Villars-sur-Ollon post-pandemic. Special Olympics Switzerland had organized the regional games sporting competition with skiing, bowling, tennis and boccia, drawing dozens of keen athletes and supporters. My son joined the other 46 skiers and snowboarders from the region to […] Continue reading ->
There have been 52 attacks on Ukrainian health facilities in the past 25 days, more than two every day, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Meanwhile, the health of fleeing refugees, their impact on the health services of neighbouring countries, and the fate of Ukraine’s tuberculosis patients are foremost on healthcare providers’ minds. “In […] Continue reading ->
Children and adolescents diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) will benefit from a set of new guidelines that aim to shorten the treatment plan, expand preventative care, and introduce better diagnostic testing and treatments. The World Health Organisation (WHO) today released a new set of ‘game-changer’ guidelines where children and adolescents with non-severe forms of drug-susceptible TB […] Continue reading ->
Mental health practitioners worldwide are warning of a massive wave of pandemic-related mental health issues that many countries are ill-equipped to address. On Monday, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Europe office and the government of Greece launched a new European programme to strengthen and improve the quality of mental health services for children and adolescents. […] Continue reading ->
Malawi is launching a mass vaccination campaign against wild poliovirus type 1, which is to extend to 23 million children across five southern African countries, WHO said on Friday. The campaign, to kick off Sunday, follows Malawi’s declaration of a polio outbreak on 17 February – three months after the first polio virus case in […] Continue reading ->
From patients lying in the parking lots of hospitals, in the back seats of cars suffocating as their family members searched frantically for oxygen in India during its second wave of COVID last year, to the inability to receive emergency care amidst constant bombing and shelling in current war-torn Ukraine, global health experts and leaders […] Continue reading ->