In a mild statement touching on a politically wired issue, World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the agency would step up its investigations of the original animal source of the SARS CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. His comment came in response to a recommendation of the WHO Emergency Committee that met […] Continue reading ->
Routine vaccine campaigns, suspended worldwide in the wake of COVID-19 lockdowns, must be resumed immediately or else some countries could face a big surge in deaths from other preventable diseases, said Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance. Speaking at a press briefing Thursday, Berkley warned that routine immunizations for other infectious diseases such […] Continue reading ->
Preliminary results of a clinical trial released by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that in patients who received remdesivir recovered faster than those who did not receive the treatment. The largest trial to date, which followed 1063 patients, found that patients who received the drug recovered on average 4 days earlier than […] Continue reading ->
For the first time ever, the World Health Assembly appears set to meet in a one-day virtual session on May 18, which would be devoted largely to debate the global COVID-19 pandemic, sources told Health Policy Watch on Tuesday. European Union member states are hopeful that a draft WHA resolution to create a voluntary patent […] Continue reading ->
“Epidemics, such as this one or any other, by their very nature, feed off existing inequalities and make them worse. And that’s what we see COVID-19 doing to inequalities between countries and within countries.” – Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS. As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds and the global economy grinds to a halt, how […] Continue reading ->
When the World Health Organization sounded the alarm by declaring a ‘public health emergency of international concern‘ on 30 January, “the world should have listened,” said WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in his strongest response to date, to repeated allegations by the United States that WHO failed to act quickly enough in the […] Continue reading ->
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, it continues to reveal and reinforce deep inequalities within and between countries, where low income and marginalized populations pay the highest price and suffer the most. On Tuesday 28 April, a Panel discussion on ‘COVID-19 And Global Inequality’ will zoom into the issues even more deeply, with featured speakers including […] Continue reading ->
“I am not celebrating the fact that people can see the Himalayas or that the air quality is better in Madrid coming out of this virus, but what might come out of it is an awareness of how much human beings have contributed to the ongoing damage to people’s lungs, to our ability to drink […] Continue reading ->
In the largest global collaboration to address the COVID-19 crisis so far, the World Health Organization, European Commission, and other partners including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), launched a new campaign to accelerate development of COVID-19 diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines – and just as critically ensure that they are affordable and accessible worldwide. […] Continue reading ->
The combined impact of Covid-19 and malaria in regions where malaria is widespread “could be catastrophic,” warned David Reddy, CEO of Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), the Geneva-based product development partnership, just ahead of World Malaria Day, which is celebrated on Saturday, 25 April. His commment to Health Policy Watch, came in the wake of […] Continue reading ->