World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for “solidarity, solidarity and solidarity” amongst WHO member states to meet the new challenge of a novel coronavirus epidemic – at Monday’s opening of a week-long meeting of WHO’s Executive Board in Geneva. “The rule of the game is solidarity, solidarity, solidarity. But we see […] Continue reading ->
This week’s Executive Board meeting features a heavy agenda of topics, including a review of progress in WHO’s flagship Universal Health Coverage (UHC) initiative; steps taken to confront the burgeoning coronavirus health emergency; and review of a first-ever WHO strategy to eliminate cervical cancer. Debates over the long-term challenges posed by drug resistant pathogens and […] Continue reading ->
In the wake of a World Health Organization declaration Thursday of an international public health emergency, there is growing uncertainty among disease control experts over whether even the drastic measures now being taken will be too little too late to contain the outbreak. The concerns came as the reported case count of 9811 exceeded that […] Continue reading ->
In the face of an escalating crisis over the spread of a novel coronavirus in China, WHO declared an international public health emergency Thursday evening, signalling a new stage in global efforts to contain and control the escalating outbreak. The announcement came after a week of waiting and debating, which saw the case load of […] Continue reading ->
Funding to develop new drugs for some of the world’s leading infectious disease killers, such as HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, reached a record high of US $4 billion in 2018, with private sector investment driving much of the increase, according to the 2019 G-FINDER Report, which tracks such investments globally. However, investments in neglected tropical […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization is set to reconsider a declaration of an international public health emergency over the novel coronavirus discovered in Wuhan – as the number of confirmed cases soared to 6086, the death toll to 132, and infections were reported in 15 other countries. WHO announced that it would reconvene its Emergency Committee […] Continue reading ->
Some 50 million people in China were under quarantine as infections by the novel coronavirus first discovered in Wuhan accelerated rapidly, and new research suggested that it was far more infectious than previously thought. China’s Minister of the National Health Commission acknowledged that “the epidemic had entered a grave and complex period,” as the country […] Continue reading ->
With Wuhan under lockdown since Thursday, food in the city was reported to be running low, healthcare staff are having trouble getting to work due to the lack of public transport, and some hospital services were reported near collapse under the pressure of people waiting to be diagnosed and treated. These were among the updates obtained […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s head of Universal Health Coverage, Dr. Peter Salama, has died suddenly at the age of 51. The Australian-born medical epidemiologist was known as an eloquent global health advocate, who dedicated his career to combatting the world’s most difficult and dangerous diseases and strengthening fragile health systems in states weakened by war and civil unrest. […] Continue reading ->
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared Wednesday at a World Economic Forum (WEF) side event hosted by The Economist Events, and supported by tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI), Health Policy Watch has learned. The Davos stage was not the first prestige event in Switzerland to which PMI has recently attached its name. In […] Continue reading ->