An estimated 820 million people went hungry in 2018, the third continuous year in a worldwide trend of rising hunger. And over one-quarter of the world’s population, or 2 billion people in all, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, according to the The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report for 2019. […] Continue reading ->
Japan said on Friday that it disagrees with aspects of an already-adopted Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution on access to medicines, claiming that there is no evidence that “delinkage” between the cost of research & development (R&D) and the price of medicines improves access to medicines. Japan also disagreed with pursuing alternative frameworks for R&D […] Continue reading ->
In the wake of a new Ebola case in the border city of Goma, WHO and its UN partners are calling on donors to make major new funding commitments to halt the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – while WHO will reconvene an expert Emergency Committee to consider if the outbreak should […] Continue reading ->
New maximum residue limits for more than 30 different types of pesticides in animal feed and foodstuffs, updated standards for food additives, and a new standard for high value vegetable oils, and well as for hybrid varieties of palm oil, were approved today at the 42nd meeting of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC42), the UN member […] Continue reading ->
If the fight against cancer has yielded substantial results on survival rates in high-income countries, low- and middle-income countries are lagging behind, while cancer is gaining ground, with a particularly worrying trend in children. A first-ever International Health Congress on Integrative Oncology, held 28-30 June in Geneva, presented traditional and alternative medicines as precious allies […] Continue reading ->
A new plan to improve collaboration across 12 United Nations and multilateral agencies to support UN member states to reach 2030 targets on health includes not only the ambitious aim of reducing bureaucracy and increasing efficiency, but of working better across sectors to address environmental, commercial and social factors that harm health. These factors, which […] Continue reading ->
A UN Human Rights Council resolution calling for countries to combat childhood, early and forced marriages, and supported by over 60 UN member states, ran into heavy criticism today prior to its final approval. A number of countries in the Middle East, South-East Asia and North Africa publicly disassociated themselves from clauses promoting girls access […] Continue reading ->
Kawaldip Sehmi, CEO of the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations (IAPO), answers 5 questions on why the Essential Medicines List is important for patients. IAPO is a United Kingdom-based alliance of 276 member organisations from 71 countries representing 50 disease areas, and working in collaboration with civil society, UN agencies and the healthcare industry. Sehmi holds a […] Continue reading ->
WHO has added ten new cancer drugs, including some pricey ones, to its 2019 Essential Medicines List, which provides global guidance to countries and health systems about drugs deemed most essential to patients and public health systems. The addition of major new cancer treatments in five categories, melanoma (skin), lung, blood and prostate cancers, reflects […] Continue reading ->
Nairobi, Kenya – The World Health Organization has commended efforts by the government of Uganda for keeping the deadly Ebola virus from spreading eastwards into the country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a prolonged outbreak has claimed approximately 1,600 lives since last August. The East African country has recorded only three […] Continue reading ->