The 12th Better Air Quality conference in Bangkok, which opens on Wednesday, is the first large climate and air quality gathering since the US and Israel attacked Iran, triggering an oil and gas-energy crisis. BANGKOK – The ‘Gulf War 3’ threatens to slow down climate action and the move to cleaner air. However, in the […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) began its 10-day session in New York on Monday, amid efforts by the United States to weaken women’s rights proposed in the draft outcome document. The theme of the CSW, the world’s biggest global meeting on women’s rights, is “ensuring and strengthening access to justice […] Continue reading ->
In a landmark decision, the European Commission is allowing member states to utilize existing EU funds to finance access to safe abortions. This move represents a significant shift in European reproductive health, although it stops short of providing financial certainty for women seeking essential reproductive healthcare. “Behind every unsafe abortion is a woman forced to […] Continue reading ->
As USAID programmes funding vital treatments for HIV/AIDS, malaria, maternal and child health, and other critical needs were imploding across Africa last year, a for-profit social enterprise startup geared up for its first real test. Using medicines procurement as its lever, the Swiss-based startup Axmed called for a radical reboot of national systems — to […] Continue reading ->
KAMPALA, Uganda – After five years of focusing on malaria prevention through Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) in the Karamoja region in northeastern Uganda for children under the age of five, Uganda’s Health Ministry has decided to extend the intervention to children up to the age of 10. SMC is the intermittent administration of a curative […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has pushed back against speculation that a critical review of the US measles elimination status was delayed until November for political reasons. Rather, the WHO said that there were strong technical reasons for postponing the review from April until November so that more data could be collected. This came as […] Continue reading ->
For decades, residents of Kakola-Ombaka village in Western Kenya lived through cycles of seasonal heatwaves and droughts on the shores of Lake Victoria without significant harm. That changed in 2019, when heavy rainfall of unprecedented intensity struck the area. The entire village and surrounding communities were inundated. The lake swelled, water levels rose steadily, banks […] Continue reading ->
The US-Israeli war with Iran, which has paralyzed air travel across the Middle East, has also frozen deliveries of vital medical supplies from the world’s largest humanitarian supply hub in Dubai to conflict-wracked countries from Afghanistan to Lebanon, said the World Health Organization on Thursday. “Operations at WHO’s logistics hub for global health emergencies in […] Continue reading ->
WORLD OBESITY DAY – Most people living with obesity are now in low and middle-income countries (LMICs), according to the World Obesity Federation (WOF) – yet people living in these countries are least likely to have access to the Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) medicine that is transforming treatment outcomes in wealthier countries. Around one billion people […] Continue reading ->
The first vaccines to reach Sudan’s South Kordofan state in nearly three years were delivered this week, according to Save the Children. South Kordofan has not received any vaccines since July 2023 due to a siege by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF),which has blocked medical and humanitarian supplies. “This left thousands of children without protection […] Continue reading ->