Ukrainian child with his dog -displaced by war, in a refugee camp on the Moldova-Ukranian border

The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to get five tonnes of surgical supplies into the besieged Ukrainian capital of Kyiv – although it did not want to disclose how it did so.

WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic, who is in Lviv in western Ukraine, said the global body had received confirmation that the medical supplies had arrived in Kyiv overnight.

“Medical authorities there will dispatch them further. Without specifying precise details, we are looking into all possible modalities to do that,” Jasarevic told a media briefing hosted by the WHO Europe on Tuesday.

“So far, two shipments totalling 76 tonnes of trauma and emergency health supplies, as well as freezers, refrigerators, ice packs, and cool boxes are in transit in Ukraine,” said WHO regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge. “We have further shipments of 500 oxygen concentrators and more supplies are on their way.”

“By hook and by crook, we need to get whatever we can already to the affected areas,” added Kluge. “We know from previous conflicts when doors are being closed, health diplomacy becomes key. Our principle is ‘Health for All’ and the top priority is to get life-saving humanitarian medical supplies to the people in need, wherever.”

Kluge added that the WHO was keeping the communication lines open to “both parties”, and it would also help vulnerable Russians if the western economic blockade disrupted the supply of, for example, cancer medicine or insulin for children.

Meanwhile, the situation of Ukrainians trapped in besieged cities such as Mariupol is worsening, with no access to water, food or power.

Earlier on Tuesday, a number of civilians including foreign students from China, India and other countries, were allowed to leave the southern port of Sumy by bus and in private cars during a Russian-agreed ceasefire.

However, there were reports of Russians firing on those evacuating as well as reports that a proposed evacuation route from Mariupol had been closed by Russian fire.

Addressing a meeting in London, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mentioned Russia for the first time since its invasion, describing events in Ukraine as “beyond heart-breaking”, and calling on “the Russian Federation to commit to a peaceful resolution of this crisis, and to allow unhindered access to humanitarian assistance for those in need”.

Worst refugee crisis in 75 years

Two million people, the vast majority women and children, have managed to flee Ukraine since 24 February, according to the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday, while Kluge said this number was expected to reach four million by July – the worst refugee crisis in Europe in over 75 years.

WHO Europe is hosting a long-planned meeting on refugee and migrant health is taking place next week in Turkey that will bring together health ministers, representatives of refugee and migrant groups, partner organizations as well as the WHO African and Eastern Mediterranean region.

“This meeting will be an opportunity to take account of current needs in a longer-term context, recognising the potential of migration to contribute to thriving, healthy populations and to ensure an economy of well-being for all,” said Kluge.

He spoke out sharply against reports of discrimination and racism against non-Ukrainian refugees, saying that any differentiated treatment of refugees would not be tolerated.

The principle of all refugees being treated equally would be written into the final outcome document of the meeting in Turkey, he added.

Women are especially vulnerable 

An estimated 80,000 Ukrainian women are expected to give birth in the next three months, and UN agencies anticipate that 1000 women will give birth every week as refugees by July.

Women have already experienced high levels of violence in the eastern Ukrainian areas of Donetsk and Lugansk, where the military and separatists have clashed.

“Past conflicts have shown us that adolescent girls, women with disabilities and elderly women are in the most vulnerable situation,” said Kluge. “They face an increased risk of suffering attacks by people outside the home and by armed groups, as well as intimate partner violence and sexual abuse and exploitation.”

Meanwhile, WHO Europe’s incident manager, Dr Catherine Smallwood, said that there had been 16 confirmed attacks on health facilities, including direct attacks on health facilities and the commandeering of ambulances. However, she added that the WHO did not want to name the facilities in case of reprisals against health workers that had reported them.

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1500887174442536966?s=20&t=G_ixkh-MxGUOa3j3ZRHgeQ

Image Credits: UNICEF/UN0599222/Moldovan.

Up to 17 million mink are to be culled in Denmark following the discovery of a COVID-19 mutation
Up to 17 million minks were reportedly culled in Denmark following the discovery of a COVID-19 mutation

Countries need to prevent more SARS-CoV2 infections in wildlife, as this could result in the establishment of animal reservoirs, according to a joint statement by the World Health Organisation, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).  

So far domestic animals, free-ranging, captive or farmed wild animals such as big cats, minks, ferrets, North American white-tailed deer and great apes have been observed to be infected with SARS-COV2. 

The statement noted that while the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by human-to-human transmission, animals are equally susceptible to the virus.

The only known instances so far of animal-to-human transmission of the SARS-COV2 have been from farmed mink and pet hamsters while a potential case of SARS-COV2 to a human through a white-tailed deer is under review.

Hong Kong recently ordered the culling of over 2,000 pet hamsters and other small animals due to its zero-COVID strategy in the face of a case of transmission of the virus at a pet shop. In November 2020, Denmark reportedly culled up to 17 million minks amid coronavirus fears. 

The organisations called for countries to adopt relevant regulations especially when it comes to people working in close proximity to wildlife, and the public. It also warns that people should avoid approaching, touching, feeding or eating wild animals in close wild proximity, especially those that are orphaned, sick or are dead.

While the transmission of the virus is not very common from animals to humans, a January 2021 report by WHO, FAO and OIE shows that the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from fur farm animals to domestic animals and susceptible wildlife populations is the highest in Europe, likely because it has a high number of fur farms. Such a kind of transmission through fur farms is mild in Africa, while it is moderate in America and Asia.  

Countries are encouraged to monitor and sample wild animals susceptible to SARS-COV2 and report confirmed cases of the virus in animals to OIE through the World Animal Health Information System (OIE-WAHIS), and to suspend the sale of captured live wild mammals in food markets.

This statement comes after three pre-print papers published in February strengthened the case for the theory that SARS-COV2 first spread among people via infected animals sold and slaughtered at the Hunan wildlife market in Wuhan. 

Image Credits: Nettverk for dyrs frihet / Net. for Animal Freedom.

A Ukrainian refugee family with 11 children entered Romania at the Isaccea border crossing.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has managed to get the 36 metric  tonnes of medical supplies it flew into Poland late last week into the western Ukrainian town of Lviv, some 80 km from the Polish border. 

However, major Russian targets such as Kyiv and Mariopul are over 540km and 1200 kms away respectively, prospects so far appeared dim that the Russians will open up a humanitarian corridor to enable medical supplies to reach the capital for those unable to leave.

Speaking with Health Policy Watch from Lviv, Ukraine, WHO spokesperson Tarik Jaresevic said that WHO was liaising with the Ukranian Ministry of Health on where and how the supplies could be distributed so that they would reach those most in need throughout the country.  

“WHO has set up a warehouse in Lviv… we are working with the Ministry of Health on where it is going to be sent and how,” he said.  He said that most of the supplies were intended for trauma injuries: “It’s mainly surgical kits with a few emergency kits, and some essential medical supplies.  We hope they will go to where they are most needed.”

From its base in Lviv, WHO will also be coordinating the “health cluster” of international aid response, to provide a single address to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, said Jaresevic.  He added that he expected another WHO aid shipment to arrive in the city shortly.

How the supplies will get from Lviv to other areas of the country that are desperately in need of aid, and in some cases also under shell fire and lacking electricity or water, is another question. 

Attacks on health facilities have skyrocketed, with WHO having verified a total of 16 attacks involving health facilities, in which nine people were killed and 16 were wounded.  That, as Russia steps up its attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including city centres, residential and commercial areas.

“Additional reports are being investigated,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Twitter Sunday. “Attacks on healthcare facilities or workers breach medical neutrality and are violations of international humanitarian law.”

WHO’s Kyiv staff moved to safer locations  

WHO maintains a large storehouse of supplies in Kyiv, but it remains unclear if access to that is available either, as Russia continues to tighten its noose around the city. In a press briefing, March 2, Mike Ryan, WHO Executive Director of Health Emergencies said access to Kyiv’s stores was largely “blocked” by the constant bombardments.  

Some of WHO’s Ukrainian national staff also have had to be relocated to safer locations outside of Kyiv – although the WHO spokesperson said “they are continuing working to support the health system.” 

Throughout Monday continued Russian shelling of evacuation routes from major cities was continuing, making entry or exit all the more dangerous.  This after a Russian military strike hit an evacuation crossing point in a Kyiv suburb Sunday, killing a family with two children and other civilians, and another shell attack in Hostomel killed the village mayor.  

Further attempts to create humanitarian access corridors continued to founder after Russia said that it would only allow people to evacuate to Russia or Belarus. 

UNICEF and UNHCR appeal for protection for child refugees 

On Monday, UNICEF and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) appealed to Ukraine’s neighbours to help document and protect Ukrainian child refugees, especially those without parents.

In the past week, around 1.2 million refugees have fled Ukraine, and about half are estimated to be children, including those who are either unaccompanied or have been separated from their parents and family members.

“Children without parental care are at a heightened risk of violence, abuse and exploitation. When these children are moved across borders, the risks are multiplied. The risk of trafficking also soars in emergencies,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in a statement on Monday.

“UNICEF and UNHCR urge all neighbouring and impacted countries to ensure the immediate identification and registration of unaccompanied and separated children fleeing from Ukraine, after allowing them access to their territory,” they added.

Russell and Grandi have appealed to neighbouring states to link the child refugees to their national child protection systems, including with “screened caregivers” such as temporary foster or other community-based care, and critical child protection services and family tracing and reunification mechanisms.

Around 100,000 Ukrainian children, half of them with disabilities, live in institutional care and boarding schools in Ukraine. 

“Those legally responsible for children in institutions in Ukraine must ensure that evacuations are done in line with national authorities’ instructions. Movements must be reported to competent authorities in Ukraine and neighbouring countries immediately upon crossing the border, and as far as possible, children should be evacuated with their identification papers and case files,” according to the statement.

 

Meanwhile, an estimated 80,000 Ukrainian women are due to give birth in the next three months and many have already had to do so in underground train stations and temporary bomb shelters.

Exhausted Ukrainians continue to flee across the borders to seek refuge in Poland, Moldova and other countries to escape from Russia’s bombing.

Polish nurse Dominika Janas works in a makeshift clinic at the Rzeszów train station, in Poland. She told the WHO that the facility was seeing 50 to 100 refugees a day, mostly children who are cold, hungry, dehydrated and exhausted. However, Janas said what worries her the most was their mental health.

https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1500821976788742149

Image Credits: UNICEF.

A child receives an oral polio vaccine in India.

A four-year-old girl from Jerusalem has been diagnosed with polio, Israel’s Health Ministry said Sunday – the first case in the country since 1989.

The source of the girl’s infection is vaccine-derived polio virus, according to Israel’s head of Public Services Dr Sharon Alroy-Preis, speaking to reporters on Monday evening.

“We are not talking about wild polio,” Alroy-Preis stressed. “This is polio from the weakened live vaccine that changed over time.”

Neither the child nor any of her family members – all part of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect in the city – had been vaccinated against the disease. The ministry believes the child could be just one of dozens of others who have been exposed to a mutant strain of the virus, Alroy-Preis said. That is a particular concern since among some communities in Jerusalem, vaccination rates are less than 50%.

Alroy-Preis said that officials are in touch with 10 family members who were in close contact with the child, another 20 children in her preschool and staff. The city is working to get the necessary permissions to screen the children for the disease.

Jerusalem health officials will notify anyone else who might have come into close contact with the four-year-old and provide specific instructions, the ministry said. Based on the findings of the investigation, further recommendations will be made.

Others could have been exposed

Routine vaccination rates tend to be lower among ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, partially because of ideological reasons and a lack of trust in the government and its systems, and partially for technical reasons. Ultra-Orthodox families tend to be large and parents may struggle to adhere to each child’s vaccination calendar, Alroy-Preis said.

To help immediately increase polio vaccination rates, the Health Ministry has launched a dedicated communications campaign and is working to recruit nurses to offer vaccines during off hours and in non-traditional locations.

Israel is a member of the World Health Organization’s European Region, which was declared polio-free in 2002, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

Israel regularly monitors for the virus through a dedicated sewage surveillance program and in health clinics. In 2013, traces of polio were detected through the sewage program but no one was diagnosed with the virus.

Israel administers four doses of the polio vaccine between the ages of two and seven: two injections of the inactivated virus vaccine and two doses of the oral polio vaccine containing live attentuated virus, given as liquid drops. The live virus protects the digestive tract where polio is contracted.

Polio is a highly infectious disease that is transmitted person-to-person, especially in children. It enters through the mouth and is excreted in the faeces. There are usually no signs of illness, though one in about a thousand unvaccinated people can develop severe symptoms, including paralysis.

“The main concern is that we have a virus that can harm children – not only children, but mostly children – with a preventable illness,” Alroy-Preis said. “Even if it harms only a small number of children, the disease can be severe and irreversible.”

Case discovered two weeks ago

The case was discovered almost two weeks ago, Alroy-Preis said.

The child was admitted to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center, the hospital said. She was suffering from severe weakness in her leg muscles as well as other polio-like symptoms. Tests with the involvement of a paediatric neurologist confirmed the polio diagnosis.

The child was treated at the hospital for a week and with an improvement in her condition she has been transferred for further rehabilitation, the hospital added.

The Jerusalem District Health Bureau has opened an epidemiological investigation.

Last month, a child in Malawi was diagnosed with wild poliovirus (WPV type-1) linked to the strain in Pakistan. Neither the three-year-old Malawian girl, diagnosed after she experienced an onset of paralysis, nor any of her family members had recently travelled to Pakistan, meaning that she became infected locally.

Alroy-Preis said authorities had no way of knowing if the vaccine-derived virus was imported or developed locally.

Image Credits: Jean-Marc Giboux/Rotary International.

obesity
Obesity is most common for both men and women in the WHO Americas region.

By 2030, 20% of women and 14% of men, or over 1 billion people, will be living with obesity globally, according to the new World Obesity Atlas 2022 published Friday.  

The new Atlas, launched on World Obesity Day, predicts that by that time, the number of people with obesity globally will have doubled since 2010.

The Atlas presents new projections on obesity and severe obesity among men and women as of 2030, as well as revisiting projections for children. Two years into the pandemic, obesity was also found to be closely  correlated with COVID-19 associated mortality, with death rates ten times higher in countries where over 50% of the population are overweight.

“This has shown clearly that an unhealthy population, without concerted action in anticipation of the next pandemic, will result in even more lives lost needlessly,” said World Obesity Federation President John Wilding and CEO Johanna Ralston, in the Atlas’s Foreword.

Katie Dain of the NCD Alliance called obesity a “slow-burn pandemic, one that has the health of a billion people sitting on a precipice. 

Missing WHO global targets 

Given current trends, chances of meeting the WHO global targets to halt the rise in obesity by 2025 also have likely passed, the report acknowledges.  

The WHO targets called for no increase in the prevalence of adult obesity between 2010 and 2025.

Authors of the Atlas – the World Obesity Federation – said that they are “hopeful”, nonetheless, in the fact that public and policymakers’ understanding about obesity has increased, and there has been more recent momentum to take action.

“As we reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential that lessons are learnt…and that governments take the difficult but necessary steps – with obesity treatment and obesity prevention – to reduce the prevalence of obesity in this and future generations,” said both Wilding and Ralston, in the Foreword. 

Obesity in Africa to triple by 2030 

Mother and son in Usolanga, Tanzania. Childhood fat is traditionally seen as a sign of abundance, but too much of it can lead to obesity and related diseases later in life.

While the highest rates of obesity are still found in the WHO Americas region for both men and women, the numbers in Africa are expected to triple by 2030.

Countries in the Americas are projected to see a 1.5- fold increase in obesity between 2010 and 2030, while Africa is predicted to experience a rise from 34 million obese people in 2010 to 101 million in 2030, 75% of which would be women.  That, while the African continent continues to struggle with undernutrition, leading to the wasting and stunting of many children. 

Worldwide, obesity is higher among women than men and the gender gap will continue to rise in all regions by 2030.

Across all regions, obesity is expected to impact women more than men.

Trends are also very geographically defined. Currently, one-half of all women with obesity live in just 11 countries: United States, China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan. 

At the same time, one half of all men with obesity live in 9 countries: US, China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Egypt, Germany and Turkey.

Especially concerning are the countries that feature in both the top 20 rankings for prevalence and number of people living with obesity projections; namely US, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

High BMI causes loss of 160 million years of healthy life

Years of life lost due to high BMI has huge financial implications.

Over 160 million lost years of healthy life were due to high body-mass index (BMI) in 2019 globally, accounting for more than 20% of all lost years of healthy life caused by preventable chronic ill-health, the atlas also finds. 

The greatest proportion of years lost, or disability adjusted life years (DALYs) and deaths that result from high BMI can be found in the Eastern Mediterranean region and in higher income countries. 

The Atlas warns that the years of healthy life lost due to high BMI and increasing obesity will hold back economic development and will lead to high levels of stress on the health services of many countries.

“A failure by governments to act to reduce the high prevalence of obesity in populations have high financial implications on health systems, as more people require support to manage and treat obesity and comorbidities,” authors say.  

They project that countries such as Mexico and the US will suffer a total economic impact of $160 billion by 2060. For India, that impact is $479 billion; for Brazil, $181 billion.  

Obesity-NCD Preparedness Ranking shows variability in preparedness across regions  

The report also introduces a new “Obesity-NCD Preparedness Ranking” which takes into account countries’ current health system responses to NCDs and wider commitment to the implementation of prevention policies, giving an indication for how well, or poorly, countries are prepared to address the rise in obesity. 

The findings highlight that many countries ranked lowest in preparedness to prevent and treat obesity are low- and middle-income countries, especially in Western Africa, as well as in WHO’s Western Pacific and Eastern Mediterranean (Middle East) regions. 

In contrast, the WHO European Region appears best-equipped to prevent and respond to obesity trends, with a population-weighted average preparedness score of 37 out of 183 – with Switzerland, ranking as Number 1 – as the most prepared.  

But even within the European region there was some variability – in countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, and Uzbekistan. 

“It is clear that the preparedness ranks are not distributed uniformly around the globe, but vary markedly across national income levels, and across geographical regions,” notes the Atlas. 

Overall, African region countries scored poorly in the global preparedness rankings, with only Algeria, Seychelles, and Mauritius scoring better than the global average of 87. 

Western Africa appears to be the least prepared – with conflict-ridden Central African Republic, Nigeria, and Niger, ranking 179, 180, and 183 respectively. 

Another conflict zone, Somalia and Pakistan in WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean region also rank poorly in preparedness, with scores of 181 and 172 respectively. 

For the Western Pacific region, Pacific Islands countries such as Papau New Guinea, Vanuatu, adn Kiribati, were among the lowest-scoring. They also have some of the highest obesity prevalence levels globally. 

‘Double burden’ of obesity and undernutrition  

A malnourished child is weighed at a clinic in Abu Shouk camp for Internally Displaced Persons, North Darfur.

With the majority of people with obesity living in LMICs, where obesity rates are rising fastest and health systems capacity is lowest, countries also are ill-equipped to tackle the double burden of both malnutrition and undernutrition, as well as obesity. 

Health service budgets in these countries also are unlikely to be able to cover advanced forms of obesity treatment, such as bariatric surgery.

This reinforces the need for a comprehensive approach to managing and treating obesity, says the Atlas.  

“Countries have a major challenge to halt the rise in obesity and reduce obesity across all age groups.” 

Global action plan should replace ‘disjointed global response’ 

Responding to the report, the NCD Alliance called upon the WHO to advance a new Global Action Plan on Obesity in time for review at the upcoming World Health Assembly, which takes place 22 – 28 May 2022 . 

The plan would bring together all existing actions, including the WHO’s recent draft recommendations on obesity, which were considered at January 2022 Executive Board meeting.  But an action plan would also expand the ambition and scope of WHO’s work to accelerate action on obesity in priority countries.

“A disjointed response, lack of ambition, and inaction is hurting the most vulnerable, and the impact couldn’t be more striking than it is today,” said Margot Neveux,  a Senior Policy Manager at World Obesity Federation. 

“We need more from our leaders; we need governance that puts the health and well-being of its people first.” 

Image Credits: Malingering/Flickr, Jen Wen Luoh, World Obesity Federation, Flickr – UN Photo, World Obesity Federation .

A nurse in rural Mozambique consults with a 32-year-old woman about her family planning needs, pre-COVID. Many such services remain disrupted, two years after the pandemic began.

Women in Africa will feel the disruptive force of the pandemic for many years to come – with upticks in maternal deaths and prolonged disruptions in maternal, child and reproductive health services issues the continent must grapple with now. 

About 40% of African countries are reporting continued disruptions to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health services, said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, Director of the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa, in a WHO briefing on Thursday, just ahead of International Women’s Day, 8 March.   

Matshidiso Moeti,of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa,

Even more worrisome, some countries have seen a prolonged increase in maternal deaths since the pandemic began, she said.

“One survey from 11 countries showed that more than half saw a 16% increase in maternal deaths between February and May 2020 compared to the same period in 2019,” Moeti said.

“That statistic decreased slightly last year [2021] to 11%. But the number could be much higher because home births were excluded from this data,” she said.

Overall, Africa has fared worse than other regions in terms of gender-related health services, according to the data reported by WHO in its latest Global Pulse Survey on health services continuity. 

On top of that, nutrition-relation services like counseling on infant feeding and management of wasting, which also deeply affect women, have been even more severely disrupted, the WHO data reveals.  

Teen pregnancies and violence against women

Health Education - Family Planning
Moeti added that teenage pregnancies and incidents of violence against women also increased exponentially, with the situation exacerbated by pandemic-related school closures. 

According to one recently published study, the COVID-19 pandemic “deleteriously affected the sexual and reproductive health of girls and amplified school transfer and dropout in Kenya. 

“Adolescent girls who couldn’t attend school for six months were at twice the risk of falling pregnant, and three times more likely never to return to class,” Moeti added. 

She called on African governments to consider ​​gender inequality as a determinant that needs to be woven into the design and delivery of interventions to improve health.

“Investing in human economy participation, livelihoods and health is an investment in the health of future generations of Africans. Our continent cannot afford any further reversals of the fragile gains made in the pursuit of equitable care for women and girls,” Moeti warned.

Need for gender-based approaches to pandemic preparedness

Dr Francine Ntoumi, President and Director-General of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research.

In other remarks at the WHO briefing, ​​Dr Francine Ntoumi, President and Director-General of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research noted that women, especially pregnant women, often have to wait before they can benefit from interventions because they were not included in clinical trials.

“All of the trials exclude pregnant women, which means that pregnant women can only benefit from scientific progress very later, which is the case for vaccines as well. So we call for urgent actions to ensure pregnant women have privileged and early access to new interventions including vaccination,” she said. 

Corroborating Ntoumi, Dr Eleanor Nwadinobi, President of the Medical Women’s International Association added that the circumstances surrounding the global COVID-19 response necessitated the need for gender-based approaches to pandemic preparedness.

The experts also called for more studies targeting African women on a number of issues including pregnancy, mental health, obesity, co-morbidities and others.

“We need to ensure there’s prevention education, and dedicated funding to address violence against women and girls,” Nwadinobi concluded.

Image Credits: Dominic Chavez/World Bank, © Evolving Communications/The Global Financing Facility.

covid technologies
US NIH will offer some of its COVID-19 technologies to WHO’s C-TAP patent pool.

The United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) will offer certain government-funded coronavirus technologies to WHO’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), top US officials said on Thursday. 

The  announcement by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra at a virtual meeting Thursday with other ministers of health, could help bolster support for the WHO effort to build a repository of treatments, tests and vaccines available to any country on an open license – an effort that has failed to gain much buy-in from either governments, researchers or industry so far. 

WHO welcomed the move saying it would help the agency and countries to more quickly overcome the COVID pandemic. 

“This is a strong example of innovation and collaboration coming together to expand access,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who also spoke at the virtual ‘COVID-19 Dialogue – Potential Opportunities for Innovation and Collaboration, convened by Becerra with over 20 health ministers and senior health officials from Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.  

“Voluntary sharing of technologies through non-exclusive agreements will not only help us put the pandemic behind us; it will also empower low- and middle-income countries to produce their own medical products and achieve equitable access,” Tedros added in a follow-up statement.  

US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra

The NIH technologies will also be sub-licensed to the United Nations backed Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) – in an effort to amplify the impact of certain American scientific breakthroughs to better fight the pandemic, said Becerra.

Sharing technologies behind NIH-devised coronavirus diagnostics, treatments and vaccines will help other nations and developers to move innovations to the manufacturing phase more quickly, Becerra said. 

The HHS secretary also hinted that the move to share NIH technologies with C-TAP could set the stage for further policy changes around how NIH innovations are used and shared, noting that: “moving forward, HHS will work with manufacturers to promote global access to public health emergency products in future purchase agreements”.

‘Push the envelope where the law allows’

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), also confirmed the plan to share the NIH know-how on a call with US media later Thursday. But he declined to offer details on exactly what technologies will be shared, saying the plan is “still being ironed out.” 

However, both Fauci and Becerra hinted that they would try to push for the inclusion of powerful innovations like the Moderna mRNA vaccine in the patent pool – if the NIH were to win a bitterly-contested patent dispute with the company over the ownership of a patent critical to the vaccine recipe.

“We’re still in early stages,” Becerra quoted as saying. “This latest announcement is an effort to try to let low and middle-income countries know that we want them to have capacities as well.”

But he added that HHS would “push the envelope where the law allows us.”

The NIH and Moderna are locked in a battle around patent ownership for key technologies related to the Moderna vaccine. 

WHO – NIH move will help ‘put pandemic behind us’

“We will be honored to sign public health-driven transparent non-exclusive license agreements with NIH under the auspices of C-TAP when the negotiations have concluded, with the goal to provide access of these innovative technologies to people in need around the world and help put an end to the pandemic,” said MPP Executive Director Charles Gore in the joint WHO-MPP statement. 

In Nov. 2021, Spain announced that it would share the technology behind a coronavirus antibody test to the pool, known as C-TAP, the first significant donation. However, few other takers have surfaced, and WHO has since refocused more of its efforts on building a series of technology transfer hubs that aimed to train researchers and jump-start manufacturing of vaccines and other innovations – including one based in Cape Town and another, announced last week, in the Republic of Korea.  

Medecines access advocates also said they were heartened by the decision – although some took a wait-and-see attitude to see what technologies are really shared.

“HHS’s announcement is a turn towards sharing not only doses, but knowledge, which is the difference between charity and justice. It is a trajectory which if pursued with seriousness of purpose can improve resilience to future pandemics and bring a measure of justice to a terribly unjust time,” said Peter Maybarduk, who oversees the global medicine program at Public Citizen, an advocacy organization.

Entry point for US to share patents 

While the newly-announced agreement is with WHO’s C-Tap, the US announcement could also open the door for new policies on NIH funding of discovery research, some observers also suggested. 

If future funding arrangements provide an entry point for the US to explicitly preserve its right to share patents for global health objectives, that would have more long-term impacts on the ecosystem of R&D-sharing, beyond the current pandemic, said Knowledge Ecology International Director James Love:

 “In the past, the NIH has opposed such agreements or clauses in the NIH funding agreements, and we hope that attitudes are changing,” he said.  

Becerra’s announcement followed  Wednesday’s release of a new White House plan for US COVID-19 preparedness, which also emphasises the importance of “vaccinating the world” to prevent future pandemics.

Image Credits: wasajja_j/Twitter, Twitter .

The world’s nations have agreed to negotiate a landmark treaty by 2024 to curb plastics pollution which is choking oceans, killing fish and wildlife and polluting water, soils and foods with toxic chemicals. 

The agreement by some 175 UN member states was reached Wedneaday evening at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi. It offers a bright light of international cooperation at a time when Europe is at war and climate change signals are ever more alarming. 

“Today marks a triumph by planet earth over single-use plastics. This is the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord. It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it.” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

“Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) shows multilateral cooperation at its best,” said Norway’s Minister for Climate and the Environment, Espen Barth Eide, who presided over the UNEA event. “Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic. With today’s resolution we are officially on track for a cure.”

Waste from single-used plastics has increased exponentially from just two million tons in 1950, to 348 million tons in 2017, as part of a global industry valued at $522.6 billion, according to the  United Nations Environment Programme.  

In a business-as-usual scenario, volumes of plastics pollution would double again by 2040, said the UN agency. 

Plastics pollution: Twin health and climate crisis

Plastics production use and disposal are all major, unrecognized contributors to climate change – beginning with the petro-chemical products used as inputs to the CO2 emissions generated by the high-tech incineration of plastic in high-income countries – and crude open-burning of plastic waste in lower-income nations.  

By 2050, greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastic production, use and disposal, would account for 15% of climate emissions – providing that countries succeed in limiting those to levels that meet the 2015 Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rise, UNEP says. 

But from a health standpoint, the silent infiltration of toxic microplastics into food, water supplies, soils, fisheries and wildlife is creating an equally insidious epidemic.  A growing number of scientific studies point to a wide range of health impacts ranging from fertility to endocrine disorders due to the ingestion of microplastics associated with food package, plastics plates and other food-related sources, as well as consumption of micro-plastics contaminated fish and wildlife.  Emissions of health-harmful dioxins, furins and other toxic particles from open burning has further health impacts, which can contribute to respiratory illnesses and cancers.  Plastics contamination of soils, and related to that, soil fertility and food production is another growing concern. 

Agriculture Plastic Residues Are Poisoning Soils, Food Systems & Threatening Human Health, Says FAO 

With regards to water sources, a WHO study from 2019 did not find significant evidence of widespread plastics contamination yet – but it acknowledged that the evidence remains limited and more research is needed.

The historic UNEA resolution, entitled “End Plastic Pollution: Towards an internationally legally binding instrument”, was adopted with the conclusion of the three-day UNEA-5.2 meeting, attended by more than 3,400 in-person and 1,500 online participants from 175 UN Member States, including 79 ministers and 17 high-level officials.

20 fossil fuel companies responsible for most plastics pollution 

Single-use plastics, such as bottles, bags and food packages, are the most commonly discarded type of plastic. Made almost exclusively from fossil fuels, these “throwaway” plastics often end their short lifecycle polluting the oceans, being burned or dumped into landfills.

Last year, a study by the UK-based Plastic Makers Index found just 20 companies were the source of more than half of single-use plastic items thrown away globally.

The research found that 20 petrochemical companies were responsible for 55% of the world’s single-use plastic waste, with US  ExxonMobil topping the list with 5.9 million metric tons contribution to global plastic waste, closely followed by U.S. chemicals company Dow and China’s Sinopec.

The health sector is a major consumer of single use plastics for countless medical procedures – and those uses have only exploded further during the COVID crisis with the swelling global demand for masks and other protective gear for health care workers as well as people moving about infected communities. 

Although the United Nations Environment Programme has led the charge on plastics waste, WHO has published warnings that 1 in 3 healthcare facilities globally do not safely manage healthcare waste. 

However, after years of encouraging health care facilities to adopt throw-away medical devices – from tubing to syringes as an infection prevention measures – disposing of them by burning or landfilling – finding new technologies that use less toxic plastics, and better ways to separate and reprocess contaminated health care waste remains an uphill challenge.  

Image Credits: WHO/European Pressphoto Agency (EPA).

hearing
Speech and hearing testing in Karnataka, India. Over one billion people aged 12 – 35 are at risk of hearing loss.

Ahead of World Hearing Day 2022, WHO has issued a new international standard for safe noise levels and hearing at public venues and events.  It aims to combat the growing problem of hearing loss from exposure to excessively loud music and other recreational noise. 

Over 1 billion people aged 12 – 35 risk losing their hearing due to prolonged and excessive exposure to loud music and other recreational sounds, which has devastating consequences for their physical and mental health, education, and employment prospects. 

“Millions of teenagers and young people are at risk of hearing loss due to the unsafe use of personal audio devices and exposure to damaging sound levels at venues such as nightclubs, bars, concerts and sporting events,” said Dr Bente Mikkelsen, WHO Director for the Department for Noncommunicable Diseases.

The Global standard for safe listening at venues and events highlights six recommendations under the theme, To hear for life, listen with care!. The six recommendations in the new WHO report to limit the risk of hearing loss are: 

(1) a maximum average sound level of 100 decibels

(2) live monitoring and recording of sound levels using calibrated equipment by designated staff

(3) optimizing venue acoustics and sound systems to ensure enjoyable sound quality and safe listening

(4) making personal hearing protection available to audiences including instructions on use

(5) access to quiet zones for people to rest their ears and decrease the risk of hearing damage; and

(6) provision of training and information to staff.

More about the safe standard

Image Credits: Trinity Care Foundation/Flickr.

Molnupiravir
Molnupiravir

Molnupiravir, an oral COVID-19 antiviral medication, has just been added as a conditional recommendation to the World Health Organization’s living guidelines on COVID-19 therapeutics. 

The pill, created by Merck, had already been approved by the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) in January to be distributed and supplied in 105 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). 

In comparison with Pfizer’s Paxlovid, Monulpiravir emerged with lower efficacy ratings and more potential adverse effects, in the FDA’s final review of clinical trial results.

Even so, the Merck drug is still regarded as an important new tool in countries’ arsenals, as it can be administered to certain patients unable to tolerate Paxlovid. WHO recommends molnupiravir to non-severe COVID-19 patients with the highest risk of hospitalizations, including people who have not received a COVID-19 vaccination, older people, people with immunodeficiencies, and people living with chronic diseases.  WHO has not yet made a recommendation 

See more about monulpiravir: WHO

Image Credits: Merck .