WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti.

Five male candidates are contesting to be the next regional director for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) African Region.

One of them will replace Botswana’s Dr Matshidiso Moeti, who has served two terms in the position and is not eligible for re-election. Moeti, who was appointed in 2015, has overseen WHO’s operations through trying circumstances, including Ebola outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Two of the candidates are currently employed at WHO headquarters, while a third is also based in Geneva.

Senegalese Dr Ibrahima Socé Fall, who has been proposed by his home country, is currently the WHO director of Global Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD). Prior to this, he was WHO Assistant Director General for Emergency Response, appointed a year before the COVID-19 pandemic (in March 2019), where he led WHO’s global response to all emergencies, heading the incidence teams.

Dr N’da Konan Michel Yao, proposed by his home country Côte d’Ivoire, has been WHO Director of Strategic Health Operations since August 2020, where he coordinates the body’s response to health, natural and humanitarian disasters.

Dr Richard Mihigo, proposed by Rwanda, is also based in Geneva where he has worked for Gavi, the vaccine alliance, since 2022. He is currently senior director of programmatic and strategic engagement with the African Union and Africa CDC. Prior to this, he was Gavi’s  global lead and senior director for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery, Coordination and Integration.

Dr Boureima Hama Sambo, proposed by Niger, is WHO’s Representative to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Head of Mission. He has previously worked at the WHO headquarters on climate change.

Dr Faustine Engelbert Ndugulile, proposed by Tanzania, was that country’s Minister for Communication and Information Technology between December 2020 and September 2021 and has also served as a deputy minister of health.

The Regional Committee of WHO African Region will vote for the next regional director in a closed meeting from 26 – 30 August in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo.

Their nomination will be submitted to the WHO Executive Board meeting in January 2025. The newly appointed director will take office in February 2025 for a five-year term and be eligible for reappointment once.

Image Credits: WHO.

Air pollution in Shanghai, China

The fifth State of Global Air report shows air pollution is now the second-leading risk factor for death globally, after high blood pressure. Most of the deaths are from non-communicable diseases (NCD). The report has a silver lining about lives saved which shows how there’s been a large drop in the death rate of children

Almost 2,000 children under the age of five die every day because of air pollution, according to the latest State of Global Air (SoGA). Yet, the annual total of 700,000 deaths is a fraction of the 8.1 million lives lost because of air pollution. While there is a silver lining that some progress has been made, SoGA has several messages of concern for governments and citizens, especially parents. 

The report looks at deaths and health impacts caused by three pollutants: fine particulate matter (PM 2.5), household air pollution, and ozone (O3). It also looks at nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which causes childhood asthma, particularly for infants and toddlers. The study underscores how traffic exhaust, a major source of NO2, can make children acutely ill with long-term consequences. 

“Children are particularly susceptible to the health effects of air pollution, especially since their organ systems, including lungs, are still developing. To the extent possible, efforts should focus on reducing children’s exposure to air pollution.

A recent systematic review reported that exposure to traffic-related air pollution could result in asthma onset as well as acute lower-respiratory-tract infections in children,” Dr Pallavi Pant, head of Global Health at Boston’s Health Effects Institute (HEI), told Health Policy Watch. 

The SoGA report is a joint effort by HEI and UNICEF. It is a detailed analysis of recently released data from the Global Burden of Disease study from 2021.

Nine out of 10 deaths are caused by the tiny PM 2.5 particles. These enter the lungs and then the bloodstream, increasing the risks of NCDs in adults like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 

The report exposes climate inequities as developing and low-income nations have the highest number of deaths. It also underscores how PM 2.5, the most-tracked air pollutant, is linked to greenhouse gases which are warming the world. The sources of both are largely the same – burning fossil fuels and biomass, particularly coal-fired power plants and transportation, and wild and farm fires. The most vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected by both climate hazards and polluted air.

India, Nigeria, and Pakistan top list of child air pollution deaths

Of the 700,000 child deaths are due to air pollution, and almost half a million are due to household pollution. The air pollution-linked death rate in children under the age of five in East, West, Central and southern Africa is over 100 times higher than their counterparts in high-income countries. There are two deaths per 100,000 of the population in rich countries, but the death rate in Africa’s children is 210/100,000. 

The highest number of children dying of air pollution is in India, Nigeria and Pakistan. The reason is largely pollution within households burning polluting fuels such as coal/charcoal, wood, animal dung, agricultural residue etc. 

In India over 169,000 children are estimated to have died in 2021 because of air pollution, that is more than one death every four minutes. Nigeria’s toll is over 114,00, and Pakistan’s over 68,000. 

“Despite progress in maternal and child health, every day almost 2,000 children under five years die because of health impacts linked to air pollution,” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Kitty van der Heijden.

“Our inaction is having profound effects on the next generation, with lifelong health and well-being impacts. The global urgency is undeniable. It is imperative governments and businesses consider these estimates and locally available data and use it to inform meaningful, child-focused action to reduce air pollution and protect children’s health.”

Globally, air pollution is only second to malnutrition in terms of risk factors for child deaths. The report points out that children are uniquely vulnerable to air pollution. The damage from air pollution can start in the womb with health effects that can last a lifetime. Children inhale more air per kilogramm of body weight and absorb more pollutants relative to adults while their lungs, bodies, and brains are still developing.

Countries with the highest air pollution deaths 

The total number of deaths linked to air pollution was 8.1 million in 2021, which is one out of every eight deaths globally. This is more than any previous year, which indicates that the disease burden of air pollution continues to rise.

The top 10 countries account for about 70% of all global deaths which includes two hundred countries and territories. 

The two countries with the most such deaths by far are China (2,349,332) and India (2,087,016), which is about 4 deaths a minute due to air pollution.

Air pollution is second only to high blood pressure as a global risk factor for death, except in South Asia where air pollution is the biggest cause of death. 

Most of the global deaths – 7.8 million, or nine out of every 10 – are because of PM 2.5 or ambient air pollution. As the report points out, nearly all of the world’s population lives in areas with unhealthy air. Among the key air pollutants that are currently measured, long-term exposure to PM 2.5 is the most consistent and accurate predictor of poor health outcomes across populations. 

Ozone and NO2: Traffic exhaust a threat to humans 

Apart from PM 2.5 and household pollution, the third cause of death the report examines is ozone (O3). Ground-level ozone is not emitted but it is a product of traffic exhaust, in particular nitrogen dioxide, and warmer temperatures in the presence of sunlight. That’s why, for example, during heatwaves, there is a higher level of ozone in place with heavy traffic from where it can travel long distances. It is also a greenhouse gas. 

For humans, O3 increases the risk of both acute and chronic respiratory illnesses such as COPD. The chances of fatalities are higher among those vulnerable, the sick, and the elderly. The report estimates that in 2021, long-term exposure to ozone contributed to an estimated 489,518 deaths globally, including 14,000 ozone-related COPD deaths in the United States, higher than in other high-income countries. 

However, now ozone is also a rising threat in developing nations as well. SoGA notes that countries including India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil have experienced increases of more than 10% in ambient ozone exposures in the last decade. 

As the table below shows, while the overall number of air pollution deaths has increased since 1990, this has mainly happened because of a rise in PM 2.5 and ozone (which in turn is produced by, among other factors, nitrogen dioxide from burning fossil fuels in vehicles, etc.) Deaths due to household air pollution declined largely thanks to the use of cleaner cooking fuels. 

Traffic triggers childhood asthma

While the current SoGA report has not looked at deaths attributable to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), exposure has been linked to a variety of health effects, including asthma and other respiratory diseases. As with ozone, the highest exposure to NO2 is in countries with high socio-development index, for example, Canada, Japan, and Singapore. But the exposures are declining because of policy actions like switching to more public transport and electric vehicles. 

Traffic is a major source of NO2 and its concentration is typically highest in urban areas, even though there are other sources of the gas such as power plants, industrial units, and agriculture. Pinpointing the traffic patterns and other factors that lead to spikes in NO2 pollution can help cities identify effective ways to control NO2 and reduce exposure.

Some ‘good news’

SoGA has emphasised that there is some “good news.” Since 2000, the death rate linked to children under five has dropped by 53%, due largely to efforts aimed at expanding access to clean energy for cooking, as well as improvements in access to healthcare, nutrition, and better awareness about the harms associated

with exposure to household air pollution. Although the report has not gone into the effects of specific schemes, India, which has the largest number of child deaths, launched the Ujjwala programme to provide cleaner cooking gas to low-income families. 

The reports authors are clear that air quality actions help. In under-served regions like Africa, Latin America, and Asia, steps can include installing air pollution monitoring networks or low-cost sensors, implementing stricter air quality policies, or switching to hybrid or electric vehicles. 

Arsenal of data 

Scientific studies over several decades have established that air pollution is associated with impacts on every major organ system in humans. While earlier ones looked at the more obvious connections with heart and respiratory issues, more recent ones are exploring the link with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. 

Breathing polluted air for months or years can lead to illness and early death from heart and lung diseases and diabetes, and increase the likelihood of adverse birth outcomes including preterm births, stillbirths and miscarriage. SoGA is the latest of several scientific studies that have conclusively demonstrated the vast health and economic benefits of slashing emissions from burning fossil fuels and biomass.

There’s enough in this arsenal of air pollution data for policymakers especially in the worst-hit countries to step up action quickly. Will they?

Image Credits: Unsplash.

Researcher explores evidence around the wildlife-trade- pandemic nexus

The world lacks the funds, political will and appropriate global platforms to tackle the next pandemic – and the World Health Organization (WHO) should possibly be split into two entities, with one focusing solely on health emergencies.

This is according to a new report by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former co-chairs of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

“If there were a new pandemic threat today, such as if H5N1 began to spread from person to person at scale, the world would likely be overwhelmed again. We just aren’t equipped enough to stop outbreaks before they spread further,” according to Clark speaking at an event to release the report hosted by Club de Madrid.

The report, No time to gamble: Leaders must unite to prevent pandemics, takes stock of progress made to implement recommendations made by the Independent Panel to the World Health Assembly in May 2021, following its eight-month review of the global response to COVID-19. 

“We were clear in 2021 at the height of COVID-19, that leaders needed to act urgently to make transformative changes to the international system so that there would be a new approach to funding, new ways of managing equitable access to products like vaccines, therapeutics and tests, and a new Framework Convention at WHO to complement the rules for outbreaks and pandemics,” said Clark 

“Instead of taking action to prepare for the next major outbreak, leaders have turned away from pandemic preparedness. This is a gamble with our futures,” write Clark and Sirleaf in the report. 

Clark decried the lack of funds to pandemic-proof the world, how “high-income countries are holding on too tightly to traditional charity-based approaches to equity”, and that there was still no pandemic agreement after two-and-a-half years of negotiations.

“A new agreement must be successfully concluded. But the world can’t wait for its adoption or for the ratification required from 60 countries – an effort that could take three or more years,” the report notes.

“There must be action now – to close the gaps that put eight billion people at risk of a new pandemic. The recent jump of the avian H5N1 virus to more mammals – including new human cases transmitted from cattle in the United States – portends an influenza pandemic the world is nowhere near ready to manage.”

However, Clark said there had been some “encouraging developments” such as the amendments to the International Health Regulations.

Sirleaf was not present as she was attending the funeral of her son, Charles.

Helen Clark. former co-chair of the Independent Panel.

Controversial proposal to split WHO

The report notes that 40% of the WHO’s operational spending goes on emergencies, including on the delivery of supplies, and this is “far outstripping” spending on important issues such as universal health coverage, non-communicable diseases and the social determinants of health. 

However, the WHO’s “focus should be on high-quality normative and technical work, not just during emergencies but also for preparedness purposes,” according to the report. 

“We pose an open question, and I stress it is an open question: Should WHO is split into two organisations, one that is focused on emergency operations, as that work has to be done, and one that’s focused on operational and technical excellence in health?” asked Clark.

WHO’s expenses in 2023, as captured by the report, “No time to gamble”.

She repeated the Independent Panel’s call for “a truly independent monitoring mechanism” to assess countries’ pandemic preparedness – such as a “Global Preparedness Monitoring Board which is completely independent of WHO” or “a new independent monitoring group”, perhaps along the lines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Inadequate financing

Around $10–15 billion is needed annually to fill the gaps in pandemic preparedness, particularly in low and middle-income countries.

“This does not include investments in One Health, which would require an added $10.3–11.5 billion annually to raise public veterinary standards, improve farm biosecurity and decrease deforestation in high-risk countries,” according to the report.

The Pandemic Fund, set up under the World Bank to assist, has raised almost $2 billion.

The report proposes that the fund be converted into a “preparedness and surge mechanism based on a global public investment model” rather than an ODA [overseas development aid] mechanism.

“All governments [should] contribute based on a formula according to their ability to pay, supporting both preparedness efforts and immediate response needs including to pay for the countermeasures countries will need to stop outbreaks and mitigate the impact of pandemics,” according to the report. It adds that countries should also have a say in the fund’s administration.

However, Mauricio Cardenas, former finance minister of Colombia, warned that public finances are “under a lot of stress in different countries, mainly because of the high levels of debt and very high interest rates”.

“Public finances play a very important role, because domestic resource mobilisation is crucial and should be the foundation of preparedness and response, but that’s not enough. We need international finance, but we don’t need charity,” he stressed.

Expanding access to medical countermeasures 

Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Indonesia’s health minister.

Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin called for different rules for the Pandemic Fund during a pandemic, which he compared to wartime, including “speedy decision-making and expedited fund disbursement”.

Sadikin, who addressed the launch, also called for all emergency medical countermeasures produced during pandemics to become “public”.

There needs to be an “upfront agreement” in the pandemic agreement that for-profit companies answering to shareholders will be reasonably compensated by a large public institution or country , for their products such as vaccines and therapeutics, added Sadikin.

The report describes medical countermeasures as a “global common good”, noting that inequities in access to these during COVID-19 “have left a lasting painful moral stain, and the resulting mistrust has affected negotiation of a pandemic agreement”.

Dr Petro Terblanche, CEO of Afrigen Biologics which hosts the WHO mRNA hub in South Africa, said that the world’s knowledge base around pandemic response had “tripled” in the past three years.

“Yet if we have a pandemic today, the Global North will move at speed and will be better prepared than three years ago because of the knowledge that we’ve been able to possess,” said Terblanche. But the position of the Global South would depend on “where these critical medical countermeasures are produced”.

The mRNA programme’s final outputs “are threatened now by lack of funding”, she said, urging investment in “end-to-end research and manufacturing capabilities in low and middle-income countries” to prepare for future pandemics.

“In 2023, the African continent had 155 outbreaks and for less than 10 of there, vaccines are available,” she noted.

“With Rift Valley Fever,  this is going to be an opportunity to develop a single vaccine using an antigen using mRNA to both for the vaccination of animals, livestock and humans,” said Terblanche, adding that such an approach should be prioritised  from a research and development and product development perspective.

 

Image Credits: Prachatai/Flickr, Wildlife Conservation Society .

Tilak Chandra Nath, TDR-supported fellow at the Indonesian Universitas Gadjah Mada

Growing up in Bangladesh where several infectious diseases transmitted by helminths (worms) take a large health toll, Tilak Chandra Nath has always been fascinated with the challenges of addressing diseases of poverty.

During his postgraduate training as a TDR-supported fellow at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Indonesia in 2016, he studied parasitic diseases, focusing on helminths, and he is currently using his knowledge to advance a One Health approach to eliminating those diseases in his home country.

After graduating as a biologist, Ezra Valido’s interest in infectious diseases took him to work in a rural, poor community in the eastern Philippines, where he headed public health programmes on tuberculosis, measles, dengue and chikungunya.

Valido’s community was devastated in 2013 by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded. From that, he gained experience working in the aftermath of a disaster, including how to prevent waterborne diseases and sanitation-related illnesses.

As a TDR-supported fellow, also at UGM in 2017, Valido’s research project focused on how willing people were to take doses of the dengue vaccine in poor communities in the Philippines’ Quezon City. His initial plan was to focus on how the vaccines were rolled out. But this had to be shelved after community and media outrage based on misinformation about the vaccine led the government to cancel its vaccination plans.

Focus on implementation research

Both Nath and Valido were part of a special postgraduate training programme focused on implementation research, based at UGM’s Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, located in Yogyakarta.

The programme, involving students from both WHO’s South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions, is supported by TDR, a global programme for research on diseases of poverty, hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, and co-sponsored by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), WHO and the World Bank.

UGM is part of TDR’s global postgraduate training scheme network, developed over the past  eight years to boost the skills of future research leaders.  

The initiative focuses on building students’ skills in implementation research, a fast-growing field that supports the identification of system bottlenecks to delivering health services and approaches to addressing them. It is particularly useful in low- and middle–income countries where many health interventions do not reach those who need them the most.

One of the two partner institutions in Asia Pacific is UGM, where the initiative is co-ordinated by Professor Yodi Mahendradhata, Dean of Research and Development at the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing. 

Involved from the start

Mahendradhata is proud of the fact that UGM was involved from the start – back in 2015 – in  TDR’s fellowship scheme as well as in the parallel development of course content for implementation research. So he feels considerable ownership over how it has evolved.

“It wasn’t just about receiving the tools and the toolkits, but being involved very early on in the development of the implementation research course, and that is what we particularly appreciate from TDR,” said Mahendradhata. “We learned a lot from participating in the development process, and that gives us a sense of ownership.”

His university has also developed and piloted lessons on implementation research as a part of a TDR-supported Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), enabling researchers in places like Nepal and Myanmar to participate in virtual training, with UGM as the hub.

Critical and relevant research

Valido is sanguine about how he had to shift the focus of his research on a new dengue vaccine from examining the standard parameters of mass rollout to focusing on the vaccine’s  acceptability in one city, Quezon, the biggest city in the Philippines.

Professor Yodi Mahendradhata

Sanofi Pasteur’s Dengvaxia vaccine was approved in the Philippines in December 2015, and the government started to roll it out to primary school children in 2016. However, in late 2017, Sanofi issued a statement reporting that, in rare cases, the vaccine could increase the risk of severe dengue illness in children who had never had the disease if they contracted the virus after being vaccinated. A public outcry followed, and the health department suspended the vaccine programme soon afterwards.

“While we were conducting the research, an update on the vaccine information caused a media frenzy which eventually led to its suspension and eventual cancellation,” he says. “We had to change the research and eventually looked at the change in the acceptability of the vaccine pre- and post-controversy.”

“The programme teaches you to be critical and relevant, and I had to change my research to remain relevant,” Valido says.“At the time, the Philippines was the only country implementing mass dengue vaccination in schools.”

Dengvaxia has since been approved in a number of countries, including the US – but only for people clinically proven to have had dengue in the past.

Valido enjoyed the opportunity to dissect the Filippino government’s plans for the vaccine’s implementation, focusing on “strategic actions, context and health system thinking.”

Meanwhile, Nath’s research into parasitic diseases gave him new insights into how they can be both managed and prevented.

“In developed countries, most parasitic diseases have been either eradicated or controlled, but the scenario is quite different in lower-income countries, where many diseases remain a serious constraint to public health safety,” says Nath.

“Through the TDR training programme,” he says, “I learned to investigate the problems in preventing these diseases in greater detail and pave the way to find an implementable solution for policy-makers to mitigate the burden.”

Preparing for the future

Following his studies at UGM, Nath continued his research training, completing a PhD in Medicine from the Chungbuk National University, in Korea, in the area of One Health.  He is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Parasitology at Sylhet Agricultural University in Bangladesh.

 In a sense he has come full-circle – bringing knowledge amassed through years of study abroad back to his home country to ponder issues that he wondered about since his youth.  

“I am now actively engaged with helminthiasis elimination and biobanking of parasites projects,” says Nath, who is currently also the director of Bangladesh’s Parasite Resource Bank, where he is investigating the interactions between human, animal, and environmental parasites, following the One Health approach. 

Meanwhile, Valido is working on the biomedical aspects of infectious diseases as a post-doctoral researcher at Swiss Paraplegic Research, where he is exploring the interaction of microbiomes and the spinal cord. He started this work while completing his PhD in Health Sciences at the University of Lucerne in Switzerland. 

Few scientists understand the biomedical aspects of infectious diseases and “the complexity of public health designs to improve health programmes, guide health policies and identify key health infrastructure,” Valido observes. The TDR training helped him to build that interdisciplinary skill set.

This is the first article in a series on TDR’s research capacity strengthening programme – building skills of public health researchers, implementers, health practitioners and policy-makers in the fast-developing field of implementation research for improving uptake of effective health interventions.

Nurses| Cameroon
Student nurses prepare for the morning rounds at the Ndop District Hospital in Bamenda, Cameroon

When nursing graduates in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) receive their hard-earned diplomas, they’re no longer cheered on only by proud family members and university faculty.

“The recruiters pitch up on the nurses’ graduation day in our country,” one delegate told me at the recent World Health Assembly (WHA).

It’s a striking image: nurses, newly educated by their home countries, swarmed by recruitment agencies hoping to attract them to wealthier nations experiencing staff shortages. Experienced and specialist nurses, including critical care nurses, are also being aggressively recruited, depriving their native countries of vital expertise.

Across a week of conversations with the world’s nurses, nurse leaders, and policymakers at this year’s WHA, a clear picture emerged of a worsening nursing migration crisis driven overwhelmingly by a small number of high-income nations, including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and certain Gulf states, poaching nurses from vulnerable countries in what some African healthcare leaders have called a “new form of colonialism”.

This is not only a workforce and staffing issue: it’s a public health and global equity issue that threatens the achievement of our shared UN sustainable development goals, including universal health coverage.

Tackling this requires immediate action on multiple fronts. We propose three key measures: a temporary ban on actively recruiting nurses from fragile health systems; a stronger WHO Global Code of Practice with robust monitoring and accountability mechanisms; and meaningful compensation for underresourced countries losing nurses to wealthier nations.

Our world’s most vulnerable health systems need us to develop, not deplete, their nursing workforce—and with crucial worldwide elections and the next G20 meeting fast approaching, now is the time to prioritise this issue on the global agenda.

To chart a path forward, we must first understand the current situation and how we got here. 

Deepening global inequalities

It’s important to protect individual nurses’ rights to migrate in search of better opportunities but the playing field is grossly unequal.

The distribution of the world’s nurses is strikingly uneven across regions — the State of the World’s Nursing report shows that just 3% (less than 1 million) of the world’s nurses are in Africa with over 80% in Europe, the Americas,  and the Western Pacific region. With up to a tenfold difference in nurses per capita between high- and low-income nations, this means affluent countries are recruiting from the most fragile health systems who can least afford to lose their workers.

At WHA, we heard repeated frustrations around high-income countries draining nurses from this scarce pool, offloading the costs of nursing workforce education and planning onto vulnerable nations. In Africa alone, one in ten nurses (and one in five doctors) now work outside the continent, stripping away desperately needed expertise.

Nursing density map
Nurse density maps show a stark divide between high and low-income countries.

We heard that small island states like Tonga and Fiji have suffered even more acute losses. At the Fiji National Economic Summit 2023, health leaders discussed losing 26.7% of their nurses the year previously — and at WHA, we heard that this trend has continued, with 20%–30% of Fiji’s nurses leaving year on year, mostly headed to countries like New Zealand and Australia. 

Stepping-stone migration 

We are seeing new patterns of “carousel migration”, where countries like New Zealand and the UK act as stepping stones for nurses who then go to other nations like Australia, evident in the number of overseas-trained nurses seeking Certificates of Current Professional Status (CCPS) which indicates they’re gearing up to work abroad. We also heard that Canada and Australia are actively recruiting from the UK, with advertisements plastered across public transport hubs urging UK-based nurses to make the move.

Graph of number of UK nurses trained overseas
More overseas-trained nurses are joining the UK workforce — but more of these nurses are then pursuing Certificates of Current Professional Status to practice elsewhere.

We know from historical data that migration left over 40% of nursing jobs in the English-speaking Caribbean unfilled, and the issue hasn’t improved — we heard from Jamaica that ~20% of Jamaica’s nurses were applying for credentials to leave.

Historically the Philippines has been a supplier of nurses for the world but we heard concerns from their representatives at losing a third of Filipino nurses overseas each year and the impact that has on meeting their own country health needs. This sounds a cautionary note on the  “educate-to-export” model that purposefully trains nurses as labour exports, which has been advocated for as a solution to the current global shortage. This is a risky policy that could widen health inequalities as the gap in numbers of nurses grows between source and destination countries — and it locks the sending countries into dependence on nursing exports rather than setting them on a path to sustainably grow their own healthcare workforce.

Crisis made worse by stopgap measures

Poor working conditions, limited opportunities, and economic strains in developing countries drive nurses to seek better salaries abroad. Even as vulnerable nations face nurse shortages, we are hearing that some lack employment for their nursing graduates due to underdeveloped health systems. They need high-income countries to support them in building robust health systems — rather than raiding their workforce. 

Over a year ago, ICN declared a global health emergency based on the global shortage of 6 million nurses and deep-seated health inequalities, exacerbated by the brain drain of skilled nurses from vulnerable nations. We are already off track on our global ambitions to achieve universal health coverage by 2030 — and rising levels of often aggressive and ethically questionable nurse recruitment is a major contributor, widening healthcare gaps and jeopardising our progress.

Nurses in high-income countries are ageing and burning out — and we are consistently seeing governments make the unethical and unsustainable choice to plug their staffing gaps by looking abroad, rather than addressing the root causes and investing in both educating and retaining their nurses. 

This is a short-sighted, leaky-bucket approach. It’s also self-defeating to simply try to turn the tap of nursing education to fully open, without fixing the holes of poor employment and working conditions that cause so may to leave. The failure to create decent working conditions and retain the valuable nurses we already have has led to an alarming rise in strike action by healthcare workers worldwide. Increased pressures on the nurses left behind in countries like Fiji and Tonga has sparked labour unrest.

In high-income destination countries like Sweden, where nurses are currently on strike, health leaders at WHA side events said “migration is being used to short-cut the issues of decent work and investment in the education, recruitment and retention of our health and care workers.” An unsustainable dependence on nurse immigration also undermines healthcare resilience and pandemic preparedness in wealthier nations — we saw how temporary blocks on health worker mobility during Covid left wealthier countries massively short staffed.

Reshaping global policy and practice 

The WHO’s Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel calls for countries to prioritise self-sufficiency by training and retaining domestic health staff and identifies vulnerable states off-limits for hiring unless bilateral agreements are in place where hiring countries invest in the source nation’s health workforce or education.

So far, though, we have seen little evidence for meaningful, well-defined bilateral agreements with clear financial commitments. Often, these agreements give more of a whiff of creating an ethical veneer than ensuring truly proportional and mutual benefits.

To actually stem the tide of nurse migration from developing countries, the Code must be drastically strengthened and universally and consistently enforced.

We need at least a temporary freeze on active recruitment of nurses from the world’s most fragile health systems.

We need a better system for monitoring and reporting on international nurse mobility, national self-sufficiency, and compliance with the Code, and we need measures to ensure accountability. Only seventy-seven countries, representing 55% of the world’s population, are currently reporting their health worker migration information to WHO. At a time when we need nations to take this worsening issue more seriously than ever, European countries are actually reporting less than in previous years — fewer than half submitted data to WHO in the latest reporting round.

WHO code reporting graph
The last round of global WHO code reporting shows major gaps in the participating countries.

We need wealthier countries to compensate vulnerable countries when recruiting from them, by directly investing longer-term in their health infrastructure and education, perhaps through an “offsetting” program akin to carbon credits.

Above all, we need to act now — we cannot afford to wait until next year’s WHA to address this burning problem.

That is why the International Council of Nurses is calling on the G20 heads of state to make effective implementation of ethical health worker migration policies a central agenda item when they convene in November.

Building self-sufficient nursing workforces is the only way to achieve our global goals of health for all.

Howard Catton, a registered nurse, is the Chief Executive Officer of the International Council of Nurses, a federation of more than 130 National Nursing Associations representing the 29 million nurses worldwide. He has worked extensively on nursing and healthcare workforce issues, co-chaired the first State of the World’s Nursing Report, led ICN’s efforts to support nurses during the pandemic, and continually advocates for health in all policies and the essential contribution of the nursing profession to addressing the global health agenda.

Image Credits: © Dominic Chavez/The Global Financing Facility, State of the World’s Nursing Report, UK Health Foundation, WHO, Studioregard.ch.

Alzheimer's Disease and dementia can lead to loneliness in old age.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia found in elderly people.

Around 55 million people worldwide live with dementia, and an estimated 60% to 80% of those individuals suffer from Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That number is expected to increase to around 139 million within 25 years.

Projections from the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis indicate that by 2025, the demand for neurologists will surpass the available supply across all regions of the United States. Access to specialist services is already restricted or nonexistent in some low- and middle-income countries. Consequently, many individuals with cognitive impairments do not and will not receive proper evaluations, and it is anticipated that access to dementia specialists will become increasingly constrained in the future.

Already, data suggests that 31- 74% of patients with symptomatic AD are not identified, which can lead to delays in care, administration of inappropriate therapies and incorrect prognostic guidance.

Last week, a peer-reviewed article was published in Nature Reviews Neurology by the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer’s Disease BBM (blood biomarker) Workgroup, highlighting why “blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease promise to provide an earlier and more accurate diagnosis for many patients with cognitive impairment.”

“Some currently available blood tests are extremely accurate while others are little better than flipping a coin,” explained Workgroup lead Suzanne Schindler. “We worked with many stakeholders to develop minimum standards for the accuracy of these blood tests because we know that a timely and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease has a major impact on a patient’s life.”

Since 2021, new treatments for AD that modify the disease’s progression have started to be used in clinical practice. The FDA has approved two amyloid-β antibody treatments, aducanumab and lecanemab, and is currently reviewing a third, donanemab. These therapies are designed for early stages of AD, including mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia, and require confirmation of amyloid plaques in the brain before starting treatment.

Anti-amyloid treatments help by targeting and removing beta-amyloid, a protein that forms plaques in the brain. Each therapy works uniquely, targeting different stages of plaque formation.

The team wrote in its paper that because Amyloid PET and CSF tests have limitations and aren’t easy to scale up, BBM tests are likely to become the primary method for diagnosing Alzheimer’s. They said that BBM tests are more convenient and accessible and can quickly increase in number to meet the rising demand. They can also be used in primary care (like your regular doctor’s office) and secondary care (specialist clinics), making them a practical option for more widespread testing and treatment.

“The backdrop that’s important to understand here is that the current state of the Alzheimer’s disease diagnostic pathway has at least two primary bottlenecks, including long wait times to see brain health specialists, made worse by overwhelmed primary care providers who lack the practical tools, operational support and standardized assessment process to triage patients effectively,” Tim MacLeod, director of the Healthcare System Preparedness Program of the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative (DAC), told Health Policy Watch.

“Traditional diagnostic inputs to inform an Alzheimer’s diagnosis are typically expensive and not readily accessible. Current methods may include lumbar puncture to collect cerebral spinal fluid and imaging such as positron emission tomography or magnetic resonance imaging.

“Blood biomarkers are a promising tool that could help make the diagnostic pathway more time and resource-efficient,” he continued, commenting in general and not on the new Nature report specifically.

The BBM Workgroup recommended that a BBM test have a sensitivity of ≥90 percent, with a specificity of ≥85 percent in primary care and ≥75–85% in secondary care, depending on the availability of follow-up testing.

The CEOi BBM Workgroup, which includes 90 stakeholders from healthcare, academia, non-profit, government, venture capital, industry, and patient advocacy, said its performance standards can be used for any test and does not endorse any specific BBM test. Its standards reflect an expert consensus, marking the first time stakeholders have united to establish a common framework.

The group said that “by adhering to these performance standards, high-quality BBM tests have the potential to revolutionize Alzheimer’s diagnosis, enabling more patients to receive the timely and accurate assessment of whether they may wish to consider using newly approved disease-modifying treatments.”

“A delayed diagnosis to a later stage of the disease will effectively deny access to current and promising disease-modifying treatments,” commented George Vradenburg, founding chairman of the DAC. “Diagnosis delayed will mean treatment denied.”

Health care 'ecosystems'
George Vradenburg participates in a private Davos panel discussion on building better health “ecosystems”

‘Significant Challenges’

However, MacLeod said, “Unsurprisingly, as we watch health systems plan, we’re observing that while specialty sites of care may have a diagnostic pathway, there are significant challenges in making those pathways scalable through the addition of primary care.”

He said, for example, that figuring out how primary care teams can identify patients who need a blood test is a widespread challenge. This process demands significant operational changes and better cooperation across different practice areas. Additionally, there are practical issues like limited access to specialists and long referral wait times. In some cases, providers within their system are skeptical about the availability and effectiveness of treatment and support options, further complicating the efforts of primary care providers to address cognitive complaints.

To address these challenges, the DAC has launched a new initiative across health systems in five countries. This initiative uses BBMs and confirmatory diagnostic testing to improve the timely and accurate diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Managed by the DAC Healthcare System Preparedness (DAC-SP) team, the Accurate Diagnosis project is the first global research program to explore the integration of blood biomarkers in the ADRD diagnostic process.

“This program – implemented in both primary and specialty care centers – will help us understand the barriers to implementing blood biomarkers and the ways in which blood may help drive efficiencies in the diagnostic process,” MacLeod told Health Policy Watch.

Healthcare systems in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States will implement, evaluate, and share insights on using BBMs and confirmatory Alzheimer’s pathology testing. This project aims to integrate these tests, typically used in research, into routine clinical practice, speeding up the adoption of validated tools for timely patient care.

Sites were chosen based on their scientific and clinical expertise and their ability to reach diverse patient populations in terms of age, race, ethnicity, education, socioeconomic status, and geographic location, DAC said. The initial sites include:

  • University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
  • Wake Forest University School of Medicine
  • Alzheimer Center Amsterdam at Amsterdam UMC
  • Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
  • Ludwig-Maximilians University (LMU) Hospital Munich – Alzheimer’s Therapy and Research Center
  • Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology

“The project sites are just beginning … to get patients enrolled this summer and hope to have results to share in 2026,” MacLeod shared. “One of the primary aims of this program is to make implementation easier for other health systems that want to implement this type of program.

To that end, we will co-design a blueprint with site leaders informed by our research learning that will help translate lessons learned and effective implementation strategies into pragmatic, actionable tools that can be harnessed by health system leaders.

“Additionally, by using implementation science methods, we are uniquely positioned to learn as we go,” MacLeod continued. “We are already seeing learnings emerge in the start-up phase that we expect will be of great benefit to future health systems wanting to use blood biomarkers in their practice. And by bringing the site leaders together for a monthly community of practice, they have the unique benefit of being able to share their learnings with one another and get creative as they navigate common challenges in their project planning.”

MacLeod stressed that “the stakes are really important here” as an accurate diagnosis is a necessary first step toward receiving interventions such as lifestyle modifications, pharmacological treatments, education, support, practical care and legal planning.

“As new treatments become available, pinpointing the patients who can benefit most from them will be essential since current treatments and interventions are effective when administered at earlier stages of the disease,” MacLeod said. “This is the first time [an implementation study of BBMs] has been done. Our goal is to speed up research and get directly to the patient faster.

“This is a very optimistic time for the field.”

Image Credits: Photo by Steven HWG on Unsplash, John Heilprin.

Mpox lesions

Seven cases of “severe Mpox” have been confirmed in South Africa, and two of those diagnosed have since died.

All cases involve men in their thirties living with co-morbidities – most notably HIV. Five of the seven identified as “men who have sex with men,” according to the South African Department of Health.

None of the confirmed cases had travelled to countries with ongoing Mpox outbreaks.

The country is waiting for a consignment of Mpox vaccines to arrive as well as the treatment, tecovirimat, according to Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla. 

“These vaccines will not be procurements but donations co-ordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi,” Phaahla told a media briefing.

Once these arrive, the health department intends to offer free vaccinations to four  groups it regards as most at risk: men who have sex with men, sex workers, health workers and laboratory workers.

The seven patients’ known contacts are also being monitored for 21 days.

“The cases in South Africa were only detected in very sick individuals, highlighting that the epidemic is probably much bigger and that we need more diagnosis and contact tracing,” according to Professor Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa.

The cases were confirmed by South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). Available sequence data from three cases revealed the circulation of Clade IIb, the Mpox strain that led to the largest multi-country Mpox outbreak in 2022.

“We are committed to supporting South Africa in securing the necessary doses of Mpox vaccines, and building capacity for event-based surveillance focusing on community and health facility,” said Dr Jean Kaseya, the Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention after meeting South Africa’s health minister.

“An Mpox outbreak anywhere is a threat everywhere. We call for swift and urgent action to increase access to Mpox diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics for all affected African countries.” 

Since January, seven African countries have reported Mpox, with a total of 8,479 cases and 401 deaths as of 14 June. The vast majority of cases – 97% – are from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Image Credits: Tessa Davis/Twitter .

WHO is working with countries to scale up oxygen access, particularly in low- and middle-income countries but the requirement is a mystery.

The COVID pandemic brought into focus the life-saving role of medical oxygen – but the stock of oxygen is still severely limited in low- and middle-income countries, and many don’t know how much oxygen they need.

Despite wide-ranging efforts to improve access to oxygen and oxygen delivery devices over the past four years, services in low- and middle-income countries remain severely limited, according to a study by the World Health Organization (WHO), published in October 2023.

WHO investigators estimate that non-invasive advanced respiratory support is needed for around 1% to 3% of patient beds, and for 2%–25% of those on ventilators, depending on the region. The world health body has cautioned that these are preliminary trends and not the final findings.

But basic oxygen and the oxygen delivery devices remain severely limited in many countries, as is data about needs and gaps.

“Pre-pandemic oxygen needs and post-pandemic oxygen needs are likely to be similar with appropriate adjustments for population growth over time,” Lisa Smith who leads the Market Dynamics programme at the global health non-profit PATH, told Health Policy Watch.

“Oxygen needs to continue to be a central focus of reliable healthcare access. Initiatives that promote its improved access mustn’t slow now that the pandemic is passed. Instead, there should be sustained investment that ensures countries are resilient in the face of efficient spread of disease and with that, unexpected fluctuations in oxygen demand,” she said.

The WHO convened a three-day meeting in May in Dakar, Senegal, where participants shared best practices and gaps that the pandemic period revealed, and the challenges in scaling up their national plans. WHO aims to come up with a template that will allow member states to develop their own evidence-based national plans.

Discussions at the meeting addressed the need for technical support for countries to improve their safety standards to prevent accidents and fires. They also covered issues such as sustainable financing, better workforce planning, and public-private partnership potential to improve access.

Lack of data on the need

The key issue highlighted was the lack of understanding of just how much oxygen is needed, and where the need is.

“The data just almost doesn’t exist,” said Nahreen Ahmed, Medical Director of non-profit MedGlobal that works in crisis and conflict zones. “And there’s almost always a shortage of human resources. And because of that, there isn’t somebody that’s actually allocated to collect this data and then there isn’t like a system that it goes. I think if there was a general registry of some kind that was always available for this information to enter into, I think that would probably help,” she said.

She also highlighted that just as the pandemic where the need for oxygen went up dramatically, in conflict zones the need fluctuates wildly depending on whether it is a period of stability or conflict.

“It’s a two-part question, really, what’s the baseline use? And then what is the anticipated need when there is an escalation of something whether it’s a natural disaster, epidemic, conflict, something like that,” Ahmed said.

A representative from India shared that the multiple platforms developed to gauge oxygen use during the pandemic are no longer used as hospitals don’t feel the need to spend time entering the data. He added that multiple platforms meant that the data was duplicated – highlighting not just the need for better technology but also better coordination.

As of 2024 an estimated 200,000 cubic meters of oxygen a day is required for oxygen needs in all low-and middle-income countries, according to a PATH tracker, established during the pandemic.

The trackers developed during the pandemic are no longer helpful now.

“The needs tracker does not estimate oxygen requirements for all treatment indications (it is currently COVID-19-specific). If it did, the total figures would be higher, however the trend in need since the pandemic would still show a decline until it levelled off/returned to typical fluctuations due to disease seasonality,” Smith told Health Policy Watch about the PATH tracker.

During the pandemic, WHO officials made the case to re-think oxygen as a health tool that requires a sustainable supply at the country level, as Health Policy Watch reported earlier.

Power cuts, fire hazards

Representatives of developing countries highlighted how the lack of basics like a reliable power source affects an oxygen plant’s ability to supply high-quality oxygen.

“If we expect to have an uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen we have to have an uninterrupted supply of power in order to produce it,” said Jim Stunkel, Vice President of Technical Services at global non-profit Assist International. He added that the solutions might have to be beyond the traditional grid. “Grid may not be it. I was so impressed by those that are innovating, looking forward to green solutions and solar solutions,” he said.

Across the world health facilities have been employing green solutions to run basic facilities, and while the usage for oxygen plants is currently limited, the meeting shone light on the potential to expand access of green energy sources.

Another challenge is the fire hazard posed by a sudden scale-up of oxygen in a health facility, and the need for improved safety protocols. During the pandemic, several catastrophic fires broke out in health facilities around the world, killing hundreds of people.

The WHO Access to Oxygen Initiative provides technical and operational support to Member States.

Image Credits: Unsplash, PATH, WHO, Twitter.

From a luxury good to a part of daily diets, sugary drinks pose a growing risk to health in developing as well as developed countries.

In a first for healthier diets, WHO has issued a “strong recommendation” that countries tax sugar-sweetened beverages as part of a wider effort to combat the powerful health impacts of the industrial foods industry – whose marketing of sugar, sodium and fat-laced, processed foods is linked with millions of deaths annually.

WHO also issued more “conditional” recommendations in favor of the taxation of unhealthy foods and the subsidizing of healthier options, in its new guidelines on “Fiscal Policies to Promote Healthy Diets,” launched Friday. 

The first-ever WHO recommendations on food pricing policies comes only days after a scathing report by WHO’s European Region, that found unhealthy foods amongst the top four commercial products that cause some 19 million deaths annually worldwide, including 2.7 million deaths in the WHO’s European Region. 

“We need more comprehensive policies,” said Francesco Branca, head of WHO’s Department of Nutrition, at a Friday launch event. 

The guidelines are the result of a painstaking process of evaluation of dozens of studies on taxation policies as they affect foods – in line with stringent WHO requirements.   

Ample evidence from studies looking at sugar sweetened beverages led to a strong recommendation for more taxation of the drinks that are associated with Type 2 diabetes and other noncommunicable disease conditions, Branca and other experts at the event stated. 

WHO recommendations on tax policies for other types of healthy and unhealthy foods, containing excessive fat, salt or processing were more “conditional” due largely to the smaller range of studies on those linkages. 

Sugar sweetened drinks 

Taxes on unhealthy foods and sugary drinks, by country.

While some 115 countries do impose taxes on comparable international brands of sugar-sweetened drinks, the tax rate is “really low at 6.6% of the beverage price,” Branca said. 

And nearly half of the countries that impose such taxes “also include unsweetened beverages like mineral water, which is not unhealthy,” said Branca – effectively canceling out any financial incentive to switch to healthier alternatives. 

Only 25% of country specifically target sugar sweetened drinks, as such, he said, concluding that  “the value is low, the modalities of the tax are not ideal.”

Taxing unhealthy foods 

Nutrition
Between 1975 and 2016, southern Africa saw the world’s highest proportional increase in child and adolescent obesity – 400% per decade. Ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks have been named as a key factor in the rising rates.

Meanwhile, only about 41 countries impose taxes on unhealthy foods that contain excessive levels of  saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, free sugars, salts and are highly processed, the analysis  found. 

Such foods are associated with a wide-range of non-communicable disease conditions from added risks of high blood pressure (in the case of salt), to cardiovascular conditions, in the case of saturated fats, and cancers (in the case of processed meat). 

Although the WHO recommendation about taxing such unhealthy foods is more “conditional,” the report still rebuts a key argument against taxes against unhealthy foods as well as unhealthy beverages, saying:  

“The regressivity of a food tax is a common argument used by opponents of such taxes. However, this argument is based solely on the tax burden incurred by consumers and does not consider the health and economic harm caused by excessive consumption of foods that do not contribute to a healthy diet. 

“While considering the financial impact on lower-income populations, policymakers should strive

to design tax structures that target foods that do not contribute to a healthy diet, encouraging a shift towards healthier options,” the report concludes. “This approach aims to strike a balance between safeguarding affordability of foods that contribute to a healthy diet for all income groups, while discouraging foods the consumption of which is associated with negative health outcomes.”

Subsidizing healthier alternatives 

NCD
Shifts from traditional diets based on local fresh foods to ultraprocessed foods is a driver of the worldwide rise of NCDs.

In terms of subsidizing healthy foods, WHO’s conditional recommendation was based on “evidence form a subset of targeted food subsidies that provide price incentives to consumers at the retail level, including through rebates, tax breaks, discounts, coupons or vouchers, on targeted foods. 

Such subsidies should be applied to foods that are “nutrient-dense, rich in naturally occurring

fibre and/or unsaturated fatty acids, low in saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, free sugars and/or salt, free of non-sugar sweeteners, and/or the consumption of which is associated with positive health outcomes,” WHO recommended. 

Insofar as low-income groups often suffer anyway from food insecurity, food subsidies for healthier foods also can help reduce nutrition related inequalities – for a dual health benefit, the WHO report concludes. 

Even though the body of health-related evidence is insufficient to recommend “specific policy design elements,” the WHO recommendation is supported by evidence about the “probable acceptability and feasibility, probably favourable cost-effectiveness, and the potential for the intervention to increase equity and support human rights,” the guideline’s authors concluded. 

Additionally, they note that unrelated to health, there is ample evidence that “price changes that affect the cost of food can influence decisions on food purchases. So it stands to reason that a subsidy on foods can provide an incentive to purchase.”

Country scorecards

Mexican media campaign warning consumers of the health risks of sugary drinks.

The guidelines also recommend more careful study and monitoring of national food policies – to determine better what works and what doesn’t in terms of taxes, pricing and incentives.  

An interactive WHO global database on food and nutrition action (GIFNA), is being developed and updated to provide ratings and scorecards of national performance on key food related nutrition indicators.  

This data base includes global mappings as well as national “scorecards” on policies vis a vis dietary risk factors like  sugary drinks, phase out of trans-fats, high sodium content, and taxes on unhealthy foods overall.   

Image Credits: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Heala_SA/Twitter, WHO, Dr Alexey Kulikov/Twitter, WHO.

Lydia Zigomo, the Regional Director of UNFPA East and Southern Africa during a press conference Tuesday stressed the need for more funding to support women and girls in during crises.

As many as 65 million people in over a dozen Southern and Eastern African countries from Mozambique to Ethiopia are facing unprecedented challenges with food security, extreme weather events and conflict, UN officials say.

The crises disproportionately affect women, who are already in a more vulnerable situation due to their gender, said Lydia Zigomo, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Director at a Geneva press conference Tuesday. As “they find themselves displaced far from family planning clinics and national healthcare, the risk of violence soars and unintended pregnancies become a harsh reality,” Zigomo said. 

El Niño led to floodings and  worst drought in 40 years

In a region that is already “no stranger to adversity,” fourteen countries have been exceptionally affected by the recent El Niño season which led to droughts of more than 50 days in most places, marking this period as the driest in 40 years, she noted. 

Among those are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

But El Niño also caused historic flooding, said Liesbeth Aelbrecht, WHO’s Incident Manager for the Greater Horn of Africa during the same press briefing. After a four-year drought, the Horn of Africa region was hit by torrential rains and floods affecting about 1,6 million people across Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, and Tanzania. 

The floods also have a significant health toll, from direct effects like injury and infection to cholera outbreaks as a result of water contamination or prolonged mental health impacts. New cholera outbreaks have been reported in Kenya and Uganda (313 and 32 cases in 2024, until the end of April, according to the WHO), along with an increase in cases in other countries, reaching over 80 000 cases in 14 countries this year. Floodwaters are also a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which in turn exacerbates the risks for malaria, dengue or Rift Valley Fever.

Gender based violence haunts Ethiopia 

In Northern Ethiopia, the number of people at risk of gender-based violence has risen to 7.2 million, compared to 6.7 million in 2023. The recent conflict in the Tigray region has left only 3% of its healthcare facilities fully functioning in 2022, which is still affecting the local health system, Zigomo said.

Tigray refugees on the move over the past year to escape Ethiopan and Eritrean forces

The UNFPA response network includes mobile clinics staffed with midwives and health professionals that service remote areas with reproductive health services as well as services for those experiencing gender based violence – including HIV testing, family planning and psychosocial support.

Zigomo appealed for more funds to secure those operations – which otherwise would have been slashed by half or more by the end of the year. So far, UNFPA has reached only about 20% of its global fundraising goal of $1.2 billion for 2024, Zigomo said, saying the global community should consider this not only as a plea for help, but also an opportunity to “turn the tide” and ensure protection of reproductive health as well as an adequate gender based violence prevention.

“Resilience lies within our grasp,” persuaded Zigomo, as she appealed for more donations. “Today, I want to emphasize hope, hope that stems from our collective efforts,” she added.

Image Credits: © UNFPA/Sufian Abdul-Mouty.