Despite much lost sleep for members of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) this week, it is impossible for consensus on a pandemic agreement to be reached by the end of Friday (10 May), the last day of this final round of negotiations. Various negotiators Health Policy Watch that they did not […] Continue reading ->
In January, Ugandan LGBTQ activist Steven Kabuye was stabbed multiple times by two men travelling on a motorbike and left for dead on the outskirts of Kampala, the country’s capital city. The 25-year-old, who had received several death threats after Uganda’s Parliament passed its Anti-Homosexuality Act last May, criminalising LGBTQ people, said that the attackers […] Continue reading ->
      A milestone World Health Organization (WHO) decision to recognise noma (cancrum oris or gangrenous stomatitis) as a neglected tropical disease (NTD) is the result of a longstanding campaign waged for over a decade by global health researchers and advocates in Geneva and beyond. Proponents believe that inclusion can offer noma’s victims the […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s director general says the battle against maternal mortality has stalled; Somalia calls for a new WHA resolution committing to stepped-up action on maternal and child deaths, a leading global health inequality.  The battle against maternal mortality has stagnated and high rates of deaths continue to plague sub-Saharan Africa, as well as other low- and […] Continue reading ->
The United States described a four-pronged strategy to accelerate the eradication of polio globally at the WHO Executive Board session on poliomyelitis on Thursday. No. 1: Halt circulation in Afghanistan, Pakistan The first action, the U.S. representative said, would be the intensification of efforts to halt the circulation of the wild poliovirus in Afghanistan and […] Continue reading ->
WHO Executive Board delegates on Thursday gave the green light to a draft proposal by Switzerland cementing the framework for a new WHO “Health for Peace” initiative. The move marked a bright spot in a day otherwise marked by heated debates over regional conflicts, including Gaza and  Ukraine.  The Health and Peace initiative was first […] Continue reading ->
Discussion about non-communicable diseases (NCDs) opened a Pandora’s Box of problems at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) executive board meeting on Wednesday. Not a single country is on track to achieve all nine voluntary global NCD targets for 2025, according to the Director-General’s report, which appealed to member countries for input on how they can […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization’s (WHO) executive board discussed ways to deliver Universal Health Coverage (UHC) on Wednesday, and while most member states expressed support for UHC, they highlighted bottlenecks of lack of finance and  trained healthcare workers for being off track with its implementation. In its report to the board, the WHO estimated that over […] Continue reading ->