[WHO News Release]

One in four health care facilities around the world lacks basic water services, impacting over 2 billion people, according to a new report by WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (JMP).

The WHO/UNICEF JMP report, WASH in Health Care Facilities, is the first comprehensive global assessment of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in health care facilities. It also finds that one in five health care facilities has no sanitation service*, impacting 1.5 billion people. The report further reveals that many health centres lack basic facilities for hand hygiene and safe segregation and disposal of health care waste. Continue reading ->

Image Credits: WHO.

[DNDi Press Release]

Geneva, Switzerland – 2 April 2019

Continued close collaboration with founding partners will strengthen GARDP’s efforts to address AMR

The Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) is now an independent legal entity following a successful three-year incubation, hosted by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). During this time, GARDP has already begun working with partners to develop antibiotics to tackle drug-resistant infections which pose a threat to global health and development, including the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.Continue reading ->

Image Credits: GARDP.

In 2015, Sub-Saharan Africans lost 630 million “healthy life years” as a result of sickness and disease, amounting to an estimated loss of $US 2.4 trillion for the region, a new study finds. These economic losses, it says, emphasise the need for increased investment in health financing in Africa to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Continue reading ->

Image Credits: WHO Regional Office for Africa.

Expanding access to costly cancer treatments and the high price of new generation insulin formulas were among the controversial topics of debate today as the WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines convened for its biennial update of the list of over 400 drugs deemed most essential for treating public health needs globally. Continue reading ->

Image Credits: Flickr/Takacsi75.

In extended conflicts, “bullets and bombs are not always the deadliest threats to a child’s life,” a new UNICEF report reveals. During such conflicts, children are up to 20 times more likely to die from diarrhoea than violence. As is evidenced by recent outbreaks of cholera in Yemen and Mozambique, conflict and disaster-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene systems can be a matter of life and death.Continue reading ->

Image Credits: UNICEF.

[WHO News Release]

From Geert Cappelaere, UNICEF Regional Director in the Middle East and North Africa and Dr Ahmed Al Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean

MUSCAT/ AMMAN/CAIRO, 26 March 2019 – “In Yemen, since the beginning of the year until 17 March, nearly 109 000 cases of severe acute watery diarrhoea and suspected cholera were reported with 190 total associated deaths since January. Nearly one third of the reported cases are children under the age of 5. This comes 2 years since Yemen witnessed the world-largest outbreak when more than 1 million cases were reported.Continue reading ->

Image Credits: WHO.