Negotiators' agreed draft text for a United Nations political declaration on ending tuberculosis worldwide has been posted for all member states to see, and negotiators hope, not comment on. Under a UN procedure, the text has been placed "under silence" until 10:00am New York time on 14 September. If no one breaks the silence, the text is considered agreed and will advance to the High-Level Meeting on tuberculosis on 26 September as part of the annual UN General Assembly. Continue reading ->
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the official end of USAID, eliminating the world’s largest humanitarian aid agency just days after a landmark study warned the closure would cause 2.4 million preventable deaths every year. The study published 30 June in The Lancet found USAID-supported programs saved 92 million lives in low- and middle-income countries […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced his new team of 36 directors at headquarters on Tuesday, according to an internal message to WHO staff, seen by Health Policy Watch. Nine of the appointments, including key positions heading the Departments of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, and the newly-combined Department of Environment, […] Continue reading ->
Governments have been advised to impose ‘sin taxes’ on tobacco, alcohol and other unhealthy products to offset the severity of cuts to official development assistance (ODA), World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a tuberculosis meeting on Thursday. His statements came two days after the administration of US President Donald Trump […] Continue reading ->
In Nukus, Uzbekistan, 34-year-old surgical nurse Dilaram was devastated when she was diagnosed with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).  But instead of facing the standard treatment, including nearly 15,000 pills to be taken over two years and painful injections causing severe side effects, she could enrol in TB-PRACTECAL, the MSF-led clinical trial testing an all-oral, six-month regimen […] Continue reading ->
African countries at the World Health Assembly called for increased support to health systems across the continent following major cuts to all World Health Organization (WHO) regional office budgets amid a financial crisis triggered by the US withdrawal from the agency and falling global health spending. The African region suffered the largest total cut, losing […] Continue reading ->