Scaling up six climate and health measures worldwide could prevent 1.6 million deaths a year and generate $3.9 trillion in economic benefits annually, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, days before the COP31 climate talks open in Antalya, Türkiye. Five of the six measures, from improved heat-health warning systems to cleaner household fuels, […] Continue reading ->
One in every four of all adolescents worldwide are getting less than an hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) study. This translates to around 240 million young people between the ages of 11-17 who are not getting the critical exercise needed to develop into […] Continue reading ->
Hanan Balkhy, Saudi Arabia’s candidate for WHO Director General, is especially concerned about antibiotic resistance, the effects of climate change on health, and healthcare in conflict zones. She also warns about a “normalisation” of attacks on hospitals and healthcare workers in conflict regions. As a longtime WHO insider, she is also well aware that the […] Continue reading ->
While substantial progress has been made in driving down the global burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), trends are “uneven and fragile”, and several diseases are off course to meet 2030 targets. This is according to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Report on Neglected Tropical Diseases 2026, a mid-term evaluation of the 2021-2030 road […] Continue reading ->
In the late 1990s, doctors treating sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease spread by tsetse flies that is almost always fatal without treatment, still relied on melarsoprol, an arsenic-based drug that killed roughly one patient in 20. One patient given melarsoprol in 2003 later recalled the injection “felt like fire” being injected into his veins, turning […] Continue reading ->
France’s Ambassador for Global Health, Dr Anne-Claire Amprou, is joining the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO) body negotiating the missing piece of the Pandemic Agreement at a crucial moment. Amprou co-chaired the last stage of Pandemic Agreement talks, which eventually found consensus. However, consensus has eluded WHO member states on the pathogen access […] Continue reading ->
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first generic version of lenacapavir, the highly effective twice-yearly injection to prevent HIV, developed by Dr Reddy’s Laboratories based in India. Dr Reddy’s was one of six pharmaceutical manufacturers that was granted a non-exclusive, royalty-free voluntary licensing agreement from Gilead, which developed lenacapavir. The agreement, […] Continue reading ->
Cuts to Medicaid, the health services for low-income Americans, and fewer childhood immunisations – alongside persistent insinuations that vaccines are unsafe – are the most significant health policy changes made by the Trump administration since January 2025. They have been accompanied by reduced food support for low-income families, purges of scientists, and slashed research budgets. […] Continue reading ->
Returning to lead the Global Fund, Mark Dybul argues that the future of global health lies with domestic health systems, not agency mergers in Geneva. Evoking the founding ambition of the early 2000s, the incoming executive director explains how the Accra Reset and US bilateral aid can align under unified national plans – and how […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), its highest alarm level, twice within two years, in 2022 and 2024. But “preventable health emergencies are a sign of failure”, said Helen Clark, co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. “They happen when community health care […] Continue reading ->