Sexual Violence Surges in Eastern DRC as Conflict and Ebola Overwhelm Health System 30/07/2026 Stefan Anderson Panzi Hospital, a facility in South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a region overrun by a civil war that has displaced millions, recorded an 85% increase in newly reported survivors of sexual violence in the first six months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, according to a […] Continue reading -> Adjusting to a Post-PEPFAR World 30/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Zambia is hopeful that it can reach an agreement with the United States to salvage funds for its HIV programme, but South Africa remains frozen out of any new US funding for its HIV programme, government officials told journalists at a media briefing at the International AIDS Conference on Wednesday. Last […] Continue reading -> ‘Fire-Breathing Dragon Clouds’: The Health Threat of Wildfire Smoke Choking Europe and the World 29/07/2026 Stefan Anderson Nine miles south of the picturesque French city of Bordeaux, firefighters are at war with a phenomenon straight out of an apocalyptic epic. Scientists call them pyrocumulonimbus, or PyroCbs. NASA calls them the “fire-breathing dragon of clouds”. The port capital of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, normally bustling with tourists at peak season, is instead drowned in smog, so […] Continue reading -> New HIV Frontier: The Fight to Access Long-Acting Prevention Drugs 29/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – News that an antiretroviral drug injected twice a year had prevented almost all HIV infection in trials electrified the HIV sector two years ago – but access to Gilead’s lenacapavir has been slow, particularly for countries in Latin America. Brazil, which faces significant HIV transmission in certain groups, has been routinely […] Continue reading -> EXCLUSIVE: WHO Regional Directors Running for Director-General Must Take Leave for Campaign 28/07/2026 Felix Sassmannshausen In a first, WHO Regional Directors must take a leave of absence to run for the top job, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed to Health Policy Watch on Monday. This sweeping election reform closes a crucial loophole in the ongoing Director-General election process, aiming to curb shadow campaigns just as the first candidates officially […] Continue reading -> New Unitaid Head Gets High Marks – but Can He Save the Organization? 28/07/2026 Elaine Ruth Fletcher Luis Pizarro, Unitaid’s newly-appointed Executive Director comes to the organization with sizeable depth and breadth of experience – as the leader of Geneva’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and before that, leadership of ventures in Africa, Asia and the Americas. However, his main challenge at Unitaid will be steadying the financially troubled organization, which […] Continue reading -> US Drives 25% Plunge in HIV Funding in 2025 27/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Donor funding for HIV dropped by 25% in 2025 – a staggering drop of $2.1 billion – driven by the United States slashing its funding, according to analyses by KFF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). This is the largest single-year drop ever, reducing funds to 2007 levels, according […] Continue reading -> Africa’s New Medicines Regulator Wants to be More than Another Approval Channel 27/07/2026 Paul Adepoju When the African Medicines Agency became operational in Kigali in October 2025, it inherited one of the continent’s most difficult health-policy problems: how to make medicines regulation faster, more trusted and less fragmented across 55 African Union member states. For years, African countries have relied on a patchwork of national regulators, regional harmonisation initiatives, WHO […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Adjusting to a Post-PEPFAR World 30/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Zambia is hopeful that it can reach an agreement with the United States to salvage funds for its HIV programme, but South Africa remains frozen out of any new US funding for its HIV programme, government officials told journalists at a media briefing at the International AIDS Conference on Wednesday. Last […] Continue reading -> ‘Fire-Breathing Dragon Clouds’: The Health Threat of Wildfire Smoke Choking Europe and the World 29/07/2026 Stefan Anderson Nine miles south of the picturesque French city of Bordeaux, firefighters are at war with a phenomenon straight out of an apocalyptic epic. Scientists call them pyrocumulonimbus, or PyroCbs. NASA calls them the “fire-breathing dragon of clouds”. The port capital of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, normally bustling with tourists at peak season, is instead drowned in smog, so […] Continue reading -> New HIV Frontier: The Fight to Access Long-Acting Prevention Drugs 29/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – News that an antiretroviral drug injected twice a year had prevented almost all HIV infection in trials electrified the HIV sector two years ago – but access to Gilead’s lenacapavir has been slow, particularly for countries in Latin America. Brazil, which faces significant HIV transmission in certain groups, has been routinely […] Continue reading -> EXCLUSIVE: WHO Regional Directors Running for Director-General Must Take Leave for Campaign 28/07/2026 Felix Sassmannshausen In a first, WHO Regional Directors must take a leave of absence to run for the top job, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed to Health Policy Watch on Monday. This sweeping election reform closes a crucial loophole in the ongoing Director-General election process, aiming to curb shadow campaigns just as the first candidates officially […] Continue reading -> New Unitaid Head Gets High Marks – but Can He Save the Organization? 28/07/2026 Elaine Ruth Fletcher Luis Pizarro, Unitaid’s newly-appointed Executive Director comes to the organization with sizeable depth and breadth of experience – as the leader of Geneva’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and before that, leadership of ventures in Africa, Asia and the Americas. However, his main challenge at Unitaid will be steadying the financially troubled organization, which […] Continue reading -> US Drives 25% Plunge in HIV Funding in 2025 27/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Donor funding for HIV dropped by 25% in 2025 – a staggering drop of $2.1 billion – driven by the United States slashing its funding, according to analyses by KFF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). This is the largest single-year drop ever, reducing funds to 2007 levels, according […] Continue reading -> Africa’s New Medicines Regulator Wants to be More than Another Approval Channel 27/07/2026 Paul Adepoju When the African Medicines Agency became operational in Kigali in October 2025, it inherited one of the continent’s most difficult health-policy problems: how to make medicines regulation faster, more trusted and less fragmented across 55 African Union member states. For years, African countries have relied on a patchwork of national regulators, regional harmonisation initiatives, WHO […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
‘Fire-Breathing Dragon Clouds’: The Health Threat of Wildfire Smoke Choking Europe and the World 29/07/2026 Stefan Anderson Nine miles south of the picturesque French city of Bordeaux, firefighters are at war with a phenomenon straight out of an apocalyptic epic. Scientists call them pyrocumulonimbus, or PyroCbs. NASA calls them the “fire-breathing dragon of clouds”. The port capital of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, normally bustling with tourists at peak season, is instead drowned in smog, so […] Continue reading -> New HIV Frontier: The Fight to Access Long-Acting Prevention Drugs 29/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – News that an antiretroviral drug injected twice a year had prevented almost all HIV infection in trials electrified the HIV sector two years ago – but access to Gilead’s lenacapavir has been slow, particularly for countries in Latin America. Brazil, which faces significant HIV transmission in certain groups, has been routinely […] Continue reading -> EXCLUSIVE: WHO Regional Directors Running for Director-General Must Take Leave for Campaign 28/07/2026 Felix Sassmannshausen In a first, WHO Regional Directors must take a leave of absence to run for the top job, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed to Health Policy Watch on Monday. This sweeping election reform closes a crucial loophole in the ongoing Director-General election process, aiming to curb shadow campaigns just as the first candidates officially […] Continue reading -> New Unitaid Head Gets High Marks – but Can He Save the Organization? 28/07/2026 Elaine Ruth Fletcher Luis Pizarro, Unitaid’s newly-appointed Executive Director comes to the organization with sizeable depth and breadth of experience – as the leader of Geneva’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and before that, leadership of ventures in Africa, Asia and the Americas. However, his main challenge at Unitaid will be steadying the financially troubled organization, which […] Continue reading -> US Drives 25% Plunge in HIV Funding in 2025 27/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Donor funding for HIV dropped by 25% in 2025 – a staggering drop of $2.1 billion – driven by the United States slashing its funding, according to analyses by KFF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). This is the largest single-year drop ever, reducing funds to 2007 levels, according […] Continue reading -> Africa’s New Medicines Regulator Wants to be More than Another Approval Channel 27/07/2026 Paul Adepoju When the African Medicines Agency became operational in Kigali in October 2025, it inherited one of the continent’s most difficult health-policy problems: how to make medicines regulation faster, more trusted and less fragmented across 55 African Union member states. For years, African countries have relied on a patchwork of national regulators, regional harmonisation initiatives, WHO […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
New HIV Frontier: The Fight to Access Long-Acting Prevention Drugs 29/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – News that an antiretroviral drug injected twice a year had prevented almost all HIV infection in trials electrified the HIV sector two years ago – but access to Gilead’s lenacapavir has been slow, particularly for countries in Latin America. Brazil, which faces significant HIV transmission in certain groups, has been routinely […] Continue reading -> EXCLUSIVE: WHO Regional Directors Running for Director-General Must Take Leave for Campaign 28/07/2026 Felix Sassmannshausen In a first, WHO Regional Directors must take a leave of absence to run for the top job, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed to Health Policy Watch on Monday. This sweeping election reform closes a crucial loophole in the ongoing Director-General election process, aiming to curb shadow campaigns just as the first candidates officially […] Continue reading -> New Unitaid Head Gets High Marks – but Can He Save the Organization? 28/07/2026 Elaine Ruth Fletcher Luis Pizarro, Unitaid’s newly-appointed Executive Director comes to the organization with sizeable depth and breadth of experience – as the leader of Geneva’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and before that, leadership of ventures in Africa, Asia and the Americas. However, his main challenge at Unitaid will be steadying the financially troubled organization, which […] Continue reading -> US Drives 25% Plunge in HIV Funding in 2025 27/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Donor funding for HIV dropped by 25% in 2025 – a staggering drop of $2.1 billion – driven by the United States slashing its funding, according to analyses by KFF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). This is the largest single-year drop ever, reducing funds to 2007 levels, according […] Continue reading -> Africa’s New Medicines Regulator Wants to be More than Another Approval Channel 27/07/2026 Paul Adepoju When the African Medicines Agency became operational in Kigali in October 2025, it inherited one of the continent’s most difficult health-policy problems: how to make medicines regulation faster, more trusted and less fragmented across 55 African Union member states. For years, African countries have relied on a patchwork of national regulators, regional harmonisation initiatives, WHO […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
EXCLUSIVE: WHO Regional Directors Running for Director-General Must Take Leave for Campaign 28/07/2026 Felix Sassmannshausen In a first, WHO Regional Directors must take a leave of absence to run for the top job, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed to Health Policy Watch on Monday. This sweeping election reform closes a crucial loophole in the ongoing Director-General election process, aiming to curb shadow campaigns just as the first candidates officially […] Continue reading -> New Unitaid Head Gets High Marks – but Can He Save the Organization? 28/07/2026 Elaine Ruth Fletcher Luis Pizarro, Unitaid’s newly-appointed Executive Director comes to the organization with sizeable depth and breadth of experience – as the leader of Geneva’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and before that, leadership of ventures in Africa, Asia and the Americas. However, his main challenge at Unitaid will be steadying the financially troubled organization, which […] Continue reading -> US Drives 25% Plunge in HIV Funding in 2025 27/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Donor funding for HIV dropped by 25% in 2025 – a staggering drop of $2.1 billion – driven by the United States slashing its funding, according to analyses by KFF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). This is the largest single-year drop ever, reducing funds to 2007 levels, according […] Continue reading -> Africa’s New Medicines Regulator Wants to be More than Another Approval Channel 27/07/2026 Paul Adepoju When the African Medicines Agency became operational in Kigali in October 2025, it inherited one of the continent’s most difficult health-policy problems: how to make medicines regulation faster, more trusted and less fragmented across 55 African Union member states. For years, African countries have relied on a patchwork of national regulators, regional harmonisation initiatives, WHO […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
New Unitaid Head Gets High Marks – but Can He Save the Organization? 28/07/2026 Elaine Ruth Fletcher Luis Pizarro, Unitaid’s newly-appointed Executive Director comes to the organization with sizeable depth and breadth of experience – as the leader of Geneva’s Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and before that, leadership of ventures in Africa, Asia and the Americas. However, his main challenge at Unitaid will be steadying the financially troubled organization, which […] Continue reading -> US Drives 25% Plunge in HIV Funding in 2025 27/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Donor funding for HIV dropped by 25% in 2025 – a staggering drop of $2.1 billion – driven by the United States slashing its funding, according to analyses by KFF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). This is the largest single-year drop ever, reducing funds to 2007 levels, according […] Continue reading -> Africa’s New Medicines Regulator Wants to be More than Another Approval Channel 27/07/2026 Paul Adepoju When the African Medicines Agency became operational in Kigali in October 2025, it inherited one of the continent’s most difficult health-policy problems: how to make medicines regulation faster, more trusted and less fragmented across 55 African Union member states. For years, African countries have relied on a patchwork of national regulators, regional harmonisation initiatives, WHO […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
US Drives 25% Plunge in HIV Funding in 2025 27/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – Donor funding for HIV dropped by 25% in 2025 – a staggering drop of $2.1 billion – driven by the United States slashing its funding, according to analyses by KFF and the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). This is the largest single-year drop ever, reducing funds to 2007 levels, according […] Continue reading -> Africa’s New Medicines Regulator Wants to be More than Another Approval Channel 27/07/2026 Paul Adepoju When the African Medicines Agency became operational in Kigali in October 2025, it inherited one of the continent’s most difficult health-policy problems: how to make medicines regulation faster, more trusted and less fragmented across 55 African Union member states. For years, African countries have relied on a patchwork of national regulators, regional harmonisation initiatives, WHO […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Africa’s New Medicines Regulator Wants to be More than Another Approval Channel 27/07/2026 Paul Adepoju When the African Medicines Agency became operational in Kigali in October 2025, it inherited one of the continent’s most difficult health-policy problems: how to make medicines regulation faster, more trusted and less fragmented across 55 African Union member states. For years, African countries have relied on a patchwork of national regulators, regional harmonisation initiatives, WHO […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Amid Row Over Exclusion, US Concedes that HIV Approach Needs to Include ‘All People at Risk’ 26/07/2026 Kerry Cullinan RIO DE JANEIRO – The United States has conceded that the HIV epidemic cannot be stopped “unless we have services for all people at risk” at a major event on the eve of the International AIDS Conference. Dr Rebecca Bunnell, deputy head of implementing the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), made the […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts