July 2023 may have experienced temperatures last seen in prehistoric times, as climate scientists confirm that once rare heatwaves are now routine events.  Record heatwaves have been seen this year from the US to India, and according to the latest analysis, this July may be the hottest ever recorded.   Dr Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist […] Continue reading ->
A single healthcare worker infected with COVID-19 cost the Kenyan economy over $33,000 – around 18 times the country’s per capita GDP. This is according to a new report on the economic cost of COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers in Eswatini, Colombia, Kenya and South Africa (the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape) during the […] Continue reading ->
High cost has prevented some cancer drugs from being included in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) updated Essential Medicines List (EML) and Essential Medicines for List Children (EMLc) released on Wednesday. These include “patented, highly-priced” treatments for lung and breast cancer. “With the cancer medicines, we are facing now an issue where we have a […] Continue reading ->
The cases of drug-resistant gonorrhoea, a sexually transmitted disease, are on the rise in many parts of the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.  The agency added that it considers Neisseria gonorrhoea a “priority microorganism” to be monitored for antimicrobial resistance.  The new WHO guidance on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) requires countries to […] Continue reading ->
Thirty-seven countries have received grants worth $338 million from the Pandemic Fund to boost their resilience to pandemics in the first round of the fund’s disbursements. Three disbursements involve multi-country grants: to 12 Caribbean countries to strengthen their early warning surveillance, build laboratory systems and workforce development; to seven Latin American countries to engage communities […] Continue reading ->
The final reading of the Political Declaration for the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) is scheduled for Tuesday in New York – and while the revised text has a few more practical clauses than the bland zero-draft, it remains more aspirational than actionable. The draft Political Declaration, which has […] Continue reading ->
The worst outcome of the two World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic negotiations currently underway would be the adoption of contradictory definitions and processes, warned Dr Mike Ryan, the head of health emergencies at the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday. “At the very minimum, the two instruments will need to be very aligned on the […] Continue reading ->
With the fate and nature of the pandemic accord currently being negotiated by World Health Organization (WHO) member states still uncertain, global health experts are calling for “realistic” backup plans to protect the world against the next pandemic. “We need an ambitious but implementable pandemic accord – that is the Holy Grail,” Javier Guzman, Director […] Continue reading ->