Health is about political leadership, partnership and people, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, said today in his opening address of the 72nd World Health Assembly in Geneva, adding that these three priorities must guide discussions not only this week, but throughout the next year. Image Credits: WHO/Laurent Cipriani. Continue reading ->
A report released today on global funding of research and development for neglected diseases found that global funding has increased but warns that overreliance on funding from the United States, which the report says is "unparalleled," and leads to a heavy concentration of global funding on HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. This overreliance could also lead to change in total global funding, the report found. 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 like Uganda and South Africa are rewriting the rules of emergency response. The rest of the world must follow – or fall behind. Every April, World Immunisation Week is observed with predictable rhetoric: health leaders celebrate progress, governments make declarations, and global agencies issue reports highlighting gains and gaps in vaccination. But as […] Continue reading ->
At around 3am Wednesday, after three years of often intense negotiations, World Health Organization (WHO) member states agreed on a draft Pandemic Agreement, which sets out basic terms of engagement to prepare for, prevent and respond to pandemics. Bleary-eyed negotiators and co-chairs Precious Matsoso and Anne-Claire Amprou welcomed the final greening of the entire text […] Continue reading ->
Patients will face costlier medicine and European and Indian drug companies face billion-dollar losses if US President Donald Trump’s threat issued late Tuesday of “a major tariff on pharmaceuticals” produced outside his country is realised. However, amid chaos on the financial markets, Trump back-pedalled on Wednesday and announced a 90-day pause on all tariffs except […] Continue reading ->
While COVID exposed the urgency of ensuring that Africa can manufacture vaccines, the current mpox and cholera outbreaks have painfully underscored the continent’s vulnerability. African countries affected by mpox are dependent on vaccine donations from wealthy countries, while a dire global shortage of cholera vaccines has forced the World Health Organization (WHO) to advise countries […] Continue reading ->