Election fever is sweeping through the World Health Organization (WHO) in three of its six regions – Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), South-East Asia (SEARO), and Western Pacific (WPRO). It matters who becomes their regional directors because they have considerable decentralised authority to influence the health chances of billions. Its regions also make or break WHO globally.  […] Continue reading ->
Pharmaceutical giant Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and generic manufacturer Serum Institute of India (SII) charged the South African government more than the European Union for COVID-19 vaccines – and South Africa assumed all the risk in ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ contracts with Pfizer, J&J and SII. This is according to an analysis of the contracts led by Health […] Continue reading ->
After almost 20 years of negotiations, the United Nations has adopted a legally binding treaty to protect the marine biodiversity of sea outside national borders known as the high seas, which cover two-thirds of the world’s oceans. The High Seas Treaty was adopted by consensus at the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond […] Continue reading ->
Overburdened by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and threatened by climate change, health ministers of Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) met in Barbados over the past few days and adopted the  Bridgetown Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health.  The declaration commits the SIDS to a number of actions including implementing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended “Best […] Continue reading ->
The United Nations (UN) is hosting three multi-stakeholder meetings in New York on Monday and Tuesday on tuberculosis, pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPPR) and universal health coverage (UHC). They are aimed at getting the views of non-state actors in preparation for UN High-Level meetings in September, starting with pandemic preparedness on 20 September, followed […] Continue reading ->