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 ->
NEW DELHI – The theme was “Scaling Access to Ensure Health Equity”, but that hardly reflected the intense concerns raised at the first World Health Summit regional meeting with the storm of Trump administration’s cutbacks and closures of global health programmes since January. Traditional medicine, climate and health, data transparency, and the role of artificial […] Continue reading ->
Self-care can be a key strategy in tackling the global crisis of non-communicable diseases that are responsible for three-quarters of premature deaths globally and 86 percent of early deaths (before age 70) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Moreover, dentists, pharmacists and community health workers are trained professionals who can provide innovative forms of self-care […] Continue reading ->
After the World Malaria Report 2024 was published, the global community confronted an undeniable and uncomfortable truth: while malaria affects entire communities, its burden is not equally distributed. Women, particularly in malaria-endemic regions, are disproportionately impacted. Their physical, social and economic health suffers more than others’ as they bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities, suffer […] Continue reading ->
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The healthcare sector in India produced 32 billionaires in 2022 – more than any other sector in an extraordinary demonstration of corporatisation, according to Abhay Shukla, co-convenor of Jan Swasthya Abhinyan, the People’s Health Movement in India. Massive investment in healthcare by private companies since the 1990s, particularly in “corporate, profit-driven […] 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 ->
Germany’s contribution to global health has been transformative – and as its new coalition government takes shape, now is not the time for it to weaken this commitment Germany has long stood as a global leader, not just in public health but also in shaping international cooperation on health through platforms like the G7 and […] Continue reading ->
The United States federal government’s response to the rapidly spreading measles outbreak has faced steep criticism after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr) falsely claimed the vaccine’s protection “waned quickly” and hasn’t been “safely tested.” While Kennedy endorsed the measles vaccine as the most effective way to protect against […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization (WHO) member states are very close to agreeing on the entire pandemic agreement – and may even have been able to clinch a deal on Saturday had they not been exhausted after negotiating from Friday morning right through until 9am on Saturday morning, according to sources. Anne-Claire Amprou, co-chair of the Intergovernmental […] Continue reading ->
By sunrise on Saturday morning, the entire draft pandemic agreement had been agreed on – bar the vexing question of whether technology transfer related to the production of pandemic products should always be voluntary. Negotiators talked into the early hours of Saturday morning, trying to find a way around the deadlock, according to sources close […] Continue reading ->