Maternal mortality rates have dropped by 40% since 2000, largely due to improved access to essential health services. But WHO officials warn that the recent, deep cuts to international aid could be as disruptive as the COVID-19 pandemic, if not more so, to a woman’s chances of surviving pregnancy and childbirth. And in 2023, more […] Continue reading ->
Countries keep increasing their military budgets yet seem unwilling to prepare for an “invisible enemy” – a pandemic-causing pathogen that can be more damaging than a war, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyessus warned at the start of the final negotiations for a pandemic agreement on Monday. The COVID-19 pandemic killed up […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization (WHO) member states have entered their final week of scheduled negotiations on the pandemic agreement (PA), amid renewed urgency following the United States withdrawal from the organization and widespread aid cuts that carry serious implications for global health. With limited time before the May World Health Assembly, when a final version of […] Continue reading ->
The tariffs imposed by the United States on goods from several African countries on Wednesday will make it even more difficult for African countries to increase their health spending, said Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). These tariffs – ranging from 10% for Kenyan goods […] Continue reading ->
Public health experts and labour unions are seeking to overturn the mass cancellation of research grants by appointees of United States President Donald Trump at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). In legal papers filed on Wednesday, the complainants describe an “ ideological purge of hundreds of critical research projects” – supposedly because they […] Continue reading ->
On the eve of the final round of pandemic agreement negotiations ahead of the World Health Assembly (WHA), 30 legal experts have cautioned against using “voluntary” to describe technology transfer. The latest draft of the pandemic agreement (text agreed by end of 21 February) states that technology transfer for the production of pandemic-related health products […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s budget crisis is even bigger than previously thought. The global health organization is short nearly $1.9 billion from a planned $4.2 billion budget for 2026-27, along with a $600 million deficit through end-2025, senior WHO officials revealed at a global ‘Town Hall’ meeting of WHO staff on Tuesday, heard by Health Policy Watch. The […] Continue reading ->
The Department of Health and Human Services will cut an additional 10,000 full-time employees, bringing total reductions to nearly a quarter of the federal workforce responsible for Americans’ health. HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who rose to prominence as the leader of the world’s largest anti-vaccine activist group before taking control of the US health […] Continue reading ->
Bangladesh’s Anti Corruption Comission (ACC) has filed two cases against Saima Wazed, director of WHO’s South East Asia Regional Office (SEARO), for fraud, forgery and misuse of power in connection with her campaign to become the WHO’s top official in the South East Asia region. The charges against Wazed, who took office as Regional Director […] Continue reading ->
The proposed pandemic agreement being negotiated at the World Health Organization (WHO) represents a critical opportunity for the global community to prevent future pandemics – including through coordinated multi-sectoral surveillance across human, animal, and environmental health data. As WHO member states gather in closed meetings over the next few week, three experts in wildlife health […] Continue reading ->