Major pharmaceutical companies have made minimal progress in expanding access to essential medicines since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an industry watchdog report released Tuesday. The 2024 Access to Medicine Index, which evaluates 20 of the world’s leading drugmakers, found that despite modest improvements from certain companies, the overall pace of change in improving availability […] Continue reading ->
Donald Trump has named Robert F Kennedy Jr as his choice for US health secretary, putting the controversial anti-vaccine activist and environmental lawyer in line to control some of the world’s most influential health agencies. Kennedy shot to political prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic when his organisation, Children’s Health Defense, became a leading global voice […] Continue reading ->
The death toll in Sudan’s civil war is likely far higher than reported as violence, hunger and disease devastate Africa’s third-largest nation, a new study shows. More than 61,000 people have died in Khartoum state, the capital region where fighting began 14 months ago, according to research from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical […] Continue reading ->
Dozens of tuberculosis (TB) activists took to the stage during the opening of the annual World Conference on Lung Health in Bali, Indonesia, to demand that the price of GeneXpert tests to detect TB is slashed to $5 in low- and middle-income countries. Medical test maker Cepheid and its parent corporation Danaher were asked […] Continue reading ->
This week, experts and policymakers are convening at the Union’s World Conference on Lung Health to discuss tuberculosis (TB), the world’s deadliest and most neglected infectious disease. Since the turn of the 20th century, over one billion people have died from TB – a death toll greater than that from malaria, smallpox, HIV/AIDS, cholera, plague […] Continue reading ->
US President-elect Donald Trump railed against “globalists” during his election campaign, and his victory will have serious ramifications for global health – particularly for action against climate change, scientific institutions and regulatory bodies, United Nations agencies and sexual and reproductive health. 1. Climate denial “We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump told the Republican National Convention […] Continue reading ->
Nearly 200 nations have backed a groundbreaking global action plan linking health and the natural world at the close of UN biodiversity negotiations in Cali, Colombia, marking a rare victory in a summit otherwise characterised by disappointment. The final agreement on a “health and biodiversity action plan” was approved as a voluntary rather than mandatory […] Continue reading ->
The pandemic agreement talks resumed on Monday for two weeks, but parties only have a week to decide whether they have sufficient common ground to call a special World Health Assembly (WHA) in December to adopt the document. Procedurally, 12 November is the last day by which a December WHA can be called. Negotiators will […] Continue reading ->
WHO Member States gathered in Doha, Washington, D.C, Copenhagen, Manila, and Brazzaville for their respective World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee sessions in the past months to set policies, strategies, and frameworks for the coming years. The WHO Regional Committees – the WHO’s governing bodies in each of six regions – meet yearly to formulate […] Continue reading ->
Post 2020, ex-Trump officials have worked through NGOs to undermine abortion and LGBTQ rights in Africa, preparing the ground for his re-election Despite Donald Trump’s electoral defeat as US president in 2020, his ex-officials and allies have never stopped campaigning for African countries to prevent abortion and LGBTQ rights – in league with some of […] Continue reading ->