The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) raised over $1.5 billion to develop vaccines against emerging diseases in as little as 100 days over the past two days at a pandemic preparedness summit co-hosted by the UK government. CEPI’s total budgetary ask is for $3.5 billion to implement its five-year plan to prepare and protect […] Continue reading ->
By 2030, 20% of women and 14% of men, or over 1 billion people, will be living with obesity globally, according to the new World Obesity Atlas 2022 published Friday. The new Atlas, launched on World Obesity Day, predicts that by that time, the number of people with obesity globally will have doubled since 2010. […] Continue reading ->
Women in Africa will feel the disruptive force of the pandemic for many years to come – with upticks in maternal deaths and prolonged disruptions in maternal, child and reproductive health services issues the continent must grapple with now. About 40% of African countries are reporting continued disruptions to sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and […] Continue reading ->
The world’s nations have agreed to negotiate a landmark treaty by 2024 to curb plastics pollution which is choking oceans, killing fish and wildlife and polluting water, soils and foods with toxic chemicals. The agreement by some 175 UN member states was reached Wedneaday evening at the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi. It offers […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday appealed for a “humanitarian corridor” to enable it to deliver emergency medical supplies to sick and injured Ukrainians – particularly oxygen, insulin and equipment needed to treat battle wounds. The WHO appeal at a media briefing Wednesday came just hours before the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a […] Continue reading ->
As streams of Ukrainians leave their country to escape from Russian attacks, the World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned that they, and other migrants and refugees, are not being included in programmes to treat critical non-communicable diseases (NCDs), like diabetes, that can be deadly if treatment is not maintained. WHO’s NCD Director Dr Bente Mikkelsen […] Continue reading ->
Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic started, the leaders of the European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) met in Brussels. By then, six million people including 200,000 healthcare workers had died. Yet only one in five healthcare workers in Africa had been vaccinated. This is not good enough. The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines was […] Continue reading ->
Three pre-print papers published over the past few days have strengthened the case for the theory that SARS-COV2 first spread among people via infected animals sold and slaughtered at the Huanan wildlife market in Wuhan – rather than from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the laboratory studying coronaviruses in bats. The two theories have been […] Continue reading ->
From increasing disease surveillance and developing a pan-coronavirus vaccine to ‘eco-health’ and public trust, participants in the COVID-19 Global Research and Innovation Forum considered ways to globally prepare for future pandemics and end the current one. The third such forum, hosted by the World Health Organization, brought together over 100 research scientists, experts, policy makers, […] Continue reading ->
Some thirteen African nations have expressed interest in hosting the new African Medicines Agency, with an AU decision on where to establish the AMA’s headquarters set for July 2022, senior African Union officials say. A decision on a headquarters would also pave the way for the recruitment of a director general for the new AMA […] Continue reading ->