Although 18% of the world’s population lives in Africa, only 3% of clinical trials are conducted on the continent – and the ambition is to increase this percentage to 15% by 2035. But this requires substantial improvements across several aspects – including more innovative trial designs and better use of digital tools – the subject […] Continue reading ->
Africa is continuing to make progress in meeting its Universal Health Coverage (UHC) targets (part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals). Countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia are two examples of African countries making exemplary progress. Kenya, Ghana and South Africa are also among those making significant progress towards realising this dream. However, there is […] Continue reading ->
DURBAN, South Africa — A top executive at Africa’s biggest drug company shared a few home truths with the continent’s health policymakers about the obstacles to local manufacturing at the Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) 2025. Aspen Pharmacare’s Dr Stavros Nicolaou blamed regulatory bottlenecks and procurement policies for the failure of drug manufacturers […] Continue reading ->
DURBAN, South Africa – Is Africa ready for another big pandemic? The answer is a resounding “No”, said Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Kaseya blames this worrying state of affairs on the absence of national public health institutes in some countries, data management difficulties, a […] Continue reading ->
From killing over 600,000 elderly from dementia to an almost equal number of infants under the age of one-year, air pollution’s impact on young and old is explained simply through hard-hitting numbers in the latest State of Global Air (SOGA) report, by the Boston-based Health Effects Institute. The report identifies plenty of scope for immediate […] Continue reading ->
The Make Europe Healthy Again (MEHA) launch at the European Parliament in Brussels last week brought together what is now a familiar alliance of far-right politicians, anti-vaxxers and alternative health practitioners. Leaders of Make America Health Again (MAHA), the movement behind US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, were prominent at the launch, and several […] Continue reading ->
BERLIN – The head of the world’s largest malaria funder has issued a stark warning that the disease now poses a greater threat than HIV or tuberculosis, as a new analysis released Tuesday reveals funding cuts could trigger 990,000 additional deaths by 2030, including 750,000 children under five. “If I think about the situation we […] Continue reading ->
‘Breaking Down Silos’: Global Health Matters Podcast Marks Five Years of Cross-Cutting Conversations
At the World Health Summit in Berlin, the Global Health Matters podcast celebrated a milestone anniversary with a live recording exploring misinformation, the power of social media shaping information, and the future of health communication BERLIN — Five years ago, in a field not exactly known for its podcasting, Dr Garry Aslanyan spotted a gap. […] Continue reading ->
Where is the accountability for those who produce health misinformation that harms the health of children, asked Benjamin Schreiber, a senior adviser to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at the World Health Summit in Berlin on Tuesday. “We are now living in a situation where the information environment in which we live has become […] Continue reading ->
There is an urgent need for a more comprehensive pandemic risk monitoring system that tracks threats and preparedness in real time, according to the WHO-hosted Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, in a report launched at the World Health Summit. This followed the release of a new World Health Organization data documenting the sharp global rise in […] Continue reading ->