While health leaders battle a global outbreak of a dangerous new virus, a consortium of partners is entering the fight against one of humankind’s oldest infectious diseases, tuberculosis. A group of philanthropic, non-profit, and private sector organizations on Thursday launched a collaboration to accelerate development for a “pan-TB” treatment regimen to treat drug-sensitive and drug-resistant […] Continue reading ->
World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for “solidarity, solidarity and solidarity” amongst WHO member states to meet the new challenge of a novel coronavirus epidemic – at Monday’s opening of a week-long meeting of WHO’s Executive Board in Geneva. “The rule of the game is solidarity, solidarity, solidarity. But we see […] Continue reading ->
This week’s Executive Board meeting features a heavy agenda of topics, including a review of progress in WHO’s flagship Universal Health Coverage (UHC) initiative; steps taken to confront the burgeoning coronavirus health emergency; and review of a first-ever WHO strategy to eliminate cervical cancer. Debates over the long-term challenges posed by drug resistant pathogens and […] Continue reading ->
Funding to develop new drugs for some of the world’s leading infectious disease killers, such as HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, reached a record high of US $4 billion in 2018, with private sector investment driving much of the increase, according to the 2019 G-FINDER Report, which tracks such investments globally. However, investments in neglected tropical […] Continue reading ->
Ahead of the upcoming WHO Executive Board meeting 3-8 February, WHO has launched a series of informal consultations this week with member state representatives on key issues that will be coming before the governing body – and ultimately the May meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA). The detailed consultation agenda, published on the WHO […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization issued new guidelines for the treatment of multi drug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis on Wednesday, prioritizing for the first time an all-oral treatment regimen. The new treatment recommends replacing the painful injectable drugs that patients had to endure under previous treatment guidelines with a shorter course of oral bedaquiline – one of only […] Continue reading ->
A new plan to dramatically accelerate global efforts to end tuberculosis, one of the world’s deadliest and oldest known infectious diseases, was launched Tuesday by the Stop TB Partnership in Jakarta. The fully-costed plan is based on commitments made at a 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on Ending TB (UNHLM) to reduce TB deaths by […] Continue reading ->