As the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria heads into a secretive but highly contentious election of a new Executive Director, the names of several candidates reported to be on the shortlist, all US citizens, have surfaced. They include former Global Fund Executive Director Mark Dybul, former Trump appointee William Steiger and […] Continue reading ->
Unsafe food causes 1.5 million deaths and 866 million illnesses each year – a burden similar to tuberculosis, according to World Health Organization (WHO) research published in The Lancet this week. The research assessed 42 major foodborne hazards – including bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemicals – from 194 countries between 2000 and 2021.  Foodborne diseases […] Continue reading ->
The 79th World Health Assembly adopted a widely anticipated Global Health Architecture Reform initiative. While WHO and many member states lauded it as a landmark move, the actual mandate is, in fact, highly restrictive. The process will not yield recommendations on “revisions to organizational mandates nor specific mergers or consolidations” in the often overlapping functions […] Continue reading ->
The African region made an impassioned appeal for global funding to be restored for malaria elimination at the World Health Assembly on Wednesday. Drastic aid cuts in the past 18 months, particularly by the United States, have had a dramatic effect on malaria efforts – particularly as they coincide with growing drug resistance. Nigeria, speaking […] Continue reading ->
“From conflicts to economic crises to climate change and aid cuts, we live in difficult, dangerous and divisive times,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the opening plenary of the World Health Assembly (WHA) on Monday. While geopolitical disagreements have delayed Tedros’s official WHA address until Tuesday morning, the Director […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization has ‘pre-qualified’ Coartem® Baby, the first-ever malaria treatment for young infants of 4.5 kilograms or less. The combination treatment, now being rolled out in Ghana, aims to fill a longstanding gap in treatments available for children under the age of 5, who constitute three quarters of the estimated 610,000 malaria deaths […] Continue reading ->