GENEVA – Opening the World Health Assembly under a “health for peace” banner that is this year’s theme, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned WHA member states that achieving ambitious global health goals – from snuffing out COVID-19 to expanding universal health coverage – will be virtually impossible if regional conflicts like ones ongoing in Ukraine, […] Continue reading ->
China’s zero-COVID approach was no longer sustainable in the face of the more infectious but less lethal Omicron, WHO Secretary-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing on Tuesday. This follows the six-week lockdown of 25 million residents of the Chinese city of Shanghai and restrictions on the movement of people in Beijing, with […] Continue reading ->
Protecting indigenous communities in Canada and refugees in central and Eastern Europe from COVID-19 requires community-based approaches that could be applied in other healthcare crises. This emerged from field actors who shared their experiences and lessons at the Geneva Health Forum on Tuesday. In Canada’s Manitoba province, indigenous communities were mistrustful of mass COVID-19 vaccinations, […] Continue reading ->
A core group of WHO member states have agreed on a landmark move to boost their annual “assessed” contributions to the global health organization to cover 50% of its core budget needs by 2028-2029 – but contingent on internal WHO reforms to boost efficiency and transparency.   Partly in response to the reform call, a reshuffle […] Continue reading ->
A 79% rise in the reported measles cases in the first two months of 2022, compared to the same period last year, has raised concerns over the possibility of an outbreak that could affect millions of children this year.  Pandemic-related disruptions, increasing inequalities in access to vaccines, and the diversion of resources from routine immunization […] Continue reading ->