European Union President Charles Michel congratulated African countries for their efforts to stimulate more vaccine manufacturing capacity on the continent, in a upbeat opening address at the European Union-African Union Summit, which began Thursday.   But in a more sobering note Wednesday, Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, called on global health […] Continue reading ->
An innovative WHO “Health for Peace Initiative” that aims to build bridges in conflict zone and humanitarian settings through global health initiatives ran into some rough waters at last week’s Executive Board meeting – with the United States saying that it should include a human rights element – while Russia warned WHO against “politicizing” its […] Continue reading ->
The tobacco industry used the COVID-19 pandemic to ingratiate itself with governments around the world and win concessions for their harmful products, according to a review of 80 countries analyzed in the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2021, which was released on Tuesday. It wasn’t simply economically vulnerable countries that were susceptible to industry influence. […] Continue reading ->
More than 5 million people have officially died from COVID-19 less than two years into the global pandemic. COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death, after heart disease and stroke.  There have been 5,003,021 COVID-19 related deaths as of 1 November, according to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Dashboard.  In the United States, 746,021 […] Continue reading ->
Indian generic drug manufacturers are poised to make the antiviral pill, molnupiravir, which halved hospitalisations in a trial of high-risk people with COVID-19. Merck, which developed molnupiravir in collaboration with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, has awarded non-exclusive, voluntary licensing agreements to eight generic companies in India since April in anticipation of positive trial results. According to Merck, […] Continue reading ->
Human genome editing has great potential to improve health and serve as a tool for public health, according to two landmark WHO reports, the world’s first to issue global recommendations on the safe, effective, and ethical use of human genome editing.  “These new reports from WHO’s Expert Advisory Committee represent a leap forward for this […] Continue reading ->
A special strategic meeting at the 74th World Health Assembly on Friday discussed how the World Health Organization (WHO) is scaling up powers to investigate sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment in emergency situations. WHO officials said this effort involves a “mass of inspectors” to prioritise investigations in at least eight countries. The intervention comes in […] Continue reading ->