Member States recommended the adoption of two resolutions on meningitis control and epilepsy at the 73rd World Health Assembly on Thursday (November 12). Committee A, which focuses on programme and budget matters, decided to recommend the adoption of the first-ever resolution on meningitis, which would approve a global roadmap to defeat meningitis by 2030 – a disease that kills 300,000 people… Read More

The heads of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) today launched the new One Health Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. Group members include heads of government, government ministers, leaders from private sector and civil society. The group is co-chaired by their Excellencies… Read More

At the 73th Session of the World Health Assembly, Member States endorsed a resolution calling for scaled-up and integrated action on epilepsy and other neurological disorders and asked that a global action plan be developed for consideration at the 75th Session of the World Health Assembly. Neurological disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death.… Read More

WHO has developed the assistive technology capacity assessment (ATA-C) tool, a system-level tool to evaluate a country’s capacity to finance, regulate, procure and provide assistive technology. The ATA-C tool enables countries to better understand the current status and identify key actions to improve access to assistive technology: it can be used for awareness raising, policy and programme design and ongoing… Read More

In collaboration with the Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney, Australia, WHO has published today a systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence and incidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in men who have sex with men (MSM) in The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology. Globally an estimated 71 million people have chronic HCV infection and each year, there are an… Read More

On World Children’s Day, WHO is pleased to issue a call urging stakeholders to accelerate access to effective paediatric HIV and tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics and medicines. The Action Plan, which is launched today, has been developed by a wide group of stakeholders under the auspices of the Fifth Vatican High-Level Dialogue on Paediatric HIV and TB in Children Living with… Read More

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance welcomes latest pledges in support of the Gavi COVAX AMC, a financing mechanism that will support 92 low- and middle-income economies’ access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines. The approximately US$360 million in commitments include US$350m announced at the Paris Peace Forum by the European Commission, France, Spain and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as… Read More

Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm – before 37 weeks of pregnancy. That is more than 1 in 10 live births. Approximately 1 million children die each year worldwide due to complications from their early birth. Those that survive often face a lifetime of ill-health including disability, learning difficulties, and visual and hearing problems. Half of… Read More

Key definitions Antimicrobial resistance occurs when microorganisms resist the effects of medications, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death. Combatting antimicrobial resistance is a global priority that needs coordinated action across all government sectors and levels of society. HIV drug resistance is caused by changes in the genetic structure of HIV… Read More