On the eve of World Tuberculosis Day, WHO announced that it will expand the scope of a five-year-old initiative in efforts to eradicate one of the world’s top infectious killers by 2030. TB mainly affects the lungs, but it is preventable, treatable and curable. Although deaths have dropped by nearly 40 per cent globally since the year 2000, 1.6 million… Read More

Briefing correspondents in Geneva at his regular weekly press conference, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “the claim that the accord will cede power to WHO is quite simply false. It’s fake news.” Countries will decide He made clear that countries themselves will decide the wording and scope of any global agreement on how to tackle the next pandemic, “and countries alone”. “No country… Read More

Access to NCD Medicines: Emergent Issues During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Key Structural Factors, highlights the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on access to NCD medicines, and the policies and strategies implemented by countries to both anticipate and mitigate the disruption that has hit medical supply chains. Pandemic shortages During the pandemic, people living with cancer, heart diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and other NCDs,… Read More

Speaking during his latest media briefing, Tedros noted that the world is in a much better position now that at any time in the pandemic, which just entered its fourth year.  For the first time, the weekly number of reported deaths in the past four weeks has been lower than when the pandemic was first declared.  “I am confident that… Read More

“The surge in the global cocaine supply should put all of us on high alert,” UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said. “The potential for the cocaine market to expand in Africa and Asia is a dangerous reality.” Sky high supply and demand Criminal networks are now diversifying with alarming results alongside record levels of production, moving beyond the pandemic and… Read More