COVAXIN, made by Indian company Bharat Biotech, has received WHO emergency use listing (EUL), meaning it could soon be available to millions worldwide.  Glad to see one more vaccine, #Covaxin, being granted @WHO emergency use listing. The more products we have to fight #COVID19, the better, but we must keep up the pressure to deliver #VaccinEquity & prioritize access to… Read More

Group B streptococcus (GBS), which can be transmitted in the womb, is linked to around 150,000 deaths of babies each year, more than half a million preterm births and significant long-term disability.  The report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) updates estimates from 2017, revealing that the global burden of… Read More

In a statment to mark International Drug Users’ Day, UNAIDS said action is needed to address the negative effect criminalization has on HIV, viral hepatitis and other health issues.  The day, commemorated annually on 1 November, affirms the rights of this population.    “UNAIDS calls for the full involvement of communities of people who use drugs in achieving legal reform… Read More

In a statement issued to mark the crossing of this “painful threshold”, the UN chief said the “devastating milestone reminds us that we are failing much of the world. While wealthy countries are rolling out third doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, only about five per cent of the people in Africa are fully vaccinated.”   Our world has reached another… Read More

As a storyteller at the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum, Mr. Ogata helps to keep alive the memory of what is considered to be one of the most serious Japanese pollution incidents of the Twentieth Century. The incident was caused by the release of toxic chemicals from an industrial plant, which accumulated in shellfish and fish, and were then eaten by… Read More

The funding for the Access to COVID Tools (ACT) Accelerator – the UN-backed global initiative to end the pandemic – is critical to prevent some five million additional potential deaths, as well as $5.3 trillion in global economic losses.  “This weekend, the leaders of the @g20org countries will meet in Rome. Together, these countries have the ability to make the… Read More

Released on Tuesday, the WHO Economic Council’s new brief, Financing Health for All, points to three main actions: create fiscal space, direct investments, and the administration of public and private finance.  On public spending, the experts say that easing constraints imposed by outdated economic assumptions and reversing reforms that lead to big health care cuts, would allow spending to increase significantly.  According to the brief, investments to ensure equal access to healthcare for everyone, should become the central purpose of economic activity. Public… Read More

That grim estimate features in a new WHO working paper based on the 3.45 million coronavirus-related deaths reported globally to the UN health agency up to May; a figure that WHO said may well be at least 60 per cent lower than the actual number of victims.   To highlight the need for better protection, WHO was joined by global partners working to end the pandemic, to issue an urgent call for concrete action on… Read More