Category: Development

In September 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) set an ambitious global target. The UN health agency called for 70 per cent of the global population to be vaccinated by mid-2022. At that point, just over three per cent of people in low-income countries had been vaccinated with at least one dose, compared to 60.18 per cent in high-income countries.… Read More

With partner organisation the Guttmacher Institute, the WHO said that the results would allow health authorities to better understand family planning needs in their countries, including contraception and abortion care. According to the data – which represent the first such exercise at a country level – unintended pregnancy and abortion rates vary widely, even within the same region. Significant variations… Read More

Secretary-General António Guterres said that first and foremost, Ukraine needed support, towards ending the war, and to help the millions who have fled, return home. “Many developing countries were already struggling to recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: record inflation; rising interest rates; unmanageable debt burdens”, he said, adding that now, “they face skyrocketing food, energy and fertilizer… Read More

Although TB is preventable and curable, it remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers, WHO noted on Wednesday. “For the first time in over a decade, WHO has reported an increase in tuberculosis deaths. This is a very dangerous trend that we must arrest. We call on all countries to invest in expanding access to effective tools against tuberculosis,… Read More

Alerting that 4.5 million Haitians are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, WFP pointed to lower-than-expected humanitarian food assistance and continued fallout from the last August earthquake as key drivers. “Hunger levels are rising unabated as persistent political instability, growing inflation and recurrent disasters continue to conspire against the people of Haiti”, the agency advanced. Briefing the media in… Read More

Hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO), UNITAID announced the groundbreaking development on Friday, which it is hoped will boost HIV prevention worldwide.  Developed by ViiV Healthcare and approved by the US health authority, the injection, whose active ingredient is cabotegravir,  offers two months of protection against HIV.   This news is a game changer. Unitaid is funding the implementation in… Read More

“After several weeks of declines, reported cases of COVID-19 are once again increasing globally, especially in parts of Asia”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus told journalists in Geneva.  In the past week, the agency has seen an 8 per cent increase in detection of COVID-19 cases, with more than 11 million positive test results. “These increases are occurring despite reductions… Read More

To date, more than 10.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally, “enough to protect the entire world population from severe symptoms, hospitalization and death,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. Despite this achievement, Ms. Bachelet insisted that the “grim reality” was that only around 13 per cent of people in low-income countries have been vaccinated, compared… Read More

In its annual report, released on Thursday, the INCB notes increasing evidence of a link between exposure to social media and drug use, which disproportionately affects young people, the main users of social media platforms, and an age group with relatively high rates of drug abuse. The report also calls on the private sector to moderate and self-regulate their platforms… Read More

The report, Impact of COVID-19 on the welfare of households with children, presents findings from data collected in 35 countries, and notes that households with three or more children were most likely to have come up short, with more than three-quarters experiencing a reduction in earnings. Going without food “Families cannot afford food or essential healthcare services. They cannot afford housing. It… Read More