Category: Development

The updated “living guidelines” on related therapeutics now include conditional recommendations on the medication, molnupiravir, the UN agency announced on Thursday. Citing concerns and data gaps, WHO advanced that molnupiravir should be provided “only to non-severe COVID-19 patients with the highest risk of hospitalization,” WHO alerted. Those are typically people who have not received a COVID-19 vaccination, older people, people with immunodeficiencies and those… Read More

The new international standard for safe listening at venues and events was launched ahead of World Hearing Day marked on 3 March on the theme, To hear for life, listen with care! It applies to all places and activities where amplified music is played.   Over 1.5 billion people globally live with hearing loss, and according to recent estimates this number… Read More

Findings in the UN health agency’s new report suggest that the greatest deterioration in mental health took place in the areas worst-hit by COVID-19 -where infections were high and social interaction was restricted. “The information we have now about the impact of COVID-19 on the world’s mental health is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO… Read More

The country has committed to provide $1.22 billion to support the ACT-Accelerator, the global partnership for equitable access to tests, treatments, vaccines, and personal protective equipment (PPE).  The mechanism requires $16.8 billion to meet urgent needs.  ‘Fair share’ calculation  Last month, the co-chairs of the ACT-Accelerator Facilitation Council – President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr… Read More

Addressing a high-level debate on universal vaccination, Abdulla Shahid highlighted the persistent inequity in access to these lifesaving medicines and the failure of the international community to protect everyone against the disease.  Immoral and impractical  “Let me be clear: vaccine inequity is immoral, and it is impractical,” he said, speaking from the iconic UN General Assembly Hall in New York. … Read More

The meeting came on Wednesday, ahead of a high-level vaccines event that will be held at the United Nations in which Ms. Lindsay will speak about the importance of vaccine equity. “The United Nations is hosted in New York and we are part of this strong City”, said Mr. Shahid, who is convening the 25 February event to galvanize momentum… Read More

One member of the vaccination transit team was killed in Taloqan district in Takhar province, while four members of house-to-house teams were murdered in two separate incidents in Kunduz city, according to a statement from the UN Country Team. Two vaccinators and a social mobilizer were killed in Emamsaheb district of Kunduz province.  In the wake of the carnage, the… Read More

How marketing of formula milk influences our decisions on infant feeding, the first report in a series by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), draws on interviews with parents, pregnant women, and health workers in eight countries. More than half of those surveyed acknowledged that they had been targeted by formula milk companies. Invasive marketing… Read More

BA.2 should also remain classified as Omicron, WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE)  which was held yesterday.  SARS-CoV-2 is the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and the expert group meets regularly to discuss available data on transmissibility and severity of variants as well as their impact on diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.  They stressed that public health authorities should… Read More

Although COVID-19 caught the world unprepared, “we cannot let this happen again,” he said in a video message to the Global Forum for Human-centred recovery, organized by the International Labour Organization (ILO).  Universal social protection  The three-day forum is being held online and brings together world leaders, heads of international organizations and multilateral development banks, and representatives from employers’ and… Read More