Tag: Health News

The COVID-19 subcommittee of the WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) has reviewed reports of rare cases of blood clots with low platelets following vaccination with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (including Covishield) since their onset a few weeks ago. At its most recent meeting on 7 April, 2021, the subcommittee reviewed latest information from the European Medicines Agency… Read More

Today, 1 billion people globally need assistive technology to lead healthy, productive and dignified lives but only 1 in 10 have access. One of the biggest barriers to accessing assistive technology is a lack of data. Without relevant, quality information, decision makers face huge challenges in developing evidence-informed policies and programmes to improve access for their populations. The  resolution on… Read More

The COVAX Facility has now delivered life-saving vaccines to over 100 economies since making its first international delivery to Ghana on 24 February 2021. So far, more than 38 million doses of vaccines from manufacturers AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Serum Institute of India (SII) have now been delivered, including 61 economies eligible for vaccines through the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment.… Read More

Representatives from the Government of France and the Lyon Metropolis, and representatives of WHO gathered for the annual Statutory meeting of partners of the WHO Lyon Office, held virtually this year. The main objectives of the meeting were to take stock of achievements in 2020 and review the vision and strategic directions of the office in the context of the… Read More

Today, on World Water Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) released its strategy on water, sanitation and hygiene as part of  joint efforts by the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and the neglected tropical diseases (NTD) sectors towards ending these diseases over the next decade.   The ‘‘Global Strategy on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases –… Read More

Streets for Life: Why #Love30? Low speed streets save lives and are the heart of any community. 30 km/h (20 mph) speed limits where people and traffic mix make for streets that are safe, healthy, green and liveable, in other words, streets for life. The 6th UN Global Road Safety Week is calling on policymakers to act for low speed… Read More

In an extraordinary demonstration of creative energy and enthusiasm for telling public health stories, the second edition of the Health for All Film Festival has attracted nearly 1200 short film submissions – both amateur and professional – from 110 countries. These have now been shortlisted to 15 to 16 titles in each of the three competition categories: Universal Health Coverage, Health… Read More

An estimated 1.4 million fewer people received care for tuberculosis (TB) in 2020 than in 2019, according to preliminary data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) from over 80 countries- a reduction of 21% from 2019. The countries with the biggest relative gaps were Indonesia (42%), South Africa (41%), Philippines (37%) and India (25%). “The effects of COVID-19 go… Read More

The World Health Organization is calling for action to address quality of care in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable (FCV) settings, with the release of a technical package on this subject. On 16 March 2021, WHO hosted a global webinar to introduce the content of the technical package and consider how it can be applied by a range of stakeholders to… Read More

Côte d’Ivoire has successfully eliminated human African trypanosomiasis, also known as “sleeping sickness”, as a public health problem, becoming the second African country after Togo to be validated by the World Health Organization (WHO). “I dedicate this milestone to decades of hard work and the individual contribution of every single health worker who braved some of the toughest challenges in… Read More