When Harm Hides in Hospital: Messaging and the Medicalisation of Female Genital Mutilation 15/09/2026 Famia Nkansa, Bintu Mansaray & Frances Wurie There have been documented decreases in female genital mutilation (FGM) rates in West Africa – declines not granted by governments, but fought for community by community by survivors, activists, and even former practitioners. In July 2025, that fight produced a landmark ruling: the ECOWAS Court of Justice found that Sierra Leone’s failure to protect girls […] Continue reading -> Who Should Lead the Global Fund? Let the Candidates Make Their Case 03/09/2026 Jirair Ratevosian Over the past week, the race for the next World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General has started to take shape. Governments have publicly put forward prospective candidates, WHO is already listing them on a website, and some candidates are beginning to make their case publicly. Dr Hans Kluge has even released a manifesto laying out how […] Continue reading -> The Next Global Health Architecture Must Deliver More Than Reform 27/08/2026 David Reddy After months of speculation, prospective candidates in the race to become the next Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) are now emerging. At the same time, member states have launched a process to review the global health architecture, with the aim of clarifying roles, strengthening coordination, and aligning financing more closely with national, regional, […] Continue reading -> New TB vaccines are moving closer. Is Africa ready? 27/08/2026 Stephen Mutinda Mule African scientists, institutions and communities are helping advance the development of new TB vaccines. Governments must now work together to prepare national systems, secure fair pricing and ensure scientific progress leads to timely and equitable access. When I visited the University of Cape Town Lung Institute and the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) in […] Continue reading -> Eighty Years Strong and Still Forgetting Water: How WHO’s Anniversary Story Erases a Century of Environmental Health 18/08/2026 Wilfried Kreisel Twice in three years – at its 75th anniversary and again this July at the Constitution’s 80th – the World Health Oganization (WHO) has told the official story of what it has achieved. Twice, water, sanitation, air, chemicals and climate have been left out. The former head of WHO’s environmental health programme argues this is […] Continue reading -> The Machine in Geneva’s Basement 06/08/2026 K. Rifat Hossain A finance ministry official can now draft in an afternoon what used to take a WHO mission, a consultant and a wait of weeks. That single fact, multiplied across almost everything WHO produces, is the real story behind this year’s budget cuts — and almost nobody in Geneva is telling it yet. Picture a health […] Continue reading -> The HIV Deaths Nobody Can Count 04/08/2026 Mukesh Kapila Eighteen months into the dismantling of the global AIDS response, how many have died? The honest answer is that nobody knows. Rio’s numbers are inferences, its assumptions and projections disputable. But 30 years and tens of billions of dollars into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we should not still be guessing. The week’s Vital Signs came from […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Who Should Lead the Global Fund? Let the Candidates Make Their Case 03/09/2026 Jirair Ratevosian Over the past week, the race for the next World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General has started to take shape. Governments have publicly put forward prospective candidates, WHO is already listing them on a website, and some candidates are beginning to make their case publicly. Dr Hans Kluge has even released a manifesto laying out how […] Continue reading -> The Next Global Health Architecture Must Deliver More Than Reform 27/08/2026 David Reddy After months of speculation, prospective candidates in the race to become the next Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) are now emerging. At the same time, member states have launched a process to review the global health architecture, with the aim of clarifying roles, strengthening coordination, and aligning financing more closely with national, regional, […] Continue reading -> New TB vaccines are moving closer. Is Africa ready? 27/08/2026 Stephen Mutinda Mule African scientists, institutions and communities are helping advance the development of new TB vaccines. Governments must now work together to prepare national systems, secure fair pricing and ensure scientific progress leads to timely and equitable access. When I visited the University of Cape Town Lung Institute and the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) in […] Continue reading -> Eighty Years Strong and Still Forgetting Water: How WHO’s Anniversary Story Erases a Century of Environmental Health 18/08/2026 Wilfried Kreisel Twice in three years – at its 75th anniversary and again this July at the Constitution’s 80th – the World Health Oganization (WHO) has told the official story of what it has achieved. Twice, water, sanitation, air, chemicals and climate have been left out. The former head of WHO’s environmental health programme argues this is […] Continue reading -> The Machine in Geneva’s Basement 06/08/2026 K. Rifat Hossain A finance ministry official can now draft in an afternoon what used to take a WHO mission, a consultant and a wait of weeks. That single fact, multiplied across almost everything WHO produces, is the real story behind this year’s budget cuts — and almost nobody in Geneva is telling it yet. Picture a health […] Continue reading -> The HIV Deaths Nobody Can Count 04/08/2026 Mukesh Kapila Eighteen months into the dismantling of the global AIDS response, how many have died? The honest answer is that nobody knows. Rio’s numbers are inferences, its assumptions and projections disputable. But 30 years and tens of billions of dollars into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we should not still be guessing. The week’s Vital Signs came from […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
The Next Global Health Architecture Must Deliver More Than Reform 27/08/2026 David Reddy After months of speculation, prospective candidates in the race to become the next Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) are now emerging. At the same time, member states have launched a process to review the global health architecture, with the aim of clarifying roles, strengthening coordination, and aligning financing more closely with national, regional, […] Continue reading -> New TB vaccines are moving closer. Is Africa ready? 27/08/2026 Stephen Mutinda Mule African scientists, institutions and communities are helping advance the development of new TB vaccines. Governments must now work together to prepare national systems, secure fair pricing and ensure scientific progress leads to timely and equitable access. When I visited the University of Cape Town Lung Institute and the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) in […] Continue reading -> Eighty Years Strong and Still Forgetting Water: How WHO’s Anniversary Story Erases a Century of Environmental Health 18/08/2026 Wilfried Kreisel Twice in three years – at its 75th anniversary and again this July at the Constitution’s 80th – the World Health Oganization (WHO) has told the official story of what it has achieved. Twice, water, sanitation, air, chemicals and climate have been left out. The former head of WHO’s environmental health programme argues this is […] Continue reading -> The Machine in Geneva’s Basement 06/08/2026 K. Rifat Hossain A finance ministry official can now draft in an afternoon what used to take a WHO mission, a consultant and a wait of weeks. That single fact, multiplied across almost everything WHO produces, is the real story behind this year’s budget cuts — and almost nobody in Geneva is telling it yet. Picture a health […] Continue reading -> The HIV Deaths Nobody Can Count 04/08/2026 Mukesh Kapila Eighteen months into the dismantling of the global AIDS response, how many have died? The honest answer is that nobody knows. Rio’s numbers are inferences, its assumptions and projections disputable. But 30 years and tens of billions of dollars into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we should not still be guessing. The week’s Vital Signs came from […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
New TB vaccines are moving closer. Is Africa ready? 27/08/2026 Stephen Mutinda Mule African scientists, institutions and communities are helping advance the development of new TB vaccines. Governments must now work together to prepare national systems, secure fair pricing and ensure scientific progress leads to timely and equitable access. When I visited the University of Cape Town Lung Institute and the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) in […] Continue reading -> Eighty Years Strong and Still Forgetting Water: How WHO’s Anniversary Story Erases a Century of Environmental Health 18/08/2026 Wilfried Kreisel Twice in three years – at its 75th anniversary and again this July at the Constitution’s 80th – the World Health Oganization (WHO) has told the official story of what it has achieved. Twice, water, sanitation, air, chemicals and climate have been left out. The former head of WHO’s environmental health programme argues this is […] Continue reading -> The Machine in Geneva’s Basement 06/08/2026 K. Rifat Hossain A finance ministry official can now draft in an afternoon what used to take a WHO mission, a consultant and a wait of weeks. That single fact, multiplied across almost everything WHO produces, is the real story behind this year’s budget cuts — and almost nobody in Geneva is telling it yet. Picture a health […] Continue reading -> The HIV Deaths Nobody Can Count 04/08/2026 Mukesh Kapila Eighteen months into the dismantling of the global AIDS response, how many have died? The honest answer is that nobody knows. Rio’s numbers are inferences, its assumptions and projections disputable. But 30 years and tens of billions of dollars into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we should not still be guessing. The week’s Vital Signs came from […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Eighty Years Strong and Still Forgetting Water: How WHO’s Anniversary Story Erases a Century of Environmental Health 18/08/2026 Wilfried Kreisel Twice in three years – at its 75th anniversary and again this July at the Constitution’s 80th – the World Health Oganization (WHO) has told the official story of what it has achieved. Twice, water, sanitation, air, chemicals and climate have been left out. The former head of WHO’s environmental health programme argues this is […] Continue reading -> The Machine in Geneva’s Basement 06/08/2026 K. Rifat Hossain A finance ministry official can now draft in an afternoon what used to take a WHO mission, a consultant and a wait of weeks. That single fact, multiplied across almost everything WHO produces, is the real story behind this year’s budget cuts — and almost nobody in Geneva is telling it yet. Picture a health […] Continue reading -> The HIV Deaths Nobody Can Count 04/08/2026 Mukesh Kapila Eighteen months into the dismantling of the global AIDS response, how many have died? The honest answer is that nobody knows. Rio’s numbers are inferences, its assumptions and projections disputable. But 30 years and tens of billions of dollars into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we should not still be guessing. The week’s Vital Signs came from […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
The Machine in Geneva’s Basement 06/08/2026 K. Rifat Hossain A finance ministry official can now draft in an afternoon what used to take a WHO mission, a consultant and a wait of weeks. That single fact, multiplied across almost everything WHO produces, is the real story behind this year’s budget cuts — and almost nobody in Geneva is telling it yet. Picture a health […] Continue reading -> The HIV Deaths Nobody Can Count 04/08/2026 Mukesh Kapila Eighteen months into the dismantling of the global AIDS response, how many have died? The honest answer is that nobody knows. Rio’s numbers are inferences, its assumptions and projections disputable. But 30 years and tens of billions of dollars into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we should not still be guessing. The week’s Vital Signs came from […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
The HIV Deaths Nobody Can Count 04/08/2026 Mukesh Kapila Eighteen months into the dismantling of the global AIDS response, how many have died? The honest answer is that nobody knows. Rio’s numbers are inferences, its assumptions and projections disputable. But 30 years and tens of billions of dollars into the HIV/AIDS pandemic, we should not still be guessing. The week’s Vital Signs came from […] Continue reading -> Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Markets Offer Costly Cures while Courts Ensnare Prevention; meanwhile Ebola Response Stumbles 27/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila A trillion-dollar food industry sues to keep prevention at bay while governments spend billions subsidising the drugs that treat what bad diets do. Meanwhile, Ebola outruns a hollowed-out WHO, and its Director-General’s legacy hangs on whether he can get a grip. ‘If all else fails, sue’ Last week’s most telling global health story was not […] Continue reading -> Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Vital Signs: Reading Critical Developments in Global Health 20/07/2026 Mukesh Kapila Last week, one phrase — “self-reliance” — did more work in global health than any medicine, as global agencies continue operationalising donor retreats they can no longer disguise. The strategy’s real-world test is unfolding in eastern Congo, where the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record is outrunning a struggling response. The institutions of global health spent […] Continue reading -> Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts
Greater Responsibility Requires Greater Leadership From Germany in Global Health 16/07/2026 Sascha van Beek Editor’s note: As the Global Fund Executive Director nomination process progresses behind closed, reports by Health Policy Watch and The Lancet have revealed a few of the names said to be shortlisted, including high-profile candidates from the United States and Botswana. Meanwhile a German contender was reportedly sidelined. In this article, Sascha van Beek, a […] Continue reading -> Posts navigation Older posts