The United States will no longer fund Namibia’s HIV programme after 2027, following an impasse over data- and information-sharing terms required by the US for a longer aid package. The joint US-Namibia announcement frames the one-year aid phase-out as “recognition of Namibia’s historic achievement in reaching HIV epidemic control and surpassing global targets”. The US will […] Continue reading ->
A group of senior national security and health officials contend that cutting funding to the regional health organization will cripple the Western hemisphere’s ability to defend itself against disease threats. The oldest multilateral health organization in the world, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), is fighting many of the same health threats it did at […] Continue reading ->
Namibia has rejected the United States’ demands for sharing health data and pathogen information during negotiations for renewed US support for its HIV programme, according to The Namibian newspaper. In the past few years, the country has received around $45 million a year in support from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), […] Continue reading ->
KATHMANDU – Shekhar Lamichhane is grieving even as he struggles to breathe. The 65-year-old asthma patient needs oxygen support. Some of his family members, including siblings, were swept away in Nepal’s flash flood on 26 August when glacial ice and rock slammed into the valley below near the Nepal–China border. “I am on oxygen support. […] Continue reading ->
Around 200,000 people in the Israeli-occupied West Bank will lose access to vital food aid from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) due to funding cuts, exacerbating food insecurity. In the Gaza Strip, the nutrition and health crisis is set to worsen further due to a lack of medical supplies and sanitation, the World […] Continue reading ->
Under Germany’s tightly constrained draft budget proposal for 2027, the government is set to reduce global health funding substantially. While mandatory assessed contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO) will rise slightly, flexible budgets for pandemic preparedness are planned to be cut by 15.3%. As part of a broader budget overhaul, the German government is […] Continue reading ->
Nearly a year after Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-brokered cease-fire, some 94% of Gaza’s 2.1 million Palestinian residents lack adequate shelters with 84% facing severe constraints in heating, cooling, cooking, lighting and hygiene and nearly 60% facing “critical” or “catastrophic” shelter needs. This according to a new analysis by the Global Shelter Cluster, […] Continue reading ->
Indonesia has officially nominated its Health Minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, for the WHO Director-General election – in what is also an unconventional candidacy for the global health agency that has traditionally been led by medical or public health professionals. Sadikin was posted as an official nominee on the WHO election website over the weekend. A […] Continue reading ->
BLANTYRE, MALAWI – As early as 6:30 am, Malawi’s community health workers are already scattered across urban and rural neighbourhoods, dressed in sky-blue uniforms with square cooler boxes slung over their shoulders. For four days in mid-August, health surveillance assistants (HSAs) across the country walked from door to door, administering the novel oral polio […] Continue reading ->
The Political Declaration to be adopted at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) on 25 September has been modified since being placed under the “silence procedure” in late July. This is according to those following the process. Most changes are relatively minor, bar the removal of reference to tuberculosis […] Continue reading ->