Universal newborn screening needs to be dramatically expanded to improve infant mortality, says the World Health Organization (WHO). Without intervention, many of the estimated eight million infants born worldwide annually with congenital anomalies face severe impairment or death, warns a new technical report. The WHO report reflects a paradoxical landscape. As low- and middle-income countries […] Continue reading ->
What’s left to tackle in the PABS talks? As the clock ran out, and then was extended for another year, on negotiations over the Pandemic Agreement’s Annex on Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS), the diplomacy and the nitty-gritty of the issues faced were deeply linked This edition of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot of the Geneva […] Continue reading ->
WHO emergency funds are running low, and global health leaders are concerned about a systemic paralysis in pandemic preparedness. In high-level discussions in Geneva, experts explored the geopolitical rifts, pitting the Global South’s demand to treat pandemic tools as legally binding “public goods” against a European push for market-driven surge financing. As a severe Ebola […] Continue reading ->
Sweeping personnel cuts and a massive emergency funding shortfall trigger sharp warnings about acute WHO operational risks from member states and experts. Yet, diverging regional priorities complicate short-term and sustainable financing solutions. GENEVA –Member states sounded alarms over severe WHO budget constraints on Thursday at the World Health Assembly. Delegates warned that a 9.4% staff […] Continue reading ->
As Europe grapples with shifting demographics and an influx of migration, researchers are mapping how undocumented migrants navigate the administrative cracks of the continent’s healthcare systems – helping to fill a critical data gap identified by the World Health Organization. Inside the neoclassical venue of La Pastorale in Geneva, around 30 participants from six European […] Continue reading ->
The European Commission announced its long-awaited Global Health Resilience Initiative on Wednesday. While the policy roadmap aims to support partner countries’ transition toward health sovereignty amid historic aid cuts and shifting geopolitical realities, critics are concerned about its heavy reliance on private funding. As global health gains face a severe threat of reversal from stagnating […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization has ‘pre-qualified’ Coartem® Baby, the first-ever malaria treatment for young infants of 4.5 kilograms or less. The combination treatment, now being rolled out in Ghana, aims to fill a longstanding gap in treatments available for children under the age of 5, who constitute three quarters of the estimated 610,000 malaria deaths […] Continue reading ->