The blood collection drape, an inexpensive plastic sheet with a pouch at its base that hangs off the end of the delivery table and collects and measures blood lost by women during and after labour.

Every year, around 27 million women bleed excessively after giving birth, and almost 43,000 die – yet there are new ways for this to be detected and treated.

This is according to a series on maternal health published in The Lancet on Friday by the United Nations Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Oxford University.

Post-partum haemorrhage (PPH) is the leading cause of maternal mortality, and it can also result in “severe anaemia, hysterectomy, organ failure, and long-term psychological trauma”. The global economic burden of PPH is estimated at $10·4 billion.

Babies whose mothers die in childbirth also have a significantly higher chance of dying than their peers, according to studies conducted in Ethiopia and rural Tanzania.

“Women who are most likely to die from PPH are those who have home births; those with anaemia or pre-existing medical problems; those who have a caesarean birth, particularly an emergency caesarean at full cervical dilation; and those delivering in health-care settings with staffing challenges,” according to the first paper in the series.

Substandard clinical care is “a root cause” of PPH deaths, presenting as “missed or delayed PPH diagnosis, slow and fragmented delivery of treatment interventions, and agonisingly late escalation of care”. 

Identifying haemorrhaging

Health workers can save women’s lives by applying the latest guidelines on treating PPH without waiting for expert intervention, the series asserts.

If PPH is not recognised and treated early, a woman can deteriorate very quickly and die, according to the researchers.

A woman should be treated for PPH as soon as she has lost 300ml of blood – slightly more than a cup – and shows abnormal vital signs, or if she has lost 500ml of blood – whichever comes first, according to the series.

This definition is the result of several studies and consultations after the WHO found the definition of PPH varied widely across the world.

In the past, health workers visually estimated blood loss – but the researchers describe this as so “grossly inaccurate” that it missed half of PPH cases.

Now, blood loss can be measured by a “blood collection drape” – an inexpensive plastic sheet with a pouch at its base that hangs off the end of the delivery table and collects and measures blood. 

The series promotes a simple first-response treatment bundle, known as E-MOTIVE, with each letter representing an intervention – Early detection of PPH, uterine Massage, Oxytocic drugs, Tranexamic acid, intraVenous fluids, and Examination of the genital tract.

E-MOTIVE, the intervention steps that can save lives.

By using E-MOTIVE, health workers can reduce the progression to life-threatening haemorrhage by up to 60%.

But managing life-threatening PPH requires” the immediate attendance of the emergency team, which should include senior obstetricians and anaesthetists”, the series notes. 

“The immediate priority is to assess and resuscitate the woman through management of her circulation, airway, and breathing. Bleeding should be controlled, and transfusion of blood and blood products should be done if required.”

Achievable goals

The series describes the steps to reduce PPH as “achievable goals that could transform PPH outcomes globally”.

“The essential knowledge and tools to substantially reduce PPH-related morbidity and mortality now exist; the primary challenge lies in translating this evidence into consistent clinical practice across diverse health-care settings,” the series concludes. 

“Success will demand sustained commitment from policy makers and health-care leaders, adequate resource allocation, and continuous quality improvement efforts.”

Dr Wahome Ngare, who accused the Gates Foundation and CEPI of ‘genocide’.

Ghana’s parliament invited a vociferously anti-vaccine Kenyan and a conservative Dutch activist campaigning to curtail the World Health Organization (WHO) to address visiting MPs on “health sovereignty” last week.

Ghanaian President John Mahama – who is championing African “health sovereignty” via an initiative called the Accra Reset – was a keynote speaker at the WHO’s World Health Assembly last month, and is drumming up international support for the initiative.

Yet Ghanaian Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin, a leader in Mahama’s National Democratic Congress, hosted Dr Wahome Ngare and Wilmer Hak, from ultra-conservative Christian Council International (CCI), and sat back as they made inflammatory and wild claims about the WHO, the Gates Foundation and other health initiatives during their speeches.

Describing COVID-19 vaccines as an “assault”, Ngare accused the Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) of “genocide” for “gain-of-function” research – erroneously claiming that they are manufacturing viruses to infect humans so they can develop and profit from vaccines.

Ngare also claimed that the WHO was trying to use pandemics to grab power through the International Health Regulations, which set out rules to contain epidemics. He heads a largely dormant group called the African Sovereignty Coalition, and also chairs the Kenya Christian Professionals Forum. 

He also denounced the WHO definition of health as being “godless”, said people with “same-sex attraction” had been sexually abused as children and suffered from “a very serious mental illness called post-traumatic stress disorder”, and called for “single parents” to be referred to as “absent spouse families”.

Wilmer Hak, policy director of the ultra-conservative Christian Council International (CCI).

Meanwhile, Hak said that the WHO is financed largely by private companies and the pharmaceutical industry, which is why it was focused on fundraising for pandemics – as this would ensure that these groups profited.

Hak also claimed that the WHO Pandemic Agreement aims to centralise power during global health emergencies. Hak also said that the WHO should work towards “progressive redundancy, as national capacities mature”.

He also claimed that the WHO and various international human rights mechanisms have “intensified their calls for universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) without any limitations”.

Hak also referred MPs to the right-wing think-tank, the Brownstone Institute’s International Health Reform Project – an explicitly anti-WHO initiative.

‘Family values’ charter

Delegates at the fourth annual meeting of the Inter-parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values, hosted by Ghana’s parliament.

The pair’s speeches were part of the fourth annual meeting of the Inter-parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values, a conservative initiative that has been campaigning against sexual and reproductive health rights for several years – with the backing of US and European conservative Christian groups, including Hak’s CCI and Family Watch International.

The conference is developing a draft “Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values” that it aims to present to the African Union for adoption. 

However, the draft treaty already contradicts several continental human rights-based treaties – including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), the Maputo Protocol, and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC).

Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Ghana’s Minister of State in Charge of Government Communications, failed to respond to Health Policy Watch’s queries about why Ngare and Hak were invited and whether their views on health sovereignty reflect those of the Ghanaian government.

However, Health Policy Watch first reported on an alliance between anti-rights groups opposing sexual and reproductive health rights and anti-vaxxers in 2024, at the second meeting of the Inter-parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values in Entebbe, Uganda.

Ngare also addressed that conference, where he claimed that several vaccines caused infertility, and also attacked the WHO. He was supported by Shabnam Mohamed, executive director of the Africa Chapter of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group started by current US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.

This alliance mirrors developments in the United States, where conservative Christians opposed to abortion and LGBTQ rights have united with Kennedy’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’, which is led by several anti-vaccine activists, to maximise their power in the Republican Party.

Lastweek’s cconference was held shortly after the Ghanaian parliament passed one of the most repressive anti-LGBTQ laws in the world, following a similar pattern to Uganda, which also tightened up its anti-LGBTQ law before hosting the conference in 2024.

Burkina Faso is due to host the next conference in 2027, and MPs attending last week’s meeting were urged to drum up support for the Charter in the next year.

However, South Africa’s delegate told the conference that her country would not adopt such a charter as it “contradicts our Constitution and … does not align with the regional and international laws that we believe in”.

Dr Jean Kaseya addresses the media briefing.

Only around 12% of the contacts of Ebola patients in Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been reached, posing a “huge risk” for community transmission, Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention told a media briefing on Thursday.

Ituri is the epicentre of the current outbreak, accounting for 600 of the 635 confirmed cases by 9 June. 

Around 4,955 contacts have been recorded, but Kaseya said that in high-density urban areas, such as the mining towns in Ituri, each patient would have been in contact with around 40 people.

This would mean 24,000 contacts. As less than 60% of the current contacts had been traced so far, Kaseya said this meant that only around 12% of case contacts had been found and tested.

“If we don’t know these people, if we don’t have them on the [contact] list, if we don’t follow up, it means there is a huge risk of transmission to be sustained in the community,” he said, adding that some confirmed cases had still not been admitted to hospitals. 

Obstacles to contact tracing include “the rapid geographic expansion [of the outbreak], delayed detection, high mobility, insecurity and community resistance”, said Kaseya. 

“We saw that people attacked health workers today in Beni [in northern Kivu]. People  destroyed an isolation centre, they destroyed a treatment centre.”

Unlike the DRC, Uganda has followed up 91% of contacts of its 19 Ebola cases, there is no community transmission, and the country is “doing very well”, said Kaseya, adding that it is “totally wrong” to impose travel restrictions on the country. 

Conflict in the outbreak zones is also hampering the response, with new clashes between the DRC and M23 rebels in Beni.

“We cannot respond to this outbreak when we are facing insecurity, and this is why we are calling to our leaders to give us access to people and, as the EU requested, we really to have the ceasefire, otherwise this outbreak will continue,” said Kaseya.

There are also “huge” resource gaps. The reponse needs 540 staff yet only 84 are available, and 98 ambulances but it has to make do with seven.

So far, the current outbreak is the third biggest in the history of the past 20 Ebola outbreaks. Some 27 health zones in the DRC now report Ebola cases, more than double the 14 affected zones 10 days ago.

Young people aged 15 to 44 years of age make up 62% of all cases. However, the outbreak is particularly deadly, with a 44% case fatality rate in young children up to the age of four.

Risk to health workers

Professor Salim Abdul Karim, chair of Africa CDC’s Emergency Consultative Group, addressed the media briefing from Bunia, a town in Ituri.

Of the 22 Ebola patients currently in the local hospital, five are health workers, said Abdul Karim.

“That gives you some idea of the risk frontline health workers are facing,” he said. “Frontline healthcare workers are always at higher stress because they are the ones who are dealing with the patient’s blood and the patient’s secretions, and they are the ones who are directly involved in the care of the patients.”

“These are hospitals not specifically designed to deal with haemorrhagic fevers. Patients are presenting initially with a range of symptoms that can easily be mistaken for other common conditions like malaria, so it’s those early stages that we need better triage systems.”

So far, 34 health workers have been infected in the outbreak, and five have died.

Human-caused warming hit 1.37°C in 2025 and is rising at the fastest rate ever recorded, scientists warned at UN climate talks in Bonn, putting the world on track to cross the Paris Agreement’s warming limit by the end of the decade.

The world will permanently breach the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C warming limit within about four years if emissions continue at current levels, a major global stocktake of the climate system published Thursday has found.

The fourth annual Indicators of Global Climate Change report, published at the UN climate meetings in Bonn as negotiators begin to lay the groundwork for COP31, shows human-induced warming reached 1.37°C above pre-industrial levels in 2025, rising at 0.27°C per decade, the fastest rate in the historical record.

While individual years have already exceeded 1.5°C, boosted by natural cycles such as El Niño, the report warns that a permanent breach is now fast approaching, with human-caused warming pushing temperatures past the Paris target around 2030.

“The rate of global warming continues at an unprecedented rate,” Dr Chris Smith of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, told the launch press conference. “The level of warming is projected to surpass 1.5°C in about four years.”

The remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C, the total CO2 the world can still emit for an even chance of holding the line against rising temperatures, stood at 130 billion tonnes at the start of 2026. 

At current emission rates, it will be exhausted in a little over three years, the report found.

The budgets for 1.6°C and 1.7°C – enough to trigger catastrophic weather extremes, force millions to flee their homes to seek cooler environments, and wipe out nearly all of the world’s coral reefs – run out in roughly eight and 12 years.

“Human-induced global warming has now reached 1.37°C and continues to rise rapidly, coming ever closer to 1.5°C of global warming,” said Dr Aurélien Ribes, a climate scientist at Météo-France and co-author of the study. 

“Given that greenhouse gas emissions are still on the rise, keeping global warming below this threshold now seems unachievable.”

High temperatures ‘in the pipeline’ 

The report, compiled by some 70 scientists from over 50 institutions in 17 countries, tracks 12  indicators of the climate system using the methods of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its findings aim to bridge the gap between the IPCC’s major assessments, released roughly every seven years, and will feed into the upcoming assessment report due from the UN climate authority in 2028.

Nearly every indicator tracked in the report moved in the wrong direction. The last 11 years are the 11 warmest ever recorded.

Greenhouse gas emissions hit an all-time high of 56.8 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent in 2024, 73% of which originate from fossil fuels.

Atmospheric CO2 reached 425.6 parts per million in 2025, over 50% above pre-industrial levels. Global sea level hit a record 23cm above 1901 levels, and the pace is accelerating as warming oceans expand and land-based ice melts, pushing tides and storm surges higher and further into low-lying coastal areas home to hundreds of millions of people.

The most alarming signal, the authors said, is the Earth’s energy imbalance, which refers to the gap between the heat arriving from the sun and the heat escaping back to space. That imbalance has more than doubled since the late 20th century, and now stands 40% higher than the IPCC assessed just five years ago.

“I’m quite a conservative kind of scientist, but this is potentially indicative of very high temperatures in the pipeline,” said Professor Piers Forster, director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures at the University of Leeds, who leads the annual update.

“Things are getting worse, and getting worse quite rapidly,” Forster said, noting the changes remain within the range projected in the last IPCC report – but at the very top end of it.

Around 90% of that excess heat is absorbed by the oceans. A new indicator added to this year’s report finds the number of days of marine heatwaves globally has more than tripled since 1991, with 65 recorded in 2025. Marine heatwaves bleach coral reefs, kill off the kelp forests and seagrass meadows that shelter marine life, displace the fish stocks that coastal communities depend on, and feed the warm surface waters that fuel hurricanes and storms.

The heat is showing up on land, too. The average hottest day of the year rose to 1.92°C above pre-industrial levels over the last decade, a jump of 0.49°C in just ten years, the report found.

Despite record-breaking temperatures and 2025 coming in as the third-warmest year ever recorded, the scientists stressed the climate is behaving as predicted.

“Unprecedented change doesn’t mean unexpected,” said Dr Tristram Walsh of the University of Oxford, a co-author. “We saw a lot of media coverage that scientists may not know what’s going on with these record temperatures. But if you look at our study, you can clearly see that we really do.”

“This reality check implies increased needs for adaptation as well as risks of losses and damages,” said Dr Valérie Masson-Delmotte, research director at the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace and former co-chair of the IPCC’s physical science working group, “and shows that we are not on track with low emissions scenarios, which are critical to be able to limit future warming and related risks.”

Heat is here 

The human toll of the warming already locked in was underlined in Berlin on the same day, where the World Health Organization launched new guidance on protecting populations from extreme heat.

Heat has killed more than 200,000 people across the European Union and its associated countries in the past four years alone, said Dr Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe. Most of the deaths were preventable.

“Heatwaves are no longer freak weather anomalies,” Kluge said. “They are now a recurring crisis inflicting suffering, claiming lives and fracturing our health systems and infrastructure.”

A separate study published in Nature on Thursday found that coastal flooding, once considered a once-in-a-century event, has become around 12 times more frequent worldwide since 1900, with human-driven warming alone quadrupling the likelihood.

Globally, the death toll is already measured in the millions. The latest Lancet Countdown assessment estimated heat exposure now claims 546,000 lives a year, roughly one death every minute, with 84% of the heatwave days people experienced between 2020 and 2024 made more likely or possible by climate change. 

“The reality is the global mean temperature trend isn’t how we experience climate change – it’s in the extremes,” said Dr Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. “Heatwaves are getting worse, they’re impacting larger areas, they’re happening earlier, and they’re happening for longer.”

CO2 emissions slowing, but still increasing 

Amid the doom and gloom, the report did contain one genuine piece of good news: while emissions remain at record highs, the growth of CO2 emissions is slowing.

“That doesn’t mean we’re on track yet, but it does mean that policy, technology and societal choices are starting to bend the curve,” said Dr Samantha Burgess of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. “It’s real, and it matters. But slowing growth is not a decline.”

That message lands squarely in the politics of the road to COP31 in Antalya this November, where co-hosts Türkiye and Australia have placed electrification and renewable energy at the centre of the agenda, an approach that conveniently sidesteps the question that broke last year’s COP30 in Belém: a phase-out of fossil fuels themselves.

After petrostates led by Saudi Arabia stripped all mention of fossil fuels from last year’s final text, 57 nations frustrated with the deadlock gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, in April for the first global summit dedicated to phasing them out, declaring the energy transition “past its point of no return.”

Soaring oil and gas prices in the wake of the war in the Middle East have added economic momentum to the shift as countries, companies and households invest in renewables to insulate themselves from volatile fossil fuel markets.

“Electrification is one of the best investments governments can make to avert the worst impacts of climate change, bolster the economy and increase resilience to external shocks,” said Dr William Lamb, a senior researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-author of the report.

Geopolitical storm hits weather monitoring 

The scientists behind the report closed the launch presser with a warning about their own ability to keep watch, as the United States, long the backbone of the global climate observing network, pulls funding, satellites and instruments from some of the world’s most important sources of climate data.

“Just when we need to monitor the Earth system the most, the observations and the global programs that coordinate them are imperilled,” said Professor Peter Thorne of Maynooth University, deputy chair of the Global Climate Observing System. “It is imperative that countries urgently increase their support of both earth observation programs and the coordinating mechanisms that sustain them.”

The peer-reviewed paper itself states that future monitoring of its indicators, including ocean and satellite measurements of the Earth’s energy imbalance, is threatened by “geopolitical and public funding decisions.”

This month, the United States began dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $368 million network of some 900 deep-sea instruments, including an array in the Irminger Sea between Greenland and Iceland that monitors the Atlantic circulation system, whose potential collapse scientists rank among the gravest climate tipping points.

The Trump administration has also sought for two consecutive years to eliminate the research arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose 2026 budget request contained the line: “Total, Climate Research: $0.” 

Congress has so far rejected the deepest cuts, but the administration’s latest proposal would strip more than $1 billion from the agency. NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory supplies the atmospheric CO2 record that underpins the report published in Bonn. 

The stakes of losing sight of the ocean may arrive quickly. A strong El Niño is building in the Pacific, Smith noted, “which could be a sign of a very warm 2027 to come.”

“These observing systems are not guaranteed. They’re threatened by lack of funding, lack of infrastructure and geopolitical instability,” Burgess said. “Without continued investment in these observing systems, we can’t continue to monitor the climate at a time when it matters more than ever.”

Image Credits: Matt Howard/ Unslash.

EU climate monitor Copernicus maps highlight severe extreme weather and heatwaves across Europe in May 2026.
EU climate monitor Copernicus maps highlight severe extreme weather and heatwaves across Europe in May 2026.

Following a severe May heatwave, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued new global guidelines on Thursday in Berlin to accelerate climate adaptation and structurally overhaul health systems and urban spaces.

Over the past four years, extreme heat has claimed more than 200,000 lives across Europe, positioning it as the deadliest climate-related hazard. As new climate data reveals, global warming was pushed to 1.37°C above pre-industrial levels in 2025 – and is expected to breach the critical 1.5°C threshold within four years. WHO estimates the annual regional death toll could reach 120,000 by 2050 without effective intervention.

“Europe is warming faster than any other continent, and we are paying for it in lives,” said Dr Hans Henri Kluge, director of the WHO’s European Region (WHO/EURO), presenting the updated guidelines for Heat-Health Action Plans.

Rather than treating heatwaves as isolated emergencies, the updated WHO framework urges governments to fundamentally redesign their cities, workplaces and health systems. S

tructured around eight core elements – governance, warning systems, populations at risk, communication, resilience, reducing heat exposure, surveillance, and evaluation – the new approach shifts toward urgent, practical interventions that actively reduce thermal exposure across society.

Redesigning for cooler cities

From left to right: press spokesperson Christopher Stolzenberg, Berlin Senator for Health Dr Ina Czyborra, German Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider, and WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge.
From left to right: press spokesperson Christopher Stolzenberg, Berlin Senator for Health Dr Ina Czyborra, German Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider, and WHO Regional Director for Europe Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge.

Urban landscapes currently amplify extreme heat through dense infrastructure and heat-absorbing materials. “Large, densely built-up cities are particularly vulnerable to the dangers of summer heat,” noted Berlin Senator for Health Ina Czyborra at the launch.

To counter this, city planners are urged to embrace the “sponge-city” principle, replacing concrete with permeable surfaces, expanding tree canopies, and utilizing reflective materials to disperse accumulated heat. Beyond city limits, preserving natural ecosystems such as moors, forests, and floodplains provides a vital cooling buffer that actively retains water in the landscape for broader metropolitan areas.

“Nature can help us combat the heat if we let it,” emphasised German Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider.

Protecting workers and patients

WHO's Dr Kluge warns of the dangers of extreme heat.
WHO’s Dr Kluge warns of the dangers of extreme heat.

As extreme temperatures drive patient surges and disrupt supply chains, the updated WHO guidelines urge health administrators to build structural resilience and implement robust heat-health surveillance to track real-time morbidity. This includes backup power for cooling systems, protecting temperature-sensitive medication, and safeguarding digital infrastructure from heat-induced failures.

Simultaneously, the framework mandates that employers implement strict occupational protections to shield frontline medical staff, construction workers, and agricultural labourers from severe heat stress. Employers face new directives to enforce mandatory acclimatisation periods, provide shaded rest areas, and adapt personal protective equipment.

Crucially, the guidance states that supervisors must establish clear communication channels that empower workers to halt unsafe labour and seek immediate medical help without fear of reprisal.

Ensuring equitable survival

Because extreme heat disproportionately targets the isolated, the elderly, and the economically disadvantaged, WHO insists that survival cannot depend on individual resources alone.

The new guidance mandates that local authorities formally map vulnerable populations and link this data directly to heat-health warning systems, ensuring that official alerts instantly trigger targeted outreach, including proactive home visits and wellness checks during thermal spikes.

The framework also calls for public health messaging campaigns to be co-designed with affected communities to guarantee inclusivity and cultural relevance. Consequently, health authorities are instructed to utilize diverse dissemination channels to ensure that life-saving advice reaches transient populations, undocumented migrants, and those lacking digital literacy.

The cost of resilience

EU Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra discusses resilience.
EU Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra discusses resilience.

While the guidelines provide a clear roadmap for adaptation, executing this transformation requires authorities to explicitly identify sustainable financing mechanisms and establish embedded monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems to track their effectiveness.

As European Commissioner for Climate Wopke Hoekstra noted in his foreword, “The evidence is clear: investing in emission reductions is far cheaper than paying for climate damage.”

Yet, this remains a profound challenge amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and strained European government budgets due to increased defence spending.

Addressing questions on expiring adaptation funds during the Berlin launch, Schneider acknowledged the “poor financial situation” currently complicating national budget negotiations.

With even a wealthy economy like Germany struggling to secure this funding, the pressing question arises: which states and cities will actually be able to facilitate the investments urgently needed to prevent deaths from extreme heat and yield those future returns.

El Niño Conditions Will Lead to More Heatwaves, Droughts and Wildfires Over Next Few Months, Warns WMO

Image Credits: Luis Graterol via Unsplash, EU/Copernicus, Felix Sassmannshausen/HPW.

A community health worker administers an HIV test. HIV experts are concerned about the drop in HIV testing since the US cut its funding.

Precipitous aid cuts are casting a huge shadow over the United Nations High-Level Meeting (HLM) on HIV on 22-23 June, with new research indicating that some countries could face almost total cuts in aid from the United States by 2030.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned last week that the world is far from achieving the 2025 targets set out in the Political Declaration adopted at the last HLM on HIV in 2021.

The 95-95-95 targets involve ensuring that 95% of people with HIV know their status; 95% of people with HIV are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, and 95% of those on ARVs are virally suppressed. 

“At the end of 2024, 9.2 million people could not access HIV treatment; there were 630,000 AIDS-related deaths (double the 2025 target); and 1.3 million people acquired HIV (3.5 times the 2025 target),” warned Guterres.

There is a global commitment to end HIV by 2030, but the lack of funds will impact the ambitions of the new Political Declaration, currently being negotiated ahead of the HLM.

Ahead of the HLM, HIV civil society organisations have called for “innovative financing mechanisms” including debt-relief instruments, refinancing of debt, health taxes, and better public financing management to address the funding gap.

US and Global Fund slash aid

Despite the 95-95-95 targets for 2025 not being met, progress was a steady 87-77-73 in 2024, according to UNAIDS – but then Donald Trump became president of the US in January 2025 and set about slashing global aid for health.

In 2024, the US and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria together financed roughly 86% of all donor funding for HIV.  

In western and central Africa, 90% of treatment funding comes from external donors, while prevention programmes in sub-Saharan Africa rely on 80% external funding, according to UNAIDS.

The Trump administration plans to cut HIV funding to recipient countries by between 42% and 97% by 2030, according to a memorandum released this week by the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI). 

CHAI’s analysis is based primarily on data from 11 countries across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia that are home to approximately 25% of people living with HIV globally, and figures published by the US State Department.

The US has already excluded South Africa, the country with the biggest HIV positive population in the world, from any HIV funding based on political disputes.

The Global Fund – facing its own donor demise – is also cutting funding.

KFF analysis of US and Global Fund cuts

A wider analysis of 29 countries points to a decline in combined aid from the US and the Global Fund of some $4.3 billion (24%) through 2029, according to KFF. The US will reduce its aid by 29% and the Global Fund by 15%, respectively. 

KFF’s figures are based largely on the Memorandums of Agreement (MOU) signed between the Trump administration and 29 countries in terms of the America First Global Health Strategy. 

Funding in these 29 countries is estimated to decline from $11.3 billion (2024-2026) to $8 billion between 2027 and 2029 (a 29% decline).  

Countries facing the biggest cuts are Uganda ($370 million), Mozambique ($356 million), Nigeria ($280 million), and Malawi ($252 million), according to KFF. 

Reductions range from 1% in Honduras (off a very low base) to 82% in Senegal, with 12 countries experiencing reductions of 50% or more, KFF notes.

“In addition to these funding reductions, countries also face co-financing requirements, which could intensify fiscal impacts while offsetting some of the effects of the reductions on global health programs,” KFF notes.

Strain on domestic budgets

CHAI points out that in some of the 11 countries it engaged with, the combined co-financing requirements in their five-year MOUs with the US “exceed projected domestic health spending”.

Some areas of the HIV response face “major reductions”. Funding for frontline healthcare workers is projected to decline by 27-96% by 2028, and laboratory services funding declines by up to 66% over five years, depending on the country. 

“Governments are expected to absorb these costs over time, raising urgent questions about whether countries have the fiscal capacity to sustain essential HIV services,” CHAI notes.

Almost 41 million people are living with HIV, and 1.3 million people were infected with HIV in 2024, according to UNAIDS, which will release comprehensive global figures on Friday.

Impact on services

Impact of aid cuts on HIV services (Clinton Health Access Initiative).

HIV testing has dropped 12%, there are 15% fewer babies being initiated on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and the total number of children on ARVs fell 11%, with 26,000 fewer children on treatment across nine countries, according to CHAI.

In addition, the number of people initiating pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) – ARVs taken by people at high risk of HIV to prevent transmission – has dropped by 42%.

“National-level data show declines across most key HIV service indicators, with little to no recovery to date,” the CHAI memo notes, contradicting upbeat claims of progress against HIV made by US State Department officials. 

This follows the closure of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a key implementer of HIV support, and the reorganisation of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) under the State Department.

“Following the initial disruption, the US introduced short-term bridge funding to keep essential HIV programs running through early 2026, but at roughly 40% less than the same period in 2024,” CHAI reports.

Silver lining: Lenacapavir

Members of the government of Eswatini, including Prime Minister Russell Dlamini (right) and Minister of Health Mduduzi Matsebula (centre), during the lenacapavir introduction ceremony at Hhukwini Clinic near Mbabane.

Despite the grim financial outlook, HIV advocates view the rollout of Lenacapavir, an injection given twice a year that almost completely prevents HIV transmission, as the most hopeful tool to end HIV.

“The innovations to transform prevention are within reach at the very moment they are needed most,” said Carolyn Amole, CHAI’s vice president for HIV, Hepatitis, and TB.

“The first [lenacapavir] injections were given in December and more than 20,000 people have now received their first injection. Last Friday in South Africa, the country with the largest global burden of HIV, President Cyril Ramaphosa officially launched lenacapavir to a nation fervently anticipating its arrival. 

“Generic entry is expected by early 2027, and pricing agreements have brought the cost to $40 per person per year. The US government and Global Fund have raised their combined procurement commitment to three million person-years.”

Image Credits: Sydelle Willow Smith/ UNAIDS, Flickr, KFF, Karin Hatzold /PSI..

Image Credits: Africa CDC , Africa CDC .

Africa CDC staff on the ground in the DRC to assist with the Ebola outbreak (May 2026).

As the Bundibugyo Virus Disease (BVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda reached 608 confirmed cases and 102 deaths, global health leaders called for “an end to the cycle of panic and neglect” in response to disease outbreaks.

Describing the Ebola outbreak as a “preventable disaster”, the leaders have written an open letter to governments calling on them to “make decisions that will prevent and stop infectious disease outbreaks from killing people, draining economies and further fraying societal trust”.

The letter is headlined by the four bodies involved in critical oversight of global pandemics: The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, Panel for a Global Public Health Convention and the Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics. It is also signed by key global health leaders.

Not ready for next pandemic

Despite 22 million people dying during the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent mpox, hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks have shown that the world is “not ready for a new pandemic threat”, the letter notes.

It points to the stalled Pandemic Agreement talks, the lack of new national outbreak and pandemic plans, and the world’s failure to “come close” to meeting the $15 billion per year needed for pandemic prevention and preparedness.

“There was a pledge to have diagnostics, vaccines and treatments ready within 100 days of a new threat being identified (100 Days Mission) – and while there has been progress, for Bundibugyo, that will not happen,” they note.

“At a time when humanity can sequence pathogens in hours, develop vaccines in months, and deploy artificial intelligence across entire economies, the world already has many of the tools it needs. 

“The question is whether leaders will choose to invest in and use them. We can no longer accept this cycle of panic and neglect.”

UN High-Level Meeting on pandemics

The upcoming United Nations High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Preparedness in September has been set for the last Friday of the UN General Assembly week –  “when many heads of state and government have already left New York, and those who remain have their minds on flights home”, the letter notes.

Nonetheless, it calls on world leaders to finalise and ratify the Pandemic Agreement “as rapidly as possible and implement it”. The next round of talks begins again on 6 July.  

They also call for “fair, predictable, and accessible financing for sustained prevention and preparedness investment, including for the 100 Days Mission, and for rapid emergency deployment when threats emerge”. 

Implementing a One Health approach and establishing an outbreak and pandemic risk and readiness monitoring framework are also urgently needed, they note.

Ebola: lack of resources, access and trust

Members of the Red Cross bury people who have died of Ebola in Ituri province in the DRC, guarded by military personnel after attacks on a treatment facility for Ebola patients.

Meanwhile, the lack of resources, access and community trust is severely hampering attempts to end the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda, according to a media release by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.

On Monday, 45 new cases had been confirmed, all in the DRC’s Ituri province. Uganda’s case load remains at 19, with all cases linked to the DRC outbreak.

“The epidemic curve shows intense transmission, with a peak in late May. Contact tracing is uneven, with follow-up rates ranging from 78% in Bunia to 0% in some health zones, weakening containment efforts,” said the Africa CDC.

“The response is facing significant operational constraints. Health facilities in several affected areas are in poor condition and often lack potable water, incinerators, personal protective equipment and decontamination supplies,” it notes.

“Poor roads, insecurity and shortages of ambulances and hearses are slowing access and response operations. Staffing pressures are also growing, with some health workers unpaid or without incentives.”

Describing community trust as a “critical challenge”, Africa CDC said that misinformation and a viral audio message following the death of a doctor have fuelled people’s “fear and distrust of treatment centres”. 

Misinformation ranges from disbelief that Ebola exists to fears that people are being deliberately infected, according to Deutsche Welle.

“The immediate priorities are to strengthen community engagement and risk communication, fast-track multidisciplinary rapid response teams to high-risk areas, close infection prevention and safe burial gaps, improve surveillance and contact follow-up, and secure safe access for medical teams in insecure areas,” noted Africa CDC.

The European Union Commission (EU) announced on Monday that it has committed €11.5 million to support Africa CDC’s response to the Ebola outbreak.  

This includes €6.5 million to strengthen the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative, to help equip frontline teams train healthcare workers and improve surveillance through diagnostics and in-kind contribution of €5 million worth of testing equipment, including rapid diagnostic devices and lab test kits, to be deployed quickly where they are needed most.

Image Credits: Africa CDC, AP.

A young boy with type 1 diabetes gets his blood glucose level tested. Such new tests aren’t readily available in many countries.

The Global Diabetes Compact aims to improve diagnosis, care, and access to life-saving medications for those with diabetes. Already, countries in high-burden regions have improved along these key metrics. But as the number of people living with diabetes is projected to increase nearly 50% globally by 2050, much more needs to be accomplished. 

In a Toronto hospital 105 years ago, scientists racing against the clock injected a 14-year-old boy dying from diabetes with insulin. Leonard Thompson’s dangerously high blood glucose levels dropped to within normal levels–becoming the first person to receive a dose of the hormone–the result of medical innovations and decades of research. 

Despite this breakthrough over a century ago, some 59% of adults who are diagnosed still don’t get appropriate treatment, according to a Lancet study, published in 2024 by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, in which WHO is a key partner.  In 2022, that amounted to as many as 445 million adults age 30 and over, mostly in low-and-middle income countries. The South-East Asian region alone requires 170 million vials of insulin each year, yet with the least costly human insulin options ranging from $6 to $20 per vial, the medicine still remains unaffordable for the most vulnerable. 

“Science gave us insulin, and more than a century later, we still owe its promise to millions of people,” said Dr Catharina Boehme, officer-in-charge of the World Health Organizattion’s South-East Asia Regional Office. “And five years ago, the Global Diabetes Compact (GDC) was created to fulfil this promise and give what we owe people with diabetes.”

She was speaking at an event Monday on the margins of the World Health Assembly, marking five years since the Member State body endorsed the Global Diabetes Compact. 

The landmark WHO initiative aims to ensure several key diabetes targets by 2030. These include 80% diagnosis coverage of people with diabetes and 80% of those diagnosed have good control of glycaemia and blood pressure. The Compact also aims for 60% of people with diabetes 40 years or older to receive statins, and that 100% of people with type 1 diabetes have access to affordable insulin and blood glucose monitoring.

global diabetes compact goals
The Global Diabetes Compact marks several firsts for targets on diabetes diagnosis and control.

‘Brilliant’ goals

“Even if they sparked debate, they are brilliant goals,” said Professor Peter Schwarz, president of the International Diabetes Federation. 

He and other leaders in the global diabetes community gathered in Geneva to mark the fifth anniversary of the Global Diabetes Compact.

In particular, he is pleased that the Compact includes a target  that 100% of people worldwide with type 1 diabetes have access to affordable insulin and blood glucose self-monitoring by 2030. The present state of play, in which an estimated 43% of people with diabetes remain undiagnosed and without insulin, is a “severe ethical issue,” he observed. 

In the five years since the Compact was launched, awareness of the needs and access gaps is ”improving worldwide,” declared Schwarz, whose organisation, along with other civil society actors and WHO, acts as a voice for the global diabetes community. By 2030, he hopes to see big leaps forward in the implementation of the access goals. 

“We’ve succeeded in gathering stakeholders around a common agenda,” said Dr Bianca Hemmingsen, the WHO’s technical lead on the project. This means convening a diverse group of people in civil society groups, people living with diabetes, and governments. 

Hemmingsen was speaking at this week’s anniversary event staged in a modest garden cafe along a well-trod path between WHO and the Palais des Nations, where formal WHA debates are taking place.

A young patient with diabetes attends a check-up in Kigali, Rwanda.

‘First’ for global diabetes coverage targets 

The Compact marks the first time there has ever been global diabetes coverage targets and a clear operational agenda for access to essential diabetes medicines and technologies. 

The progress so far has included the progressive inclusion of comparatively newer insulin analogues into the WHO Essential Medicines List (EML) alongside human insulin, the backbone of treatment since that landmark discovery a century ago. The EML is a compilation of drugs which guides countries on treatments to include in national health services. Last year, the popular drug class GLP-1, which supports type 2 diabetes management, was also added to the EML.  

And in May, WHO invited manufacturers to submit generic versions of semaglutide and rapid-acting insulin products for review and approval in its Prequalification process, a global quality standard that opens the way for large, donor-funded procurement of quality-assured products. The calls, following on from the inclusion of other insulin products in WHO Prequalification over the past seven years, is part of a broader initiative to increase access to diabetes care in lower-and-middle income countries.

Since the GDC, there has also been stronger integration of diabetes services in primary health care in places like India. But even as the diabetes burden grows, most low- and middle-income countries have yet to integrate diagnosis and care into primary health care systems, and ensure access to treatment for the hundreds of millions of people who are living with diabetes without knowing it.  

A century after insulin discovery

Diabetes
The proportion of adults with undiagnosed diabetes, as per the latest data by the International Diabetes Federation.

The genesis of the Compact began during the COVID-19 pandemic in the lead-up to the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin – truly a “gift from science,” as Dr Bente Mikkelsen, World Diabetes Foundation board member and former WHO director for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) described it. 

But it took months of concerted effort by WHO and IDF, the World Diabetes Foundation, and other civil society groups to generate sufficient political momentum towards member state commitment of the Global Diabetes Compact.

Until very recently, the overwhelming focus in low- and middle-income countries has been  infectious disease killers like malaria, HIV/AIDS and TB, as well as neglected tropical diseases – although noncommunicable diseases increasingly represent a ‘double burden.’ 

The fact that diabetes is a complicated NCD to diagnose and treat made it an even bigger challenge, Schwarz said. “It’s not like with many infectious diseases, where you can provide a singular vaccine.” 

Critical moment for moving ahead 

Mikkelsen, who was head of the WHO’s NCD Department when the GDC was first approved, said she is “incredibly excited” to see the initiative live beyond the initial stage of the resolution’s approval and further into the implementation phase.

Bente Mikkelsen, former WHO director, Noncommunicable Diseases.

The anniversary comes at a crucial moment. The most recent WHO estimates hold that more than 830 million adults were living with diabetes in 2022. Although IDF has a more conservative estimate of 589 million, Schwarz attributes the differences to discrepancies between researchers in their definition of diabetes. Moreover, he believes that both are, in fact, underestimates of the true proportion of cases.  

Either way, the burden is particularly worrisome in lower-and-middle income countries, where 90% of the people with undiagnosed cases live.

Dr Bianca Hemmingsen Global Diabetes Compact
Bianca Hemmingsen, technical lead for WHO’s Diabetes Programme, at the fifth anniversary of the GDC.

And in terms of insulin production, while the number of generic producers has increased over the past few years, the world’s leading manufacturers have also begun to discontinue key products. Sanofi discontinued a line of its human insulin Insuman® in 2023, and more recently, Novo Nordisk will be withdrawing its Levemir® insulin. 

This worries WHO. As cases accelerate, the actual proportion of people able to access insulin products worldwide appears to be lagging. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), the authoritative body for global disease burden estimates, found only a single-digit percentage point increase in the number of people receiving diabetes care globally. 

Misdiagnoses, data gaps, and social stigma

insulin pens in egypt
An Egyptian village’s stash of insulin pens and glucose monitors- some of which comes from overseas donations.

Fundamental barriers to diabetes care and diagnosis continue to distort the true picture of the condition. For instance, data on the prevalence of type 1 diabetes, which is effectively an autoimmune disorder inhibiting the body from producing insulin, may appear much lower in the Global South. But this could be due to data gaps, Schwarz observes. 

“The prevalence appears much lower compared to the Global North. But when the health system improves, the prevalence increases,” he said. 

“The assumption is that children are dying young–they are not being diagnosed and not surviving to adulthood. We don’t have numbers or statistics to address this tragedy. This, again, is an ethical failure,” he said, expressing hope that in the coming years, more harmonized diabetes definitions, better access to diagnostics and more health worker training can help transform these hard realities. 

The stigma of diabetes and its risk factors – and sometimes lack thereof – also presents a challenge for quality patient care. In parts of Africa, for example, an obese person may often be perceived as someone without HIV (which untreated is associated with weight loss), which carries a larger stigma than obesity. “This is why education is such a key issue here,” said Schwarz. 

The lack of structured education is compounded by a lack of access to basic medicines like insulin, diagnostic tools, and logistical challenges like insulin storage.

Caring for the entire patient

A patient has his blood pressure tested. Experts gathered at the five-year anniversary of the GDC called for increased integration of diabetes control into primary care.

“It’s not just about high blood pressure or diabetes, it’s about the people living with these conditions,” said Dr Tom Frieden, president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives and a former CDC director. With an increasing number of innovations in chronic disease care–including SGLT-2 inhibitors and the hugely popular GLP-1 drugs–Frieden argued for collaboration to “get the basics right.” 

Yet the popularity of these innovations–especially for weight-loss in high-income countries–is in stark contrast with the lack of access to medicines in the rest of the world. 

A mere 1% of diabetes care investment is directed to the African region, IDF data reveals. The group predicts a more than 140% increase in the number of people living with diabetes by 2050, reaching 60 million people. Of all regions, the proportion of undiagnosed diabetes is also highest in Africa at an estimated 72.6%.

“Political ambition and commitment and targets are hugely important to drive the agenda forward,” said Sanne Frost Helt, a senior director at the World Diabetes Foundation. “But they become meaningless if we don’t have action on the ground.”

South East Asia- on a ‘shocking trajectory’

Diabetes prevalence change
The country-level change in diabetes prevalence from 1990 to 2022 (women aged 18 and older above; men, below). Per the Lancet’s worldwide trends in diabetes prevalence.

South East Asia is a particular area of concern with diabetes. Boehme, of the WHO, described the increasing number of those living with diabetes in the region as on a “shocking trajectory.” Already, one in five adults in the region lives with diabetes, or roughly one-third of the global total.

The number of people with diabetes in the region – which includes India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, among others – is expected to reach 320 million by 2030, according to WHO projections. Even now, only one in three adults with diabetes in the region receive treatment – and less than 15% have their blood glucose levels adequately controlled. 

“Health systems are just not geared to tackling such a surge in diabetes,” warned Helt of the  World Diabetes Foundation. “Not from a prevention point of view, not from an early detection point of view, and not from a care perspective.”

‘Tremendous innovation’

Minya, Egypt, diabetes access
A father shows his son the continuous glucose monitor they both need in their home in Upper Egypt.

Yet despite this spiking trend, Boehme is hopeful about the future. 

She describes the “tremendous ambition and innovation” in the region, such as the SEAHEARTS initiative, which integrates cardiovascular disease and diabetes care into primary health care systems, and has already enroled 43.5 million patients across 180,000 health care facilities. 

The goal of the initiative is to place 100 million on protocol-based diabetes management by 2030, with 50 million achieving glycaemic control. 

The endorsement by WHO member states of a 2024 roadmap for strengthening diabetes prevention and control, the Colombo Call for Action, is another bright spot. It provides guidance for the region’s member states to reduce type 2 diabetes risks from factors such as unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, as well as expanding access to diagnosis and care.  

And at the country level, diabetes care and education are improving due both to top-down initiatives and grassroots advocates. For example, the World Diabetes Foundation is working with Bangladesh to recruit religious leaders in the predominantly Muslim country to raise awareness of diabetes and provide community support.

“People seek advice from Imams about all sorts of matters and trust them with personal and family issues. There is a great opportunity to seek the influence of Imams in creating community awareness about the prevention of diabetes and other NCDs,” said Dr Bishwajit Bhowmik from a World Diabetes Foundation partner organization. 

Boehme credits partnerships like these with creating a space for change for those living with diabetes: “[This] is an opportunity not only to celebrate five years of partnership, but to renew our shared commitment to delivering diabetes care at scale, for everyone who still lacks access today.” 

Image Credits: UC Davis health, WHO, G Lontro/ NCD Alliance, International Diabetes Federation , E. Fletcher/ HPW, E. Fletcher/HPW, S. Samantaroy/HPW, WHO/A. Loke, The Lancet.

The ‘Kick Big Soda Out’ movement wants FIFA to drop Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the Football World Cup.

Ahead of the kick-off of the World Cup football tournament on Thursday, global health advocates are demanding that FIFA, the international football federation, ends its partnership with Coca-Cola by 2030. 

Coca-Cola has sponsored the FIFA World Cup, the world’s most-watched sporting tournament, since 1978. Its sponsorship agreement, which makes up about 2% of FIFA’s income, is up for review in 2030.

The “Kick Big Soda Out” movement has written to FIFA president Giovanni Infantino, demanding that the federation publicly commits to ending its sponsorship agreement with the Coca-Cola Company and establishes a partnership policy that excludes sponsorship by ultra-processed food and beverage companies from 2030 onward. 

“During the 2026 tournament, up to six billion fans – many of them children – will see marketing that links football’s biggest stars with sweetened beverages linked to obesity, Type 2 diabetes and other diet-related diseases,” the letter notes.

“This is sportswashing: using the power of football to normalise unhealthy products. Football deserves better. Fans deserve better. Forty years ago, FIFA stopped accepting dangerous tobacco advertising. Sweetened beverages deserve the same treatment.”

Excess sugar consumption is one of the key drivers of the rising rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Type 2 diabetes is one of the fastest-growing global health threats, with an estimated 537 million adults living with diabetes today.

In 2020 alone, 2.2 million new cases of Type 2 diabetes worldwide were attributed to consumption of sugary beverages, with the highest proportion of cases in young adults aged 20-30.

Obesity has more than doubled among adults and quadrupled among children and adolescents since 1990.

‘Flouting co-hosts’ national regulations’

The World Cup is co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, and all three co-hosts are battling to address the health impacts of rising consumption of sodas and ultra-processed food.

“Canada and Mexico have enacted front-of-package warning labels on products with excess sugar, salt and fat – and Mexico has led the way on health taxes on sweetened beverages, along with the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador,” according to a media release from Kick Big Soda Out.

“These measures reflect years of deliberate public health advocacy to curb consumption of the unhealthy products Coca-Cola markets to millions of fans, especially children.”

Coca-Cola’s prominent presence at the 2026 World Cup “flouts national regulations designed to protect public health”, undercutting the work that countries are doing to reduce sugar consumption and improve the health of their citizens.

Sportswashing

“Big Soda has perfected a singular con: exploiting the greatest athletic stages to sportswash a product linked to rising rates of diet-related disease,” said Sandra Mullin, senior vice president at Vital Strategies, which is leading the campaign.

“Big Tobacco was banned from major sporting events because sponsorship legitimised harm. Big Soda deserves the same treatment. The World Cup should not launder Big Soda’s image. It’s time to put people before profits.” 

Coca-Cola is also the leading plastic global polluter, followed by PepsiCo, Nestlé, Danone and Altria. Approximately 21-34 billion plastic bottles from nonalcoholic drinks are polluting the ocean every year, primarily from carbonated soft drinks and water.

Kick Big Soda Out has amassed over 522,000 supporters and the backing of 97 organisations since its launch during the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Coca-Cola is also the leading plastic global polluter, followed by PepsiCo, Nestlé, Danone and Altria. Approximately 21-34 billion plastic bottles from nonalcoholic drinks are polluting the ocean every year, primarily from carbonated soft drinks and water.