The last 12 months have been an unpredictable rollercoaster for those of us working in global health, climate change and development: trade wars, real wars, job and finance cuts, cost of living pressures, attacks on science, the rise of far-right extremism, and the increasingly deadly impacts of climate change, to name but a few of […] Continue reading ->
Senior United Nations officials and humanitarian leaders have urged Israel to reverse plans to withhold registration from more three-dozen international NGOs providing humanitarian relief in war-torn Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank – warning that the move would severely undermine life-saving aid in a moment of acute humanitarian need. Israel said last Thursday that some […] Continue reading ->
The US Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed a recent finding that atrazine, the second most widely-used herbicide in the United States, is “probably carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization’s cancer review agency.  Atrazine is used extensively in the US on crops like corn, sorghum, and sugarcane. However, over 60 countries have banned the […] Continue reading ->
The latest ten-year data shows almost no change. Can the momentum of outrage finally push officials to take high-impact measures to lower pollution this year? It’s Delhi 2026. Since 2016, there’s been near-zero improvement in the city’s air pollution during the annual peak pollution period of October to December, a new analysis by the Center […] Continue reading ->
This has been a brutal year for global health, with shock cuts in development aid to countries most in need; a knock-on budget crisis for United Nations (UN) agencies; widespread humanitarian crises, extensive disease outbreaks, and mounting climate-related health challenges. Health Policy Watch (HPW) has provided daily coverage of developments, and our reporters were often […] Continue reading ->
Sudden fever, a severe cough and acute respiratory distress are the familiar onset symptoms of seasonal flu, which has affected WHO’s European Region with unusual intensity and speed this year. As the Northern Hemisphere enters winter, health systems are struggling to manage an epidemic driven by an aggressive, genetically mutated influenza strain A(H3N2) subclade K. […] Continue reading ->
  MUMBAI, India – Cervical cancer kills more than 75,000 women in India each year, according to figures recently disclosed in Parliament – yet it is one of the most preventable cancers. In India, low human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage, limited access to routine screening and deep-rooted social behaviours – such as early marriage and […] Continue reading ->