World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced his new team of 36 directors at headquarters on Tuesday, according to an internal message to WHO staff, seen by Health Policy Watch. Nine of the appointments, including key positions heading the Departments of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, and the newly-combined Department of Environment, […] Continue reading ->
A four year WHO-sponsored investigation of the origins of the COVID pandemic by an international group of experts has concluded that “most scientific data and accessible published scientific evidence” support the hypothesis that the novel SARS-CoV2 virus first entered the human population either directly from virus-carrying bats, or from bats to humans via intermediate hosts.   […] Continue reading ->
This story was updated to reflect new developments on Friday, 27 June.  Israel ordered a near-total halt to food and humanitarian aid deliveries to over two million Gazans facing a territory-wide threat of famine on Thursday after an AFP video surfaced showing dozens of armed men riding atop a convoy of flatbed trucks loaded with […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization decried Thursday’s direct hit by Iran on one of Israel’s largest hospitals, Soroka Medical Center, which put the 1200-bed facility serving most of the country’s southern region largely out of operation.  In an X post, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also deplored the deaths of three Iranian Red Crescent […] Continue reading ->
For the first time since the 1990s, the World Health Organization has been asked by member states to update its assessment on the health impacts of nuclear war, although not without significant resistance, led by Russia and North Korea, but also including many other major nuclear states.  The resolution calling for an updated assessment of […] Continue reading ->
African countries like Uganda and South Africa are rewriting the rules of emergency response. The rest of the world must follow – or fall behind. Every April, World Immunisation Week is observed with predictable rhetoric: health leaders celebrate progress, governments make declarations, and global agencies issue reports highlighting gains and gaps in vaccination. But as […] Continue reading ->