The World Health Assembly chooses a new chief for the World Health Organization in May 2027. Before judging the candidates, assess the predecessors. Eight people have held the post over 78 years. Their varied track record offers pointers for selecting the future incumbent. Every five years, WHO rediscovers that its Director-Generalship is a political office […] Continue reading ->
The Political Declaration on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response was not approved by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly, and is likely to be put to a vote at a later stage on the UN calendar. Objections by the United States and a few other states appeared to block a consensus agreement on the […] Continue reading ->
As countries continue negotiating the unfinished WHO Pandemic Agreement, one of the original accord’s architects warns that delays could put the process itself at risk. “I think it’s quite risky to have a too-long negotiation because that means that we will lose diplomats and public health experts who were involved at the very beginning,” said […] Continue reading ->
As the WHO Intergovernmental Working Group reconvenes in Geneva in the quest to nail down an accord on Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS), the former President of Botswana and the President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation argue that this critical annex to the 2025 Pandemic Agreement needs to ensure benefit-sharing commitments are just as mandatory and […] Continue reading ->
A trial to test two antiviral therapies on patients with Ebola Bundibugyo Virus started to enrol patients on Thursday – but its exact location in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Ituri province remains secret for security reasons. This emerged at a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing on Thursday, at which Director General Dr Tedros […] Continue reading ->
Treatment tents are burning in Ituri, burial teams are facing hostility, and suspected patients are fleeing quarantine centres, disappearing into communities. These heartbreaking incidents are often described as obstacles to controlling the current Ebola outbreak. For the dedicated frontline workers risking their lives every day to contain the virus, these challenges are deeply frustrating. But […] Continue reading ->
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 ->
The World Health Organization’s estimate of the number of suspected, but as yet unconfirmed, cases of the deadly Ebola Bundibugyo virus has sharply declined from over 1000 a week ago to just 116 today, WHO on Wednesday. That doesn’t mean that the tide has yet turned on the outbreak. But WHO officials sounded notes of […] 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 ->