By Lisa Vives NEW YORK (IDN) — One thing the head of the agency leading Africa’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is sure of. He owes his life to the vaccine that beat the virus. “I want to be very clear that without [the vaccine] I wouldn’t be here,” said Dr. John Nkengasong at a […]
UN Experts Call for Lifesaving Help for Venezuela Cancer Patients Hit by US Sanctions
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) — Independent UN rights experts are concerned that Venezuelan cancer patients could die because they have been caught up in excessively strict application of U.S. sanctions aimed at Venezuela and the state-owned oil company Petroleum of Venezuela (PDVSA).
15-Year-Old Girl Among Latest Fiji Covid Deaths as Virus Cases Soar Over 11,000
By Josefa Babitu* SUVA (IDN) — A 15-year-old girl has become Fiji’s youngest death due to the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, taking the total of deaths due to the virus to 58. Health Secretary Dr James Fong has confirmed this after an investigation by medical personnel classified the case as another covid-19 death. The girl from […]
Australia’s Early Success In Controlling Covid Turns Sour
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN) — Along with Singapore and New Zealand, Australia was considered as one of the top three safest countries in the world for having successfully fought the spread of Covid-19 until about two months ago. But, with a two weeks lockdown in Australia’s largest city Sydney extended for another week, this […]
China Accuses Australia of Sabotaging Its Vaccination Program in the South Pacific
By Kalinga Seneviratne SYDNEY (IDN)—China and Australia have started another battle, this time over the Covid-19 vaccination roll out in the South Pacific. In a lengthy article on July 2, China’s ‘Global Times’ accused Australia of sabotaging China’s Covid-19 vaccination assistance scheme in Papua New Guinea (PNG) by planting “consultants” to manipulate local epidemic policies […]
Hope, Hyperbole and Hypocrisy of COVAX
The realpolitik of vaccine nationalism and how it impacts countries like Nepal Viewpoint by Kul Chandra Gautam* KATHMANDU (IDN) — As a previously unknown mystery disease caused by the novel coronavirus struck Planet Earth in the winter of 2019-20, public health officials and the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended universal mask-wearing, physical distancing, lockdowns and […]
UN Report Considers Next 18 Months Crucial for Achieving Global Goals
By Santa Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) — COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major disruption to people’s lives and livelihoods around the world in 2020, pushing back into poverty an additional 119-124 million people, says a new United Nations report. An equivalent of 255 million full-time jobs was lost, and the number of people suffering from […]
WHO Issues First Global Report in Artificial Intelligence in Health
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) — Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise for improving the delivery of healthcare and medicine worldwide, but only if ethics and human rights are put at the heart of its design, deployment, and use, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO’s report, Ethics and governance of artificial intelligence for […]
Over 264 million Suffer from Depression Worsened by the Global Pandemic
By Lisa Wohl The writer is a US-based health reporter WELLINGTON, Florida, USA (IDN) — According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, one in four people in the world will be affected by neurological or mental disorders at some point in their lives. Depression is a common mental disorder. Globally, more than 264 […]
Cloud-based CoWIN Platform & India’s Journey towards Universal Vaccination
By Arjun Kumar, Ritika Gupta, Chhavi Kapoor, Kashish Babbar, Rohit Mehta* NEW DELHI (IDN) — With the rolling out of vaccinations early in the year 2021, there was a need for an efficient vaccination drive to dose about 1.39 billion Indians. To pave the way for a universal and citizen-centric structure of vaccination drive, Prime […]