Category: Health & Well Being

By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) — Never before has there been a more pressing need for accurate, verified information as in the current situation marked by the Coronavirus spreading its tentacles around the world. Like the virus itself, Misinformation about COVID-19 spreads rapidly from person-to-person and heightens the risk to health disseminating fear and […]

Viewpoint by Roseline Orwa * BONDO, Kenya (IDN) – COVID-19, the deadly pandemic that has upended our world, is also, according to a new report, “a widow-making machine”. The emerging scientific evidence that many more men than women are dying from COVID-19 shows that the coronavirus crisis is creating new widows even as global economic […]

By UN Women NEW YORK (IDN) – Although the Pacific has largely been spared by the spread of the disease relative to other regions around the world – with Fiji hardest hit of the six countries the UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls programme works in, at 18 confirmed cases – all of […]

By Carla McKirdy This report by Carla McKirdy first appeared in Africa Renewal, a magazine published by the United Nations in New York. The writer is Associate Information Management Officer at the United Nations, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – As part of a coordinated approach to strengthen developing countries’ responses to COVID-19, as […]

By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – In opening remarks to the Africa Dialogue Series on “COVID-19 and Silencing the Guns in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “The pandemic has exposed the fragility of our societies.  It is a global problem that demands a coordinated global response built on unity […]

By Kester Kenn Klomegah MOSCOW (IDN) – Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa to join Beijing and “stand firm by multilateralism, by the UN-centered international system” and “champion the approach of consultation and cooperation”. China and the four countries comprise BRICS. The group’s member countries collectively represent about […]

By Yadul Krishna* NEW DELHI (IDN) – The left-ruled Indian State of Kerala remains in the global spot for its effective and efficient measures in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. The state subjugated the Indian news headlines, projecting its potential, strength and humane approach to the outer world, leaving an operative model that other states can […]

UN Agencies Call for a Joint Effort to Safely Deliver Routine Immunization By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA | NEW YORK (IDN) – Ahead of the virtual Global Vaccine Summit on June 4 in London, the World Health Organization WHO), UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have warned that COVID 19 is disrupting life-saving immunization services around […]

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK (IDN) – A new fact-checking industry had its hands full recently in Senegal when a fake news post on social media claimed that children were “dying on the spot” from vaccines against the corona virus. The post, titled “Scandal in Senegal”, was shared thousands of times on […]

By Kester Kenn Klomegah* MOSCOW (IDN) – Amid multifold theories and disinformation spreading around the COVID-19 in Africa, it is important for African governments to consider strengthening the existing health systems and infrastructures, and allocate substantial funds for health research and production of basic equipment, for attaining sustainable development goals set in the African Agenda […]