By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – Time is running out for countries to achieve the global goal of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). A new report warns that if current trends continue, up to 5 billion people will still be unable to access health care in 2030 – the deadline world leaders have set […]
New UNAIDS Chief Winnie Byanyima Has an Ambitious Target
By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA (IDN) – “The end of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is a goal that is within the world’s reach, but I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge ahead,” says Winnie Byanyima, the new Executive Director of UNAIDS. Working with all UNAIDS partners, she will continue to […]
WHO Forum on Medicines Calls for Fair Prices
By Ronald Joshua JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development, according to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) scheduled to be realized by 2030. Goal 3 cannot however be achieved as long as people have to pay for medicines out-of-pocket and fall into poverty. This […]
WHO Determined to Prevent Noncommunicable Diseases
Sri Lanka Co-Chaired Meeting Focuses on Diseases Killing the Poor By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) – Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) pose a serious global development challenge. As the year three of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) comes to a close, evidence shows that the international community […]
AIDS 2018 Conference Trying To Break Barriers, Build Bridges
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK | AMSTERDAM (IDN) – The International Conference on AIDS (AIDS 2018) – the largest gathering on any global health issue in the world – opened in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on July 23 under the title Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges. With hundreds of scheduled talks and roundtables, the […]
Unrestricted Economic Welfare Menaces Human Well Being
By Rita Joshi BERLIN (IDN) – The Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement set the target of prosperous development for people and our planet. Yet, it remains challenging to translate these aims into concrete policy implementations without risking human welfare and the Earth ecosystem. A new climate study argues that optimizing economic welfare […]
The Global Fund To Fight AIDS Asked to Change Criteria Discriminating Poor Countries
By J C Suresh TORONTO (IDN) – As this year’s World AIDS Day campaign – My Health, My Right – kicks into high gear, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has called on The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to end the use of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita as part of […]
Indoor Air Pollution Weighs Heavily on Developing Countries
By J W Jackie
RENO, Nevada, United States (IDN) – While there has been much focus on the consequences of pollution caused by vehicles and manufacturing, the effects of indoor air pollution have been neglected. Households are full of harmful chemicals including cleaning products, beauty products and gas stoves.
As these chemicals become trapped in enclosed spaces, the resultant air quality can be up to ten times worse inside than it is outside. Developing countries suffer low quality air more than wealthier nations, which is why tackling air pollution and poverty go hand in hand.
Arming Health Professionals for Global Diplomacy
By Desmond Brown
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (ACP-IDN) – In recent weeks, African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries have been fine-tuning their strategy for the May 22-31 annual meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Charged with establishing WHO policies, appointing its director-general, supervising financial policies, and reviewing and approving proposed programme budgets, the WHA is considered highly important by ACP countries because of the increasingly significant role played by health issues on the international agenda.
UNICEF Needs Funds to Keep 244,000 Nigerian Children Alive
GENEVA (IDN) – The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF appealed for $55.5 million early 2016 to respond to the humanitarian crisis in north-east Nigeria, but has so far only received 41 percent or $23 million.
Now that the scale of the humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram emergency continues to unfold, and UNICEF finds that nearly a quarter of a million children are severely malnourished in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, and face a high risk of death, it expects the appeal to increase significantly.
Out of the 244,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Borno, an estimated 49,000 children – almost one in five – will die if they are not reached with treatment, UNICEF said on July 19, and urged all partners to join the humanitarian response and donors to urgently provide resources.