By WHO CAIRO | DUBAI | GENEVA, 5 May 2023 (IDN) — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have delivered 30 tons of urgent medical supplies to Sudan today. A plane carrying supplies for injury treatment, emergency surgeries, and essential drugs arrived in Port Sudan Airport early this morning.
Drug Companies Consider Manufacturing Critical Vaccines in Africa
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 30 April 2023 (IDN) — African leaders have begun exploring the possibility of building manufacturing facilities for critical vaccines in their countries and ending their reliance on foreign countries for high-priced drugs. Moderna Inc said this week it would set up a facility in Kenya—its first in […]
WHO Providing War-torn Yemen Crucial Humanitarian Aid
By Bernhard Schell CAIRO, 25 March 2023 (IDN) — The United Nations has warned that eight years of protracted multilateral conflict in Yemen, with the involvement of Saudi Arabia, has produced the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. Over two-thirds of Yemen’s population—21.6 million people—are in acute need of humanitarian assistance, and more than 20 […]
India in the Spotlight Over Cough Medicines Fatal to African Children
By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network NEW YORK, 20 March 2023 (IDN) — An epidemic of kidney disease among children in Africa has been linked to deadly toxins in cough medicine imported from India. Doctors say they see dozens of children under the age of five with kidney failure—a condition they only saw once or […]
UN Concerned About Surge in Global Supply of Cocaine
By Reinhard Jacobsen VIENNA, 17 March 2023 (IDN) — The United Nations is concerned about a dramatic jump in the global production of cocaine over the past two years after an initial slowdown triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. “The surge in the global cocaine supply should put all of us on high alert,” said Ghada […]
Cholera Vaccination Campaign to Protect Earthquake Victims in Northwest Syria
By Bernhard Schell CAIRO | AMMAN, 8 March 2023 (IDN) — The devastating earthquakes that struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on 6 February caused over 4540 deaths and nearly 9000 injuries in northwest Syria. As the Syria cholera situation report points out, around 90 000 Syrians have been displaced in the northwest and many […]
“We Are Drinking Mercury”: In Zimbabwe, Artisanal Gold Mining Is Polluting Water
By Farai Shawn Matiashe MUTARE, Zimbabwe, 5 March 2023 (IDN) — Every morning as Mercy Mubatsa fetches water from a tap outside her home in Penhalonga, a mining area 263 kilometres (163 miles) outside the Zimbabwean capital Harare, her anxiety is heightened. In March last year, mercury and cyanide deposits from artisanal gold mines in […]
Latin America & the Caribbean Lack Access to Healthy Diet
By Rodrigo Pérez SANTIAGO, Chile (IDN) — As many as 131.3 million in Latin America and the Caribbean have had to forego nutritious foods in 2020 because of the higher average daily cost of healthy diets in the region compared to those in other areas of the world. According to the new United Nations report […]
African Leaders Unite in Pledge to End AIDS In Children
By Jamshed Baruah GENEVA (IDN) — Every five minutes, a child dies from AIDS-related causes. While three-quarters of adults (76 per cent) are on life-saving treatment, only half (52 per cent) of children living with HIV are receiving antiretrovirals. Despite the fact that only 4 per cent of the total number of people living with […]
As Tensions Rise, WHO Updates its Radiological & Nuclear Emergencies
By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The rising nuclear threats over the Russian invasion of Ukraine—and the growing tensions in the Korean Peninsula triggered by a nuclear-armed North Korea—have prompted the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) to update its list of medicines that should be stockpiled for radiological and nuclear emergencies along with policy […]