By Jaya Ramachandran GENEVA, 9 June 2023 (IDN) —The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) intend to build stronger and more resilient health systems. With this in view, they signed a new and revised Strategic Framework for Collaboration on June 8. It aims at […]
Multiple Problems Bring Sri Lanka’s Healthcare System to Brink of Collapse
By Hemali Wijerathna COLOMBO, 11 May 2023 (IDN) — In the face of the current economic crisis, Sri Lanka’s free healthcare system, which was the envy of South Asia not long ago, is now at the brink of collapse. It is facing multiple problems with a lack of drugs, doctors migrating and the government strictly […]
UAE & WHO Deliver Air Lift of Critical Medical Supplies to Sudan
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 […]