Tag: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Centre for disease control and prevention calls for new tact to deal with threatening delta variant

Frank

US – The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), believe that the war against COVID-19 has changed because of the highly contagious delta variant. CDC proposed the need for a clearer message regarding COVID-19 information, mandatory vaccines for health workers and a return to universal masking. The organization documented the detriment of the contagious delta variant which is dominant across the globe and is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than the common cold or flu. According to the CDC, the Delta variant has mutations on the…

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WHO makes progress in fighting against tobacco epidemic, this is according to a recent report

Frank

SWITZERLAND – According to the released World Health Organization (WHO) report, more than four times as many people are now covered by at least one WHO-recommended tobacco control MPOWER measure as compared with 2007. The six MPOWER measures are monitoring tobacco use and preventive measures; protecting people from tobacco smoke; offering help to quit; warning about the dangers of tobacco; enforcing bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship; and raising taxes on tobacco. Some 5.3 billion people are now covered by at least one of these measures more than four times…

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Global economic recovery dependent on COVID-19 vaccine equity says key global organizations

Frank

WOLRD – The global economic recovery is at risk if vaccines are not equitably manufactured, scaled up and distributed, this is according to new data released today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the University of Oxford. Revealed in the findings on COVID-19 vaccine equity, low-income states would add to their Gross domestic product (GDP) an estimate of US$38B for the forecasted year 2021 if they had the same vaccination rate as that of high-income countries. At a time when richer countries have…

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Germany pledges to support WHO’s commitment towards fighting against COVID-19

Frank

EUROPE – Following a bilateral meeting held by WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Federal Minister of Health of Germany, Mr. Jens Spahn, Germany has pledged to back the World Health Organization (WHO) in the fight against COVID-19. During the event, Minister Spahn announced the donation of 30 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and signed with Dr Tedros a new funding agreement of  €260 million (US$307m)to the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) through WHO’s Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan. Minister Spahn reaffirmed the continued support from Germany…

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WHO urges China to be more cooperative as its probes to identify COVID-19 origin

Frank

WORLD – World Health Organization (WHO) is planning to rollout its next investigation phase to probe the origin of COVID-19 and it has urged China to be more cooperative during this next phase in reference to providing more raw data. The WHO chief, Tedros, said that the organization is laying the groundwork for moving forward with fresh investigations into where Covid-19 came from following a previous attempt that saw WHO send a team of international experts who expressed lack of data as a hinderance into the investigation. Tedros also added…

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New data reveals a backlog in childhood vaccinations resulting from COVID-19 pandemic

Frank

SWITZERLAND – Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) shows that 23 million children missed out on basic vaccines in 2020, a number that was 3.7 million more than data previously recorded in 2019. Concerningly, most of these – up to 17 million children – likely did not receive a single vaccine during the year as a result of community conflict, poor accessibility and limited access to basic healthcare services, hence widening the already immense inequities in vaccine access. The disruptions in immunization…

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Mix match for vaccines new trend as Thailand joins bandwagon despite cautionary advice from WHO

Frank

WORLD – Mix and match for vaccines is becoming a global trend as various countries are embracing the use of two different vaccines for their citizens. In Thailand, AstraZeneca vaccines are going to be used as a second dose for those who received Sinovac shots as the first dose in a move that is set to improve protection against COVID-19. The move is the first publicly announced mix-and-match of a Chinese vaccine and a Western-developed shot, as a new preliminary Thai study raised doubts about the long-term protection of the…

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Human genome editing set for advancement in public health following WHO’s new recommendations

Frank

SWITZERLAND – The World Health Organization (WHO) has released two new companion reports that provide global recommendations to establish human genome editing as a tool for public health. These reports fully emphasize on safety, effectiveness and ethics as they were released after a broad global consultation that touched on somatics, germline and heritable human genome editing. The consultation, which spanned over two years, involved hundreds of participants representing diverse perspectives from around the world, including scientists and researchers, patient groups, faith leaders and indigenous peoples. “Human genome editing has the…

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Roche’s tuberculosis diagnostic tests included in new WHO expansion guidelines for tuberculosis

Frank

SWITZERLAND – The Swiss based pharma company, Roche, now has its diagnostic tests included in World Health Organization (WHO) newly expanded tuberculosis guidelines. WHOs guidelines on nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) to detect tuberculosis (TB) and drug resistant TB post its expansion will now have increased number of molecular tests available to national TB programs in high-burden countries. The WHO included Roche’s diagnostic test, the Cobas MTB and Cobas MTB-RIF/INH tests, to enable multi-partner diagnostic approaches that can benefit patients and communities. Cobas MTB and cobas MTB-RIF/INH molecular tests provide…

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Interleukin-6 receptor blockers to be included in COVID-19 therapy as WHO urges producers to improve access to its usage

Frank

SWITZERLAND – Interleukin-6 receptor blockers, tocilizumab and sarilumab, will now be used for the treatment of COVID-19 following a recommendation from World Health Organization (WHO). The drug will be administered to patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms and will be given alongside corticosteroids, a class of drug that lowers inflammation in the body. Recommendations by the WHO were based on data from clinical trial across 28 countries that had a data set of 10000 patients. The meta-analysis data from the clinical trials showed that in severely or critically ill patients, administering…

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