World Health Organization WHO

06.08.2021

WHO Calls for G20 Support for Moratorium on COVID Vaccine Boosters Until End of September

World Health Organization (WHO) "The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine boosters until at least the end of September to enable a minimum of 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated. Making the appeal at the WHO’s COVID-19 media briefing on Wednesday, Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Gheybreysus said support for the moratorium from the G20 countries was vital as they are “the biggest producers, the biggest consumers and the biggest donors of COVID-19 vaccines”."

24.11.2020

Universal health coverage and primary health care: the 30 by 2030 campaign

World Health Organization (WHO) "The World Health Organization (WHO) considers primary health care a cornerstone of universal health coverage (UHC) and describes it as an approach to health and well-being centred on the needs and circumstances of individuals, families and communities.

06.11.2020

COVID-19 hits life-saving health services in Africa

World Health Organization "The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a heavy blow to key health services in Africa, raising worries that some of the continent’s major health challenges could worsen. The preliminary analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO) of five key essential health service indicators that include outpatient consultation, inpatient admission, skilled birth attendance, treatment of confirmed malaria cases and provision of the combination pentavalent vaccine in 14 countries finds a sharp decline in these services between January and September 2020 compared with the two previous years. The gaps were the widest in May, June and July, corresponding to when many countries had put in place and enforced movement restrictions and other social and public health measures to check the spread of COVID-19. During these three months, services in the five monitored areas dropped on average by more than 50% in the 14 countries compared with the same period in 2019.

06.10.2020

Primary health care and the climate crisis

WHO Bulletin Used in item listings and search results. "The health community recognizes the climate crisis as an existential threat to humanity and human health,1 requiring immediate and effective action across all sectors. However, global-level policy guidance reveals a disconnect between primary health care and climate; most political declarations, reports and resolutions for primary health care make only cursory references to the climate crisis, mentioning its implications for health but not linking them. Given that primary health care should be the entry point for the population’s interaction with the health system, it is alarming that ongoing efforts to revitalize primary health care fail to adequately consider climate action, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation. In this paper, we examine this disconnect, elaborate on its implications and offer recommendations for policy-makers to ensure an effective primary health care–climate crisis nexus." (Photo by Li-An Lim on Unsplash)

01.04.2019

Strengthening quality midwifery education for Universal Health Coverage 2030

Working together to ensure quality care for all mothers and newborns

Weltgesundheitsorganisationen (WHO) "Global online consultation: Have your voices heard! - Check out the evidence, let us know what is missing. - Find out what the global consultations have prioritized for action. - Do you think the new 7-Step Action Plan addresses the key activities needed. - Tell us how YOU will make this happen, and what you want others to do to help make this happen.

20.02.2019

Public Spending on Health: A Closer Look at Global Trends

New WHO report

World Health Organisation (WHO) "Three years after the international community adopted the Sustainable Development Goals at the 2015 UN General Assembly, the global health landscape has been transformed. In the journey towards realizing the ambitious goal of universal health coverage, more countries are expanding benefits, creating institutional arrangements and allocating public funds to expand health services coverage.

02.07.2018

WHO study shows drug could save thousands of women’s lives

World Health Organisation (WHO) "A new formulation of a drug to prevent excessive bleeding following childbirth could save thousands of women’s lives in low- and lower-middle-income countries, according to a study led by WHO in collaboration with MSD for Mothers and Ferring Pharmaceuticals.

08.01.2018

WHO Independent NCDs Commission launches with mission and priorities for action

World Health Organisation (WHO) "Experts and advocates in promoting health and preventing and controlling noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have been mobilized to support the running of the WHO Independent Global High-level Commission on NCDs.

04.12.2017

WHO launches new manual to strengthen health systems to better respond to women survivors of violence

International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 2017: Leave no one behind

World Health Organisation (WHO) Violence against women is a major public health problem, a gender inequality issue and a grave violation of human rights. Violence against women includes physical, sexual and psychological violence by an intimate partner and, non-partner sexual violence. WHO estimates that 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced physical and / or sexual violence, mostly by an intimate partner.

21.10.2016

Triple Impact – how developing nursing will improve health, promote gender equality and support economic growth

World Health Organisation (WHO) "A new report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health (APPG) ” Triple Impact – how developing nursing will improve health, promote gender equality and support economic growth” calls for raising the profile of nursing globally and enabling nurses to work to their full potential if countries are to achieve universal health coverage. The report argues that increasing the number of nurses, and developing nursing, will also have the wider triple impact of improving health, promoting gender equality and supporting economic growth.

27.09.2016

International Day of Older Persons 2016

1st October - Take a Stand Against Ageism

World Health Organisation (WHO) The International Day of Older Persons is an opportunity to highlight the important contributions that older people make to society and raise awareness of the issues and challenges of ageing in today’s world.

08.04.2016

Health needs from humanitarian emergencies at an all-time high

Press release

World Health Organisation (WHO) "WHO and partners need US$ 2.2 billion to provide lifesaving health services to more than 79 million people in more than 30 countries facing protracted emergencies this year, according to WHO’s Humanitarian Response Plans 2016 launched today.

18.03.2016

Global platform to inform investments for health R&D

The Lancet "Investments in health research and development (R&D) are still insufficiently aligned with global public health demands and needs. As little as 1% of all global funding for health R&D is allocated to diseases mostly noted in low-income and middle-income countries, such as malaria and tuberculosis, even though these diseases account for more than 12·5% of the global burden of disease. (...)

11.01.2016

WHO ’s to blame? The World Health Organization and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Third World Quarterly "Since 2001 the World Health Organization (WHO) has been actively promoting its credentials for managing ‘global health security’. However, the organisation’s initial response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa has attracted significant criticism, even prompting calls for its dissolution and the creation of a new global health agency.

Health in 2015: from MDGs to SDGs

WHO Report

WHO "WHO launched a new comprehensive analysis of global health trends since 2000 and an assessment of the challenges for the next 15 years. "Health in 2015: from MDGs to SDGs" identifies the key drivers of progress in health under the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It lays out actions that countries and the international community should prioritize to achieve the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which come into effect on 1 January 2016."

Analysing Proposals for Reform of the Global Health Architecture

Who to make the global health system fit

Chatham House "The global health architecture has contributed significantly to progress towards the Millennium Development Goals over the past decade. As the target date approaches for adoption of the new Sustainable Development Goals, this paper suggests that reconfiguration of the architecture is necessary if it is to be fit to address the challenges of the post-2015 period."

WHO must remain a strong global health leader post Ebola

Open Letter

The Lancet In an open letter to the journal The Lancet almost 100 members of the global health scholary community call upon all WHO Member States to recommit themselves to strengthening global outbreak alert and response by sustainably investing in the WHO, its departments, and personnel.

Reversing a global health workforce crisis

WHO Code should be enforced

WHO Bulletin In an editorial for the WHO Bulletin Michel Sidibé (UNAIDS) and James Campell (Global Workforce Alliance) write: "Education, training and incentives should be focused on creating an efficient workforce that is centred on people rather than disease." Furthermore they point out, that to address the trans-border dynamics, fragmentation, gaps and inefficiencies that hinder national solutions, the Global code of practice on the international recruitment of health personnel should be rigorously enforced.

Promoting and protecting the sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescents and young people

Special Supplement to the Journal of Adolescent Health

WHO Addressing adolescents is key to strengthen sexual and reproductive health. A WHO-led Special Supplement to the Journal of Adolescent Health, states "that progress for adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR), has been ‘limited and patchy’." (Photo: WHO/Hauranitai Shulika)