Tag: WHO

WHO urges vaccine against bacteria killing 150,000 babies each year

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for the urgent development of a vaccine against a bacterial infection responsible for nearly 150,000 stillbirths and infant deaths each year. A fresh report by the UN health agency and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the impact of Group B Streptococcus infection (GBS), which is estimated to live harmlessly in the intestinal tracts of up to a third of […]

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sole candidate for WHO chief: source

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the sole candidate for the leadership of the UN health agency when his current term expires, a diplomatic source told AFP on Friday. The 56-year-old Ethiopian former health and foreign minister has been at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. Elected to the WHO leadership in 2017, his term expires in August next year. vog/rjm/spm © Agence France-Presse

Pandemic ‘far from finished’: WHO

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The Covid-19 crisis is far from over, the World Health Organization’s emergency committee said Tuesday as it called for research into next-generation vaccines for long-term control of the pandemic. The 19-member committee meets every three months to discuss the pandemic and make recommendations. “While progress has been made through increased uptake of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics, analysis of the present situation and forecasting models indicate that the pandemic is far from […]

80,000-180,000 health workers estimated dead from Covid by May 2021: WHO

by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO said Thursday that 80,000 to 180,000 health care workers may have been killed by Covid-19 up to May this year, insisting they must be prioritized for vaccination. The World Health Organization said the fact that millions of health workers remain unvaccinated is an “indictment” on the countries and companies controlling the global supply of doses. A WHO paper estimated that out of the planet’s 135 million […]

WHO unveils new team to investigate pandemic

by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization unveiled Wednesday a team of scientists it wants to investigate new pathogens and preventing future pandemics — plus reviving the stalled probe into Covid-19’s origins. The group of 26 experts will be charged with producing a new global framework for studies into the origins of emerging pathogens of epidemic and pandemic potential — and their remit includes SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 disease. […]

WHO experts back extra Covid jab for people with weak immune systems

by Robin MILLARD GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization’s vaccine advisers on Monday recommended people with weakened immune systems should be offered an additional dose of all WHO-approved Covid-19 vaccines. The UN health agency’s experts also said over-60s fully immunised with China’s Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines should be offered an additional third vaccine dose. The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation (SAGE) stressed it was not recommending an additional booster dose for […]

WHO set to restart Sputnik Covid vaccine analysis

  GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization said on Thursday it was about to restart the process of approving Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine following a series of problems with the dossier. WHO authorisation has been sought for the Sputnik V jab created by Russia’s Gamaleya research institute, which is already being used in 45 countries, according to an AFP count. Several Covid-19 vaccines have been given the WHO green light for emergency […]

WHO recommends use of first malaria vaccine for children

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The World Health Organization on Wednesday endorsed the RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine, the first against the mosquito-borne disease that kills more than 400,000 people a year, mostly African children. The decision followed a review of a pilot programme deployed since 2019 in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi in which more than two million doses were given of the vaccine, first made by the pharmaceutical company GSK in 1987. After reviewing evidence from those […]

2.5 million Sinovac doses, almost 900k Pfizer doses arrive in PHL

5.5 million Pfizer doses arriving in coming days, says US embassy official (Eagle News) Some 2.5 million doses of government-procured Sinovac vaccines and 883,500 Pfizer doses arrived in the country on Friday, Oct. 1, further boosting vaccine supplies. The delivery of over 3.38 million doses of vaccines on Friday brought to 74.7 million doses the total COVID vaccines delivered to the country. The 2.5 million Sinovac doses arrived shortly before 6 p.m. at Ninoy Aquno […]

2% or fewer have had Covid jabs in many African nations: WHO

BRAZZAVILLE, Congo (AFP) — Just two percent of the population, or fewer, have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus in half of the countries in Africa, the World Heath Organization said on Thursday, Fifteen of the continent’s 54 nations have managed to vaccinate at least 10 percent of their people, thereby achieving the global goal for September 30, set in May by the World Health Assembly, the world’s highest health policy-setting body. “The latest data shows […]

WHO chief apologizes for sex abuse by staff in DR Congo

  by Christophe VOGT Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The head of the World Health Organization apologized Tuesday after independent investigators probing allegations of sexual abuse in the DR Congo by the UN agency’s staff issued a damning indictment citing “clear structural failures” and “individual negligence”. “The first thing I want to say to the victims and survivors… I am sorry,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. “It is my top priority […]

WHO backs antibody treatment for high-risk Covid patients

PARIS, France (AFP) — The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday recommended the synthetic antibody treatment Regeneron for Covid-19, but only in patients with specific health profiles. Persons with non-severe Covid-19 who are nonetheless at high risk of hospitalization can take the antibody combo, as should critically ill patients unable to mount an adequate immune response, according to a WHO finding published in BMJ. Regeneron is only the third treatment for Covid to be recommended […]