Pictorial warning: Will public health override free speech in the U.S?
It is an irony that a country that introduced text health warnings in 1966 and updated it in 1984 to include the Surgeon General’s warning, cigarettes packages in the U.S…
Category: WHO
Merck’s unlicensed Ebola vaccine shows 97.5% efficacy in Congo
Merck’s Ebola vaccine, which underwent phase-3 trial during the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic in west Africa, has shown 97.5% efficacy in preventing Ebola disease when used during the current epidemic in…
India should soon introduce plain packaging
Besides Australia, France, UK. Norway, Ireland, New Zealand and Hungary have introduced plain packaging of tobacco products. Plain packaging was will be introduced in Uruguay and Slovenia in 2019 and…
‘Unethical to withhold bedaquiline treatment while waiting for Phase III results’
In a Phase IIb trail, bedaquiline drug for MDR-TB treatment was found to be cardiotoxic and hepatotoxic, and it also caused more deaths. Review of evidence in 2015 showed a…
MDR-TB treatment gets a boost with the inclusion of bedaquiline in the fully-oral regimen
In a “rapid communication”, WHO has informed all member States to take “immediate steps” to ensure that all injectables are replaced with a fully-oral regimen that includes bedaquiline to treat…
Can Congo again swiftly control Ebola spread, death?
Days after the WHO declared the end of the May 8 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a fresh outbreak was reported on August 1 in North Kivu. If…
Polio outbreaks in Congo raise global concern
The polio endgame is proving to be much more challenging with 28 children becoming paralysed by the circulating type 2 vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPVs) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has…
Trump team weakened global efforts to control marketing of baby formula
By Susie Neilson Changes made to an international breastfeeding resolution under pressure from the Trump administration are more extensive than previously reported and were aimed at diluting efforts to limit…
