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The most recent estimate of the global number of deaths from dog-mediated rabies is 59 000 per year.1 Rabies is associated with a 99.9% fatality rate and severe trauma in families in which a rabies death occurs, and remains a major public health concern in most of Africa and Asia and some parts of South America. In the Americas, dog-mediated rabies is still a public health issue in specific regions in some countries.2 Robust data on rabies are lacking for many countries. The information available to WHO is presented on Map 1.

Ending human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030 (“Zero by 30”) is the goal of a global strategy agreed in 2015 by a cross-sectoral partnership composed of WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the World Organisation of Animal Health (WOAH) and the Global Alliance for Rabies Control.3 In 2020, as partnerships are vital to making progress towards Zero by 30, United Against Rabies (UAR) was launched as a collaborative forum for public and private sector organizations, rabies experts, development partners and civil society to work to improve rabies control.4

A third U.S. farmworker infected with bird flu is the first to experience respiratory symptoms

In light of H5N1 outbreak, U.S. in talks with mRNA vaccine makers on bird flu

Wastewater testing specifically for bird flu virus will scale up nationally in coming weeks

When should we start making H5N1 vaccine, and who will make that decision? In short, it’s complicated

USDA, FDA turf battles hamper responses to outbreaks like H5N1 bird flu

WHO member states spent hours last week debating, disagreeing and finally voting on a number of issues concerning Palestine, Ukraine and even language on gender, in the just concluded 77^th World Health Assembly in Geneva last week.  

This reveals that no forum can be insulated from geopolitical tensions, and even more so when there is no way to clearly delineate health matters in conflict zones from dynamic political realities. (In the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, more than 400 attacks on healthcare facilities have been witnessed with a majority of them involving the use of force.)

While some countries believe that several voting rounds sucked time and energy away from the technical matters in health – a natural mainstay of the World Health Assembly, others regret the politicization but say that this cannot be prevented.

"MSF welcomes these new amendments to the IHR as an important first step towards addressing inequity in access to medical care and health products during global health emergencies. As a medical humanitarian organisation responding to emergencies globally, we are encouraged to see explicit recognition of the need to ensure access to health products during health emergencies, including in humanitarian settings.

“As the INB negotiation is extended for another year, we urge WHO member states to remember the clear lessons learned from the past health emergencies, from Ebola virus disease to COVID, follow the example of the IHR amendments, and complete the package of measures needed for a just framework for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. 

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With the first-ever malaria vaccines rolling out across Africa and a next-generation tuberculosis (TB) vaccine in testing, scientific advances are driving an unparalleled expansion of vaccine development. But vaccines in development don’t become immunizations that protect our health without concerted efforts by global initiatives like Gavi, the vaccine alliance, that help bring these life-saving products to the world’s poorest countries.

Next month, Gavi will kick-off a campaign to raise several billion dollars to deliver on its new strategy. The stakes are high: falling short of its target could delay delivery of vaccines to those most in need.

After years of back-and-forth talks on how to best protect the world from the next pandemic disaster - World Health Organization Member States remain at a stalemate - with lower-income countries still lacking access to lifesaving health commodities and the ability to secure vital technologies and know-how during global public health emergencies - issues world leaders must rectify immediately.

As the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA) convened this year in Geneva, there was much anticipation as to the fate of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. For the last two years, Member States have been engaged in negotiations to create an agreement to prevent a repeat of the COVID-19 global health catastrophe - a human tragedy that is less about a virus and more about nationalist protectionism, corporate profit interests, and unacceptable inequity.

Member States of WHO secured a desperate win in reaching consensus on the amendments to the International Health Regulations, following more than two years of systematic and intense negotiations, culminating in an astonishing agreement in the final hours of the 77^th World Health Assembly. The consensus assumes greater significance in an otherwise difficult meeting of WHO member states this year, that was fraught with several political resolutions laced with rounds of voting among 194 countries.

Member States of WHO secured a desperate win in reaching consensus on the amendments to the International Health Regulations, following more than two years of systematic and intense negotiations, culminating in an astonishing agreement in the final hours of the 77^th World Health Assembly. The consensus assumes greater significance in an otherwise difficult meeting of WHO member states this year, that was fraught with several political resolutions laced with rounds of voting among 194 countries.

During the Covid pandemic, the US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson produced their Covid vaccine in South Africa. This was then exported to Europe, leaving the local population with no production for themselves.

In the wake of the pandemic, Gavi, which aims to improve the supply of vaccines to poorer countries, is pushing for better access to vaccines to become a priority for the international community, an approach that is widely supported by the G7 and G20 countries.

“Today, Africa imports 99% of the vaccines that are needed on the continent,” David Kinder, Gavi’s director of development financing, tells SWI swissinfo.ch. This includes vaccines against malaria and cholera, which kill hundreds of thousands of children every year. The Gavi vaccine alliance includes UN organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the World Bank, as well as developing and donor countries, the vaccine industry, research institutions, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and NGOs.

After two years of intensive negotiations – including long nights this week – the World Health Assembly (WHA) finally passed amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR)  and committed to completing pandemic agreement talks within a year. 

After failing to agree on the amendments before WHA opened on Monday, member states have been racing to the finish in a drafting committee during this week in meetings that often went into the early hours.

“Tonight we have all won and the world has won. You have made the world safer,” said a hoarse WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who lost his voice during the late-night sessions.

Morehttps://healthpolicy-watch.news/the-world-has-won-new-regulations-to-protect-against-pandemics-finally-passed/