Global Health

GHealth News - The Virchow Foundation for Global Health is honoured to announce Rose Gana Fomban Leke as the 2023 Virchow Prize for Global Health Laureate. With this award, Professor Leke’s distinctive and exceptional lifetime achievements comprising outstanding contributions to global health, pioneering infectious disease research towards a malaria-free world and relentless dedication in advancing gender equality are recognized. Rose Leke, a distinguished scientist and immunologist from the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon, has dedicated her life as a researcher to eradicating malaria, addressing health inequities and structural disparities, and combating communicable diseases, making her an internationally celebrated advocate for global health. The Virchow Prize Committee states that...

GHealth News - Over the past 15 years, Germany has strategically expanded its role in global health against the backdrop of geopolitical developments, upheavals, and crises to become one of the largest political and financial contributors in the field. One of Germany's key priorities has been to fortify its strong but fragmented research landscape in global health. In January, 2020, a 5-year infrastructure programme from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; costing approximately €3 million) culminated in the progressive establishment of the German Alliance for Global Health Research (GLOHRA), a national, interdisciplinary, and cross-institutional platform for global health research. Led by an interdisciplinary steering committee, the platform aims to foster innovative, equ...

The World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday urged countries around the world to work towards unlocking the power of traditional medicine and provide evidence and action-based suggestions that can be interpreted into a global strategy. He was speaking at WHO’s first global summit on traditional medicine, which is part of the ongoing G-20 Health Ministers’ meeting in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat. “I hope that the Gujarat Declaration will integrate use of traditional medicines in national health systems, and help unlock the power of traditional medicine through science,” Dr. Tedros said at the event, which is being co-hosted by the Ministry of Ayush. Ancient wisdom, modern science Also addressing the meeting, Health Minister Mansukh Ma...

From 12 to 13 June 2023, our annual flagship event Global Health Talk takes place in Berlin. As a service for you, we put together an overview of interesting global health events taking place in and around Berlin in the days before and after our event. Join this year’s Global Health Talk We are delighted to invite you to this year’s Global Health Talk on 12 - 13 June 2023 at the Umweltforum Berlin (Pufendorfstraße 11, 10249 Berlin) or virtually.The Global Health Talk offers opportunities to engage with global health actors from different stakeholder groups as well as high-level representatives from from the German Government and to discuss relevant global health issues such as Global Health Financing, interrelations of international Global Health Processes, Climate and Health as well...

GHealth News - The head of the World Health Organization urged countries on Monday to carry out reforms needed to prepare for the next pandemic, hailing their "historic" decision to accept a major budget hike at the U.N. agency's annual assembly. Speaking at the assembly weeks after ending the global emergency status for the COVID-19 pandemic, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was time to advance negotiations on preventing the next pandemic. "We cannot kick this can down the road," the WHO director-general said in a major address to the agency's member states, warning that the next pandemic was bound to "come knocking". "If we do not make the changes that must be made, then who will? And if we do not make them now, then when?" he said. The 10-day annual World Health Assembly i...

People, profits, and health, a three-paper series published today in global health journal The Lancet sheds light on the impact of commercial entities on human and planetary health and calls for urgent action to prioritise health over profit. The series highlights that many commercial organisations’ practices and products are contributing to growing health problems and harming the environment, with industries that produce tobacco, alcohol, highly processed foods, and fossil fuels responsible for over a third of preventable global deaths each year.[i] University of Melbourne Professor Rob Moodie, Series convenor and Professor of Public Health at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, said we are at a crunch point in history, emphasising now is the time fo...

Before the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was adopted in 2003, the World Health Organization had worked for many years to prevent damage caused by tobacco consumption with the goal of passing an international agreement on tobacco regulation. The agreement, however, was not moving forward. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzoBj9gboN0 “The real breakthrough came as scientific evidence emerged showing the negative consequences of passive smoking and its impact on children,” Ilona Kickbusch, the founding director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, tells host Garry Aslanyan in the new episode of the “Global Health Matters” podcast. “These data and this evidence really made a significant difference in getting the negotiations...

GHealth News - The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for “immediate and concerted action” to protect children from contaminated medicines after a spate of child deaths linked to cough syrups last year. In 2022, more than 300 children – mainly aged under 5 – in Gambia, Indonesia and Uzbekistan died of acute kidney injury, in deaths that were associated with contaminated medicines, the WHO said in a statement on Monday. The medicines, over-the-counter cough syrups, had high levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol. “These contaminants are toxic chemicals used as industrial solvents and antifreeze agents that can be fatal even taken in small amounts, and should never be found in medicines,” the WHO said. As well as the countries above, the ...

GHealth News - The WHO on Thursday said it was a strong supporter of the Global Health Agenda being set by the Indian presidency at the G20 Health Working Group meeting here as it was focused, well-articulated and takes into account priorities of the day. Stephanie Seydoux, WHO envoy for Multilateral Affairs at the G20 India Health Working Group Meet here, further said on the sidelines that the agenda being set by the Indian presidency was ambitious and well supported by G20 members and participants. "The World Health Organisation (WHO) is a very strong supporter of the Global Health Agenda being set by the Indian presidency. It is indeed an ambitious agenda, but it is focused, well-articulated and it certainly speaks of the priorities of the day," she said. The first Health Working ...

Prof. Beate Kampmann © Charité l Artur Krutsch A new platform for global health is being created within Berlin’s university medicine landscape in the form of the Charité Center for Global Health (CCGH). At its center is the Institute of International Health of Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, formerly known as the Institute of Tropical Medicine and International Health, which has been headed since the beginning of this year by Einstein Professor for Global Health, Prof. Beate Kampmann. The renowned expert in international child health will lead the CCGH with Prof. Christian Drosten, who heads Charité’s Institute of Virology, with both of them working together to sharpen its scientific focus and leverage the enormous potential in Berlin and beyond. The CCGH will be support...