Global Health

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...

GHealth News - At the October 2022 launch of the One Health Joint Plan of Action (OH JPA) at the World Health Summit, the German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze reminded the audience that our ecosystems’ foundations are at stake: “It is no secret that our biodiversity is under threat. We need ecosystems for our food security and for our health, for safe drinking water, fertile soils, clean air, and protection of the global climate.” The One Health approach aims to achieve an equilibrium between the health of humans, animals, and the environment and to prevent threats to global health. The ambitious One Health Joint Action Plan uses cross-disciplinary thinking and recommends preventive actions to strengthen health systems. It was developed by the Quadripa...

Sir Jeremy Farrar GHealth News - WHO announced that Dr Jeremy Farrar will become its new Chief Scientist. Currently, Director of the Wellcome Trust, Dr Farrar will join WHO in the second quarter of 2023. Dr Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu will become WHO's Chief Nursing Officer. Previously Minister for Health of the Kingdom of Tonga, and before that Tonga’s Chief Nursing Officer, Dr Tuipulotu will join WHO in the first quarter of 2023. As WHO’s Chief Scientist, Dr Farrar will oversee the Science Division, bringing together the best brains in science and innovation from around the world to develop and deliver high quality health services to the people who need them most, no matter who they are and where they live. Dr Farrar is a clinician scientist who, before joining Wellcome...

The World Health Summit ended yesterday after three days with 404 speakers and 61 different sessions. The leading international meeting for global health was jointly organized together with the World Health Organization (WHO). Around 60,000 participants worldwide took part online via the World Health Summit and WHO channels. More than 4,100 participants from 141 countries were on site in Berlin. Over 30 ministers from around the world were among the speakers. There were more women speakers than men speakers: 203 of the speakers were women, 201 were men. The opening ceremony on Sunday, October 16, was followed via livestream around the world by more than 40,000 participants and by 2,500 people on-site in Berlin. The last day focused on the Polio Pledging Event and the final se...