Tag Archive for: World Health Organization

A highly mutated COVID variant called BA.2.86 has now been detected in Switzerland and South Africa in addition to Israel, Denmark, the U.S. and the U.K., according to a leading World Health Organization official.

“The risk remains of a more dangerous variant emerging that could cause a sudden increase in cases and deaths,” Tedros said, adding that the agency is publishing a risk evaluation report on it today.

The WHO flagged contamination with unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol, which are toxic to humans when consumed and can prove fatal, in samples taken from a batch of cough syrup made by QP Pharmachem.

The initiative is set to wind up at the end of this year, although some of its work will continue. With demand for COVID-19 vaccines dwindling, the partners are now working out how best to use the remaining cash – a significant sum in global health – alongside the donors who originally pledged it.

Gambia will make it mandatory for all pharmaceutical products from India to be inspected and tested prior to shipment from July 1, according to Gambian government documents reviewed by Reuters, the first known restrictions on national exports following the deaths of dozens of children linked to Indian-made cough syrups.

Novo Nordisk’s launch of obesity drug Wegovy in most of Europe will be slower than planned and the drug will likely not be sold in developing nations for a very long time, executives said on Tuesday, as demand booms in the United States.

There is an ongoing global threat posed by toxic cough syrups, the World Health Organization (WHO) told Reuters, saying it was now working with six more countries than previously revealed to track the potentially deadly children’s medicines.

The outbreak of Marburg virus infection in Equatorial Guinea has ended, the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa said on Thursday.

Gambia has hired a U.S. law firm to explore legal action after a government-backed investigation found that contaminated medicines from India were “very likely” to have caused the deaths of children last year, the justice minister told Reuters.

Germany’s BioNTech said it was on track to introduce a COVID-19 shot by the early fall in the northern hemisphere that is adapted to currently dominant virus variants in line with recommendations by the World Health Organization.