Dear Global Health community, I hope you had a pleasant start into the week. A warm welcome to our new group members!
Please find below this week’s news selection.
5 things you should know about the UN 2023 Water Conference (UN News, March 19, 2023)
> The UN 2023 Water Conference, which takes place at UN Headquarters from 22-24 March, is being hailed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate progress towards universal access to safe water and sanitation by 2030. https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/03/1134597
‘The potential is clear’: Unlocking the economic value of sanitation (The New Humanitarian, March 23, 2023)
> From hospitals and schools to homes and workplaces, 3.6 billion people right now need access to safely managed sanitation. That is a very large user base waiting for toilets, handwashing facilities, hygiene products, systems that move sewage, and much more. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/opinion/2023/03/23/sanitation-econom…
What does equitable global health research and delivery look like? Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) partnership as a case study (Relief Web - OCHA, March 25, 2023)
>There is a current global push to identify and implement best practice for delivering maximum impact from development research in low-income and middle-income countries. This report describes a model of research and capacity building that challenges traditional approaches taken by western funders in Africa. https://reliefweb.int/report/world/what-does-equitable-global-health-re…
WHO chief warns against misinformation over global pandemic accord (UN News, March 23, 2023)
> The head of the UN World Health Organization on Thursday spoke out forcefully against “misinformation on social media and in the mainstream media” which has falsely alleged that a new global pandemic accord being negotiated, would allow the WHO to override national sovereignty relating to a future outbreak. https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/03/1134967
OPINION: Access to NCD Medicine Needs to be Protected in Future Pandemics (Health Policy Watch, 22 March, 2023)
> During the COVID-19 pandemic, people living with cancer, heart diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) experienced difficulties in accessing their routine medicines, according to a new report released by the World Health Organization on Wednesday. https://healthpolicy-watch.news/access-to-ncd-medicine/
> The report in question: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/366528
Cyclone freddy: fears cholera outbreak will spiral in Malawi as healthcare, water supplies disrupted (Save the Children, March 17, 2023)
> Families and children displaced by Cyclone Freddy in Malawi face the risk of an unprecedented cholera outbreak with a lack of running water, sanitation facilities and open defecation in camps fuelling fears of waterborne diseases, Save the Children warned. https://www.savethechildren.net/news/cyclone-freddy-fears-cholera-outbr…
Bats live with dozens of nasty viruses — can studying them help stop pandemics? (Nature, March 21, 2023)
> Researchers are examining the weird immune systems of bats, hoping to help prevent the next outbreak. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00791-x