The World Health Organization (WHO) has called antibiotic resistance "one of the biggest threats to global health, food security, and development".It comes after experts warned for decades that excessive use of antibiotics makes it harder to tackle the bacteria the medicines were created to destroy.Here's a closer look at the problem.What Is Antibiotic Resistance? Antibiotics are medicines that either destroy bacteria or keep them from proliferating. Penicilli

COVID is now a pandemic of poor nations, a leading global expert has told a cross-party group of United Kingdom's MPs, adding that governments that are attempting to vaccinate their way out of the pandemic are taking a huge risk.Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organization’s special envoy on COVID, told the all-party group on coronavirus that the world was still deep in the pandemic, with 5,413 reported deaths in the past 24 hours alone.

Covaxin, the first COVID-19 vaccine developed in India, is "highly efficacious" and presents no safety concerns, according to a study published in the Lancet on Thursday.Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech, gained emergency approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) last week and has already been cleared for use in 17 countries.The United Nations (UN) body has described it as "extremely suitable for low- and middle-income countries due to easy storage requirements"

The World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist said Tuesday she was looking forward to the "second generation" of COVID-19 vaccines, which could include nasal sprays and oral versions.Soumya Swaminathan said such vaccines could have advantages over the current crop as they would be easier to deliver than injections and could even be self-administered.Swaminathan said there were 129 different candidate vaccines that have got as far as clinical trials –being tested on huma

Europe is once again "at the epicentre" of the COVID pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned, as cases soar across the continent.At a press conference WHO Europe head Hans Kluge said the continent could see half a million more deaths by February.He blamed insufficient vaccine take-up for the rise."We must change our tactics, from reacting to surges of COVID-19 to preventing them from happening in the first place," he said.The rate of vaccination has slowed

China’s president, Xi Jinping, has called for mutual recognition of COVID-19 vaccines based on the World Health Organization’s emergency use list, according to a transcript of his remarks delivered to leaders of the Group of 20 leaders’ summit, published by the official Xinhua news agency.Speaking to the participants in Rome via video link, Xi said China had provided more than 1.6 billion COVID shots to the world, and was working with 16 nations to cooperate on manufacturing doses.“China is w

United States (US) drugmaker Merck & Co.

Epidemiologists tell us that COVID-19 was not a “black swan.” In our lifetime, there will be pandemics that are equally if not more severe. And when the next one comes, China, Singapore, and maybe Vietnam will be better prepared because they have learned from this terrible experience. Pretty much everyone else, including most of the G20, will be just as vulnerable as they were when COVID-19 hit. But how can that be?

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Thursday that 80,000 to 180,000 health care workers may have been killed by COVID-19 up to May this year, insisting they must be prioritised for vaccination.The WHO said the fact that millions of health workers remain unvaccinated is an "indictment" on the countries and companies controlling the global supply of doses.A WHO paper estimated that out of the planet's 135 million health staff, "between 80,000 to 180,000 health and care

The European Union (EU) has exported "over one billion" doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the past 10 months, the bloc's chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday."Very clearly, the European Union is the largest exporter of COVID-19 vaccines," she said, announcing the "important milestone" in a brief broadcast and statement.Von der Leyen said that 87 million of the doses had been funnelled through the WHO-led COVAX scheme to mid- and low-income countries.&nb