Vaccinations

Millions of Afghan children have been vaccinated during the first nationwide integrated measles and polio campaign in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power in August 2021, the UN health agency said on Thursday.

More vaccines must be developed to tackle antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacterial pathogens, and countries must make better use of the ones currently available, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. 

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in some 110 countries, driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 variants, said the UN health agency chief on Wednesday, amounting to a 20 per cent spike overall, and a rise in the number of deaths across three of the six world regions monitored by the World Health Organization.

Although safe and effective COVID-19 vaccinations are available, the pandemic is still far from over, and countries affected by conflict are in danger of being left behind, the UN Security Council heard on Monday. 

COVID infections and deaths in North America continue to rise, as hospitalizations increase throughout the whole continent, the head of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office said on Wednesday.

UN health agency chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged all countries on Monday to support a pandemic preparedness treaty, warning that it would be a “monumental error” to think the danger of COVID-19 has passed.

Just over 460 days since the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Europe, more citizens living in the region have now been vaccinated, than the number infected, and although new cases and hospitalizations are falling, “the threat remains present”, a senior UN health official said on Thursday.
 

The number of people who have received a COVID-19 vaccination now exceeds those reportedly infected, the head of the UN’s health agency said on Friday, while warning that after inoculating their own health workers and older people, countries must share doses with others, to eradicate the deadly coronavirus.