The joint publication encourages countries to strengthen the protection of health workers by improving the management of occupational health and safety at national, sub-national and health facility levels.
GENEVA–The World Health Organization (WHO) and The International Labour Organization (ILO) have published a new guide on developing and implementing stronger occupational health and safety programmes for health workers, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to exert great pressure on them.
“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the health sector was among the most hazardous sectors to work in,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, WHO. “Only a few healthcare facilities had programmes in place for managing health and safety at work. Health workers suffered from infections, musculoskeletal disorders and injuries, workplace violence and harassment, burnout, and allergies from the poor working environment.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken an additional heavy toll on health workers and demonstrated dangerous neglect of their health, safety and wellbeing. More than one-in-three health facilities lack hygiene stations at the point of care. Fewer than one-in-six countries had in place a national policy on a healthy and safe working environment in the health sector.
“COVID-19 has exposed the cost of this systemic lack of safeguards for the health, safety and wellbeing of health workers. In the first 18 months of the pandemic, about 115,500 health workers died from COVID-19,” said James Campbell, Director WHO Health Workforce Department.
“Sickness absence and exhaustion exacerbated pre-existing shortages of health workers and undermined the capacities of health systems to respond to the increased demand for care and prevention during the crisis,” he added. “This guide provides recommendations on how to learn from this experience and better protect our health workers.”
WHO and ILO recommend developing and implementing sustainable programmes for managing occupational health and safety for health workers at national, sub-national and health facility levels. Such programmes should cover all occupational hazards – infectious, ergonomic, physical, chemical, and psycho-social.
The guide also outlines the roles that governments, employers, workers and occupational health services should play in promoting and protecting the health, safety, and wellbeing of health workers. It emphasizes that continuous investment, training, monitoring and collaboration are essential for sustaining progress in implementing the programmes.
“Effective mechanisms should be put in place to ensure continuous collaboration between employers, managers and health workers, with the aim of protecting health and safety at work” said Alette van Leur, Director, ILO Sectoral Policies Department. “Health workers, like all other workers, should enjoy their right to decent work, safe and healthy working environments and social protection for health care, sickness absence and occupational diseases and injuries.”
Countries that have developed and are actively implementing occupational health and safety programmes for health workers have experienced reductions in work-related injuries and diseases and sickness absence, as well as improvements in the work environment, work productivity and retention of health workers.
“Such programmes are a core element for the effective management of occupational safety and health, as informed by ILO Convention No. 187, and provide an opportunity for coordinated action by all stakeholders through social dialogue towards common objectives for promoting decent work in the health sector and increasing the resilience of health institutions,” said Vera Paquete-Perdigao, Director, ILO Governance and Tripartism Department.
WHO and ILO will continue to provide guidance and assistance to countries to develop and implement occupational health and safety programmes for health workers.
The 74th World Health Assembly resolution on Protecting, safeguarding and investing in the health and care workforce, requests the Director-General “to engage Member States and all relevant stakeholders” in the development of a “global health and care worker compact”, consisting of a succinct compilation based on existing documents of relevant international organizations. The compact which will be discussed at the World Health Assembly in May 2022, will include the applicable instruments on occupational health and safety.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia to establish mRNA vaccine production
Geneva/Brussels, 18 February 2022 -- At the European Union - African Union summit in Brussels today WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced the first six countries that will receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines on the African continent. Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia all applied and have been selected as recipients.
The announcement was made at a ceremony hosted by the European Council, France, South Africa and WHO in the presence of President Macron, President Ramaphosa, and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
The global mRNA technology transfer hub was established in 2021 to support manufacturers in low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines, ensuring that they have all the necessary operating procedures and know-how to manufacture mRNA vaccines at scale and according to international standards.
Primarily set up to address the COVID-19 emergency, the hub has the potential to expand manufacturing capacity for other products as well, putting countries in the driver’s seat when it comes to the kinds of vaccines and other products they need to address their health priorities.
Depending on the infrastructure, workforce and clinical research and regulatory capacity in place, WHO and partners will work with the beneficiary countries to develop a roadmap and put in place the necessary training and support so that they can start producing vaccines as soon as possible.
WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “No other event like the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that reliance on a few companies to supply global public goods is limiting, and dangerous. In the mid- to long-term, the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage is to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture the health products they need, with equitable access as their primary endpoint.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa, of South Africa said: "This is an initiative that will allow us to make our own vaccines and that, to us, is very important. It means mutual respect, mutual recognition of what we can all bring to the party, investment in our economies, infrastructure investment and, in many ways, giving back to the continent."
President Emmanuel Macron, of France said: “Improved public health benefits, supporting African health sovereignty and economic development are the principal goals of strengthening local production in Africa. In an interconnected world, we need stronger and new partnerships between countries, development partners and other stakeholders to empower regions and countries to fend for themselves, during crises, and in peace time.”
President Charles Michel, European Council said: “We need to create an environment where every scientist, health worker, and government can band together for a common cause. Working together to build new solutions to protect what is most precious - our health and our lives."
To ensure that all countries build the necessary capacity to produce their own vaccines and other health technologies, WHO has been working to establish a biomanufacturing workforce training hub that will train people from all interested countries in scientific and clinical research and production capacity. The training hub will be announced in the coming weeks.
In addition, WHO’s current regulatory strengthening activities in low- and middle-income countries will expand through a global benchmarking tool that assesses countries’ ability to ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of health products and provides training where improvements are needed to build regulatory authorities that are agile and fit-for-purpose for the future.
The WHO mRNA technology transfer hub is part of a larger effort aimed at empowering low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines, medicines and diagnostics to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage.
The initial effort is centred on mRNA technologies and biologicals, which are important for vaccine manufacturing and can also be used for other products, such as insulin to treat diabetes, cancer medicines and, potentially, vaccines for other priority diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. The ultimate goal is to extend capacity building for national and regional production to all health technologies.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
Brazzaville/Lilongwe – The health authorities in Malawi have declared an outbreak of wild poliovirus type 1 after a case was detected in a young child in the capital Lilongwe. This is the first case of wild poliovirus in Africa in more than five years.
Africa was declared free of indigenous wild polio in August 2020 after eliminating all forms of wild polio from the region. Laboratory analysis shows that the strain detected in Malawi is linked to the one that has been circulating in Sindh Province in Pakistan. Polio remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. As an imported case from Pakistan, this detection does not affect the African region’s wild poliovirus-free certification status.
“As long as wild polio exists anywhere in the world all countries remain at risk of importation of the virus,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “Following the detection of wild polio in Malawi, we’re taking urgent measures to forestall its potential spread. Thanks to a high level of polio surveillance in the continent and the capacity to quickly detect the virus, we can swiftly launch a rapid response and protect children from the debilitating impact of this disease.”
WHO is supporting the Malawi health authorities to carry out a risk assessment and outbreak response, including supplemental immunization. Surveillance of the disease is also being ramped up in neighbouring countries. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) Rapid Response Team which is based at the WHO Regional Office in Africa is deploying a team to Malawi to support coordination, surveillance, data management, communications, and operations. Partners organizations will also send teams to support emergency operations and innovative vaccination campaign solutions.
“The last case of wild polio virus in Africa was identified in northern Nigeria in 2016 and globally there were only five cases in 2021. Any case of wild polio virus is a significant event and we will mobilize all resources to support the country’s response,” said Dr Modjirom Ndoutabe, Polio Coordinator in the WHO Regional Office for Africa.
Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus. It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis within hours. The virus is transmitted from person-to-person mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, through contaminated water or food, and multiplies in the intestine. While there is no cure for polio, the disease can be prevented through administration of a simple and effective vaccine.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
We as the heads of our respective institutions the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), in close cooperation with the European Commission (EC) and the African Union, are delighted to announce a strong partnership aimed at mobilizing one billion euro of investment to support countries in closing the health funding gap, building resilient health systems based on a solid foundation of Primary Health Care (PHC), to help them reach the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
That means restoring, expanding and sustaining access to essential health services and increasing financial risk protection; access to vaccines, medicines, diagnostics, devices and other health products; scaling innovative primary health care service delivery models and investing in a health workforce to deliver effective quality care.
This will be advanced by a powerful EC, EIB and WHO trilateral alliance built on the partners’ commitment to complement each other’s strengths.
The shared goals of the partnership will achieved by applying a country-led and country-driven approach, identifying gaps in national health systems, designing strategies for interventions and their corresponding investments plans, investing in health system projects and programmes, convening capital providers, supporting implementation and monitoring impact.
To initiate this partnership, the European Investment Bank will make available at least €500 million to support health systems strengthening and more specifically primary health care in Sub-Saharan African countries. This aims to mobilize at least €1 billion of investments, structured in co-operation with the EC and WHO, to support this initiative.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is a powerful demonstration that when health is at risk, everything is at risk. Investing in health across Africa is therefore essential not just to promote and protect health, but also as a foundation for lifting people out of poverty and driving inclusive economic growth. WHO is pleased to join forces with African partners, the European Investment Bank and the EU to marry this significant investment with WHO’s experience and know-how to build resilient health systems, and a healthier, safer, fairer future for Africa,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.
“The partnership between the EIB and WHO is central to our response to the pandemic outside the EU, as part of Team Europe. Since the start of the pandemic the EIB has scaled up support for health investment, vaccine production and economic resilience across Africa and around the world. Today, we are pleased to confirm that the EIB will make available € 500 million with the aim to mobilize €1 billion of new investment to strengthen public health across Africa.” said Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of he World Health Organization (WHO), Buti Manamela, Deputy Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology of South Africa, Dr Joe Phaahla, Minister of Health of South Africa and Meryame Kitir, Minister of Development Cooperation and Urban Policy of Belgium today visit a number of public and private sector partners that are collaborating to develop and build WHO’s global mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa.
For most of 2021, limited global vaccine supply led to huge disparities in COVID-19 vaccine access, leaving billions of people – especially in low- and middle-income countries – unprotected against serious disease and death from COVID-19. Low levels of vaccine coverage also provided the ideal conditions for new variants to develop. While supply has now increased, access to any new formulations of COVID-19 vaccines – tailored specifically to new variants – will likely also be inequitable because manufacturing capacity remains limited to only a small handful of companies and countries.
“Covid-19 has demonstrated the importance of investments in science, technology and innovation. Therefore preparing for future pandemics is key and so the WHO mRNA global hub is a critical building block to ensure that South Africa and the whole continent has the production capacity that is essential for equitable vaccine rollout,” said Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology of South Africa. “The mRNA technology is not only for COVID-19, we hope it can be adapted to help us in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, which is why we’re investing heavily, alongside international partners, in this initiative.”
Based on the vision of the Governments of South Africa and France for diversifying vaccine manufacturing and specifically accelerating vaccine production in Africa, a consortium including the Medicines Patent Pool, Biovac, Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, South Africa’s Department of Science and Innovation, the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), a network of universities and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are driving forward the initiative.
The central aim is to develop a training facility where mRNA technology is developed to the scale required for mass production of vaccines and then for that full package of technology to be transferrable to multiple recipients in low- and middle-income countries.
“We’re not out of the woods yet and we are likely to be hit by new COVID-19 variants and a fifth wave that coincides with our winter season, which would compound our flu and cold season. However, we can reduce the impact by ensuring most people are vaccinated, especially the most vulnerable groups," said the South African Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla.“The new hub is not just for South Africa, it provides a one stop shop for low- and middle-income countries across the world to benefit from the technology transferred, along with the know how, so they can also produce mRNA vaccines, which is critical if we are to end vaccine inequity.”
Last week, Afrigen, which is part of WHO’s mRNA consortium, gained international plaudits as it announced it had developed its own version of an mRNA shot, based on the publicly available data on the composition of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which will be tested in the coming months.
“This virus shows how interconnected we all are and I am proud that Belgium –and other EU countries – are now collaborating to build vaccine capacity everywhere,” said Meryame Kitir, Minister of Development Cooperation and Urban Policy of Belgium. “Going forward we need more sharing of licenses, technology transfer and know-how so that in this pandemic and future ones as we can roll vaccines out quickly and equitably to the whole global population.”
The mRNA global hub is designed to serve low- and middle-income countries and will empower countries to not only be able to make their own mRNA vaccines but ultimately to have the choice of which vaccines they want to make. Manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries are therefore encouraged to express their own interest so they can receive training, technology transfer and any necessary licenses. WHO and partners will bring in the production know-how, quality control and necessary licenses to a single entity to facilitate a broad and rapid technology transfer to multiple recipients.
"The pandemic has highlighted the need for increased local production of vaccines globally, especially in low- and middle-income countries,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. "The WHO mRNA global hub is a major step in that direction, by sharing technology and building on the capacity and scientific expertise that already exists in South Africa.”
The global hubs will act as training facilities where technology is established at industrial scale and clinical development performed. WHO will compliment this activity and assist other countries in Africa and other low- and middle-income countries to strengthen biomanufacturing capacity as well as regulatory capacity.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, Regional Director of World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, said: “The mRNA hubs provide an unprecedented opportunity for capacity development, putting Africa on the path to self-reliance. This initiative will enable the continent to better protect against outbreaks, control the COVID-19 pandemic and develop new vaccines, accelerating the elimination of deadly diseases such as HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. We are opening the door to better health and wellbeing for our people.”
“At Medicines Patent Pool, we are thrilled to be able to offer the mRNA hub our expertise on intellectual property management and voluntary licensing. It is impressive how working in partnership and in a very short time, we have established the firm base from which this new technology can be shared across low- and middle-income countries," said Charles Gore, Executive Director, Medicines Patent Pool. "The South African government and partners have shown extraordinary commitment, and of course this has only been made possible thanks to our funders, who through rapidly mobilizing resources have demonstrated such strong support for the project.”
The visit will also include the Centre for Epidemic Response & Innovation, which is at the heart of South Africa’s world-class viral genomics surveillance programme, meetings with civil society groups and visits to vaccination centres in Cape Town.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Eleventh Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) has now come into effect, with the latest update going online today.
The ICD provides a common language that allows health professionals to share standardized information across the world. It is the foundation for identifying health trends and statistics worldwide, containing around 17 000 unique codes for injuries, diseases and causes of death, underpinned by more than 120 000 codable terms. By using code combinations, more than 1.6 million clinical situations can now be coded.
Compared with previous versions, ICD-11 is entirely digital with a new user-friendly format and multilingual capabilities that reduce the chance of error. It has been compiled and updated with input from over 90 countries and unprecedented involvement of health-care providers, enabling evolution from a system imposed on clinicians into a truly enabling clinical classification and terminology database that serves a broad range of uses for recording and reporting statistics on health.
“International classification of diseases is the cornerstone of a robust health information system”, said Dr Samira Asma, the Assistant Director-General for Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact at the World Health Organization (WHO). “ICD has been instrumental in helping us respond to the COVID-19 pandemic using standardized data and continues to be crucial for tracking progress towards universal health coverage. We hope all countries will take advantage of ICD-11’s powerful new features.”
Among other updates, ICD-11 improves the clarity of terms for the general public and facilitates the coding of important details such as the spread of a cancer or the exact site and type of a fracture. The new version also includes updated diagnostic recommendations for mental health conditions and digital documentation of COVID-19 certificates.
These updates reflect recent progress in medicine and advances in scientific understanding. For example, codes relating to antimicrobial resistance are now aligned with the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS). ICD-11 is also more capable of capturing data on health-care safety, thus identifying and reducing unnecessary events that may harm health such as unsafe workflows in hospitals.
ICD is used by health insurers who make reimbursement decisions on the basis of ICD coding, by national health programme managers, by data collection specialists, and by anyone who tracks progress in global health and determines health resource allocation.
"A key principle in this revision was to simplify the coding and provide users with all necessary electronic tooling – this will allow health-care professionals to more easily and completely record conditions," says Dr Robert Jakob, Team Lead, Classifications Terminologies and Standards, WHO.
In addition to coding and capability updates, ICD-11 includes new chapters on traditional medicine, sexual health, and gaming disorder – which has now been added to the section on addictive disorders.
ICD-11 was adopted at the World Health Assembly in May 2019 and Member States committed to start using it for mortality and morbidity reporting in 2022. Since 2019, early adopter countries, translators, and scientific groups have recommended further refinements to produce the version that is posted online today.
WHO remains committed to supporting all countries as they move towards implementing and scaling-up ICD-11.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
SHARP RISE IN MEASLES CASES IN AFGHANISTAN
Measles is endemic in Afghanistan. Following periods of lower transmission in 2019 and 2020, measles cases have been increasing in all provinces since the end of July 2021, with the highest weekly toll observed so far occurring over the last four weeks. The number of cases and deaths increased by 18% in the week of January 24, and 40% in the week of January 31.
35 319 suspected cases of measles and 156 deaths have been reported in Afghanistan from 1 January 2021 to 29 January 2022. Of these, 3221 cases were laboratory confirmed. Ninety-one percent of these cases and 97% of these deaths were in children under five years-old.
Although the number of deaths is relatively low, the rapid rise in cases in January 2022 suggests that the number of deaths due to measles is likely to increase sharply in the coming weeks.
It is also important to note that measles-related deaths are not always reported or captured through surveillance systems.
The rise in measles cases is especially concerning because of the extremely high levels of malnutrition in Afghanistan. Malnutrition weakens immunity, making people more vulnerable to illness and death from diseases like measles – especially children. In addition, measles infection can cause immune system suppression and immunologic amnesia, which increases susceptibility to all pathogens, including those to which the individual was previously immune.
Measles is an extremely contagious viral disease. Unvaccinated young children are at highest risk. Severe measles is more likely among poorly nourished young children, especially those with insufficient vitamin A, or whose immune systems have been weakened by other diseases. The most serious complications include blindness, encephalitis (an infection that causes brain swelling), severe diarrhoea and related dehydration, and severe respiratory infections such as pneumonia.
In response to the recent rise in measles cases in Afghanistan, WHO and partners are strengthening measles surveillance capacities and providing technical support for lab testing, case management, risk communication, vitamin A distribution, and outbreak response immunization campaigns.
In December 2021, a measles outbreak response immunization campaign was carried out in some of the most affected provinces, reaching 1.5 million children. Providing children with vitamin A, especially in the context of widespread malnutrition, is also critical to help reduce sickness and death from measles. Vitamin A supplementation was provided to the 8.5 million children (aged 6-59 months) who were reached through a nationwide polio campaign in Afghanistan in November 2021.
WHO is now helping to plan for a larger measles outbreak response immunization campaign, which will start in May (or earlier, if possible), aiming to reach more than 3 million children. Support from WHO includes helping with the process needed to secure additional vaccines and devices, and operational funds and support for planning the campaign.
The best way to protect people – especially children – from measles is for countries to strengthen routine immunization to ensure that at least 95% of their population has received two doses of measles-containing vaccine.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
Aiming to increase access to recommended treatments for COVID-19, WHO today added tocilizumab, a monoclonal antibody, to its list of prequalified treatments for COVID-19. To date, six COVID-19 treatments have been prequalified by WHO, including the three presentations (three vials, each with a different quantity) of the product prequalified today.
The three prequalified products are manufactured by the originator company, Roche, but the listings should pave the way for more companies coming forward to seek WHO prequalification, thereby increasing the number of quality-assured products and creating competition leading to potentially lower prices. The prequalification of these products will also facilitate low- and middle-income countries’ authorization of them as COVID treatments.
Tocilizumab is a monoclonal antibody that inhibits the Interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor. Interleukin-6 induces an inflammatory response and is found in high levels in patients critically ill with COVID-19.
So far, the product has been authorized mostly for the treatment of arthritis in about 120 countries worldwide.
Tocilizumab given intravenously has been shown in clinical studies to reduce death in certain patients with COVID-19 who are severely ill, are rapidly deteriorating and have increasing oxygen needs, and who have a significant inflammatory response. In the largest clinical trial (RECOVERY), tocilizumab also reduced patients’ time in hospital.
WHO recommends tocilizumab only for patients diagnosed with severe or critical COVID-19. It should be administered by a healthcare worker in a monitored clinical setting along with the current standard of care for COVID-19, which includes oxygen, corticosteroids, and other medications.
The patent for tocilizumab has expired for most of its uses, which means there should be no intellectual property barriers for this particular IL-6 blocker. However, there is low global availability of quality-assured biosimilars of the product.
Currently, tocilizumab is expensive and in short supply globally. Originator company prices paid in lower-income markets are high – reportedly around USD 500-600 per single dose. With demand surging, and more manufacturers entering the market, prices could come down.
WHO and partners are currently discussing lower prices and improved access in low- and middle-income countries with the producer, Roche.
WHO Prequalification was born of the need to ensure a supply of quality-assured health products in low- and middle-income countries. It does this by assessing the quality, safety and efficacy of a wide range of health products to prevent, diagnose and treat priority diseases.
Prequalification is a vital service provided for the United Nations and other large procurers of health commodities. For example, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, only purchase health commodities prequalified by WHO. Many countries use the list of WHO prequalified products for their own bulk purchasing of medicines, vaccines, diagnostics and other critical products.
For the complete product list please see: https://extranet.who.int/pqweb/medicines/prequalified-lists/finished-pharmaceutical-products
For further information please visit the WHO Prequalification Unit website at https://extranet.who.int/pqweb
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
Your Excellency Jonas Gahr Støre,
Secretary-General António Guterres,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
Depending on where you live, it might feel like the COVID-19 pandemic is almost over – or it might feel like it’s at its worst.
But wherever you live, COVID isn’t finished with us.
Diseases know no borders, and as we all know from Omicron, any feeling of safety can change in a moment.
We know this virus will continue to evolve.
But we are not defenseless. We have the tools to prevent this disease, to test for it, and to treat it.
Where people have access to those tools, this virus can be brought under control.
Where they don’t, this virus continues to spread, to evolve, and to kill.
The biggest barrier we face to ending the pandemic as a global health emergency is ensuring all people, in every country, have access to those tools.
The ACT Accelerator is vital for this mission.
As outlined in the Financing Framework we are launching today, the ACT Accelerator requires 23 billion US dollars to save lives, address the threat of Omicron and prevent even more dangerous variants emerging.
That includes an urgent financing gap of 16 billion dollars for the ACT Accelerator itself, with the remaining 6.5 billion dollars to be self-financed by middle-income countries, supported by multilateral development banks.
We call on all higher-income countries to play their part in fully funding the ACT Accelerator, and ending the pandemic as a global health emergency.
The Financing Framework sets out ‘fair share’ targets, based on countries’ gross domestic product, income per capita, and other factors.
We are grateful to all donors to the ACT Accelerator, especially those who exceeded their fair-share contribution.
The funds we need are significant, but significantly less than the monthly economic costs of the pandemic.
We have a plan. We have the tools. We have hope.
Now we need the resources to execute the plan everywhere, make the tools available everywhere, and make hope a reality - everywhere.
I thank you.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.
The Commonwealth Secretariat and the World Health Organization (WHO) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) committing to strengthening their collaboration on a broad range of public health issues of particular concern to Commonwealth member states and governments, such as the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine equity, advancing universal health coverage, and building resilient health systems.
The MoU was signed at a ceremony held at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva by the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, The Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland QC, and the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Commonwealth Secretariat plays an important role in fostering and supporting greater cohesion among member states and governments across a range of policy areas and programmes. In signing the document, the two parties agreed to work together and strengthen the exchange of information on seven priority areas:
Promoting universal health coverage and primary healthcare
Strengthening global health security
Promoting healthy environments
Promoting the health of vulnerable groups
Transforming lifelong learning for health impact
Building a data partnership
Creating space for innovation and exchange of knowledge
This collaboration underscores the Commonwealth Secretariat’s and WHO’s longstanding commitment to ensuring equitable access to quality health services and promoting the health and wellbeing of all people.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, The Rt. Hon. Patricia Scotland QC said:
“Equitable access to vaccines is the world’s most pressing political, economic, social and moral priority. Without effective and prompt action on vaccines, we face a never-ending global health crisis that will reduce all of our wealth and security.
“And the most effective way for the world to tackle this and other challenges that we face, whether COVID-19, climate change or universal health coverage, is by working through multilateral institutions such as the Commonwealth Secretariat and the World Health Organization.
“The Memorandum of Understanding we have signed today demonstrates that both organisations share a vision for cooperation and action on these challenges, and a commitment to creating the conditions for people across the Commonwealth to flourish. It is a pleasure to work with colleagues from the World Health Organization and I hope this agreement will enable us to work more effectively and productively far into the future.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Partnership is essential in ensuring all people can achieve the highest level of health possible. The new agreement between the World Health Organization and the Commonwealth Secretariat reflects the importance of collaboration to promote and protect people’s wellbeing. WHO’s commitment to supporting all Commonwealth countries will be strengthened through our commitment to promoting universal health coverage, global health security and ensuring vulnerable groups receive all support needed to lead healthy lives.”
Advancing efforts to build stronger health systems
The COVID-19 pandemic has put immense pressure on global health systems, especially those of developing countries with weaker health systems, halting progress made over the last 20 years towards attaining health-related Sustainable Development Goals. This has, in turn, put the prevention and treatment of life-threatening diseases, including cancers, diabetes, heart diseases, and malaria at risk. The Commonwealth is disproportionately affected by a number of preventable diseases. The 25 malaria-endemic countries of the Commonwealth account for 56% of the world’s malaria deaths and 54% of the world’s malaria cases. Commonwealth members account for 40% of global cervical cancer incidence and 43% of cervical cancer mortality, despite having only 30% of the world’s population. The Commonwealth and WHO will therefore reinforce cooperation to scale up global efforts to improve health outcomes across the Commonwealth. This partnership will also contribute towards the shared goal of fast-tracking the elimination of malaria and blinding trachoma, and eliminating cervical cancer, as universally endorsed by Commonwealth Heads of Government.
Leave no one behind in the fight against COVID-19
The signing of the MoU takes place in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to pose a significant threat to public health, especially with the spread of new highly contagious variants.
As of 31 January 2022, over 77 million COVID-19 cases have been reported in the Commonwealth, with hundreds of thousands of new cases being reported daily. Furthermore, 42% of Commonwealth citizens are fully vaccinated. The percentage of fully vaccinated people ranges from 23% in African countries of the Commonwealth to 43% in the WHO Region of the Americas and 56% in the WHO Western Pacific Region.
These figures reflect the global trend of high and upper-middle-income countries procuring and administering a significant proportion of the total number of vaccines.
On the occasion, both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring equitable access and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and advancing WHO’s target of vaccinating 70% of the world’s population by July 2022.
The signing ceremony was virtually attended by Ambassadors from Commonwealth member states in Geneva and included interventions from ministers and Ambassadors representing Commonwealth regions, who all welcomed the partnership.
The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal sovereign states. Our combined population is 2.5 billion, of which more than 60 per cent is aged 29 or under. The Commonwealth Secretariat supports member countries to build democratic and inclusive institutions, strengthen governance and promote justice and human rights. Our work helps to grow economies and boost trade, deliver national resilience, empower young people, and address threats such as climate change, debt and inequality.
The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.