Page 16 - Who

Cough syrup deaths: Centre, UP team inspect pharma firm's Noida unit

Cough syrup maker linked to Uzbekistan deaths halts production; samples of Dok-1 Max sent for analysis

Hetero's Covid drug Nirmacom (generic Paxlovid) gets WHO prequalification

Hetero, a city-based leading pharmaceutical company on Monday announced the receipt of World Health Organisation Prequalification of Medicines Programme (WHO PQ) approval for its generic version of COVID-19 oral anti-viral treatment candidate Nirmatrelvir. A press release from the drug maker said it is the first prequalification for a generic version of Pfizer's COVID-19 oral anti-viral drug 'Paxlovid,' which the WHO called, the best therapeutic choice for high-risk patients to date. WHO made a strong recommendation for Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir for mild and moderate COVID-19 patients at highest risk of hospital admission, such as unvaccinated, aged or immunosuppressed patients, it said. The combi pack, launched by Hetero as Nirmacom, will contain Nirmatrelvir 150 mg (2 tablets) and Ritonavir 100mg (1 tablet). It is available by prescription only and should be initiated as soon as possible after diagnosis of COVID-19 and within five days of symptom onset. Nirmacom will be ...

Nepal blacklists 16 Indian pharma companies, including Ramdev's Pharmacy

Nepal's drug regulatory authority has blacklisted 16 Indian pharmaceutical companies, including Divya Pharmacy which manufactures Yoga Guru Ramdev's Patanjali products, stating that they failed to comply with the World Health Organisation's (WHO) drug manufacturing standards. The Department of Drug Administration, in a notice issued on December 18 asked the local agents in Nepal, which have been supplying these medicines, to immediately recall them. According to the notice issued by the Department, the medicines manufactured by the listed companies cannot be imported or distributed in Nepal. The list of the companies that do not comply with WHO standards were published after inspection of the manufacturing facilities of the pharmaceutical companies that had applied to export their products to Nepal, according to the Department officials. In April and July, the Department sent a team of drug inspectors to India to inspect the manufacturing facilities of pharmaceutical companies that

Maiden Pharma seeks to reopen Sonipat plant after DCGI clearance

Health ministry sources say no immediate plan to allow plant to re-open, it was closed for non-compliance with GMP, not for contamination issues

WHO stands by action of issuing alert against Maiden Pharma cough syrup

Asserts that testing done in labs in Ghana and Switzerland confirmed excess levels of contaminated syrups that are "dangerous and should not be in any medicine, ever"

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WHO chief asks China to share data for identifying origins of Covid-19

World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday called on China to share the requested data concerning Covid-19 in a bid to understand the origins of the virus

WHO backs plan to turn Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal into a 'healthy city'

Madhya Pradesh's capital Bhopal is called the 'city of lakes', for which, the World Health Organization (WHO) has started preparations to make it a 'healthy city'.

WHO concerned over increasing antibiotic resistance in human infections

Countries with lower rates of testing, mostly low- and middle-income countries, are more likely to report significantly higher AMR rates

Covid burden falls in Africa but vigilance crucial in year-end season: WHO

Although the level of COVID-19 infections across the African continent is at its lowest since the start of the pandemic two years ago, a recent four-week sustained increase calls for maintaining vigilance as the year-end holiday season sets in, the World Health Organization's Africa director has said. Despite the recent uptick, there is hope that Africa will be spared the challenges of the previous two years, when surging cases and deaths withered normal life and caused deep devastation. While the current trends keep the pandemic under control, we are carefully monitoring its evolution, said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa at an online media briefing Thursday. The investments made in the COVID-19 fight over the last three years were paying off, with the region better able to cope with the virus and its health emergency response systems bolstered, he said. We must remain vigilant, continue to increase vaccination coverage and be ready to adopt more stringent ..

Global tally of malaria cases, deaths remained stable in 2021, says WHO

The global number of malaria cases and deaths generally remained stable in 2021, thanks to redoubled efforts by affected countries, the WHO said

As Covid-19 becomes routine, African countries prepare for next crisis

Building on the experience of battling the COVID-19 pandemic, African countries are strengthening health systems to prepare for the next health crisis, the World Health Organization's Africa director said Thursday. At the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, some of the 54 countries in the continent of 1.3 billion people lacked the facilities or trained health workers to respond adequately to the health crisis, with some struggling to provide hospital isolation wards and intensive care units, Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization's Africa regional director, said at an online briefing Thursday. However, over the course of three years, African countries have ramped up investments in health infrastructure in the race against the pandemic with support from global donors, she said. The future, however difficult the past couple of years have been, will find us in a much better situation in terms of our strategies, our investments and our capacities to confront public health ...

WHO 'pleased' to see China ease harsh zero Covid-19 restrictions

A top official at the World Health Organisation said the UN agency was pleased to see China loosening some of its coronavirus restrictions, saying it's really important that governments listen to their people when the people are in pain. At a press briefing on Friday, WHO emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said the organisation was glad to see China adjusting their current strategies in trying to recalibrate their response to COVID-19. Last week, huge protests against the severe COVID-19 restrictions in China erupted in numerous cities, in the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist party in decades. We've all had to deal with restrictions of movement, we've all had to deal with having our lives changed and frankly, it's exhausting, Ryan said. The WHO has previously described China's zero-COVID strategy as not sustainable, saying that the super-infectious omicron variant made trying to stop every single case of COVID impossible. Ryan said using imported messenger RNA

WHO renames monkeypox as mpox, citing racism, discrimination concerns

The World Health Organisation has renamed monkeypox as mpox, citing concerns the original name of the decades-old animal disease could be construed as discriminatory and racist. The UN health agency said in a statement Monday that mpox was its new preferred name for monkeypox, saying that both monkeypox and mpox would be used for the next year while the old name is phased out. WHO said it was concerned by the racist and stigmatising language that arose after monkeypox spread to more than 100 countries. It said numerous individuals and countries asked the organisation to propose a way forward to change the name. In August, WHO began consulting experts about renaming the disease, shortly after the UN agency declared monkeypox's spread to be a global emergency. To date, there have been more than 80,000 cases identified in dozens of countries that had not previously reported the smallpox-related disease. Until May, monkeypox, a disease that is thought to originate in animals, was not .

A record 40 mn kids missed measles vaccine dose last year: WHO, US CDC

The World Health Organisation and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say measles immunisation has dropped significantly since the coronavirus pandemic began, resulting in a record high of nearly 40 million children missing a vaccine dose last year. In a report issued Wednesday, the WHO and the CDC said millions of children were now susceptible to measles, among the world's most contagious diseases. In 2021, officials said there were about 9 million measles infections and 128,000 deaths worldwide. The WHO and CDC said continued drops in vaccination, weak disease surveillance and delayed response plans due to COVID-19, in addition to ongoing outbreaks in more than 20 countries, mean that measles is an imminent threat in every region of the world. Scientists estimate that at least 95% of a population needs to be immunised to protect against epidemics; the WHO and the CDC reported that only about 81% of children receive their first dose of measles vaccine while 71% get

PM Narendra Modi meets WHO chief, IMF head during G20 summit at Bali

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali and said that India is committed towards ensuring a healthy planet.

Over 1.5 mn people had missed or delayed TB diagnosis in 2020: Study

Over 1.5 million people in 45 high-burden countries, including India, are estimated to have had a missed or delayed tuberculosis diagnosis in 2020 due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study. The research, published in the journal BMC Medicine, shows that children may be disproportionately affected in over half of countries analysed, those aged 65 or over in more than two thirds of countries, with sex being a risk factor in almost half of countries. The team, including researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK, noted that vulnerable populations in high-burden countries worldwide must be prioritised in efforts to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tuberculosis (TB) care. "Our results show that in many countries those who already faced the most difficulty in obtaining TB diagnosis and care have suffered worsening access as a result of the pandemic," said study joint lead author Finn McQuaid, from ...

WHO reports nearly 90% drop in Covid deaths globally since February

The World Health Organisation chief on Wednesday said a nearly 90% drop in recent COVID-19 deaths globally compared to nine months ago provides cause for optimism, but still urged vigilance against the pandemic as variants continue to crop up. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that last week just over 9,400 deaths linked to the coronavirus were reported to the WHO. In February of this year, he said, weekly deaths had topped 75,000 globally. We have come a long way, and this is definitely cause for optimism. But we continue to call on all governments, communities and individuals to remain vigilant, he said at a virtual news conference from the WHO's Geneva headquarters. Almost 10,000 deaths a week is 10,000 too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated. The WHO chief said testing and sequencing rates remain low globally, vaccination gaps between rich and poor countries are still wide, and new variants continue to proliferate. The U.N. health agency said th

Role of Maiden Pharma cough syrups in Gambia kids' deaths not confirmed

Indian Health ministry sources say the Haryana-based drug maker is currently being probed for lapses in good manufacturing practices

Tuberculosis cases surged for the first time in many years, says WHO

An estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis in 2021, an increase of 4.5 from 2020, and 1.6 million people died from TB, according to the World Health Organization's 2022 report