Health Policy Watch - Global health news reporting

WEBINAR | Monica Longwe is a leading expert in social and behavior change communication across HIV, TB and SRH.

📢Join the conversation
🔍NEW IDEAS, REAL IMPACT: HOW WOMEN ARE CHANGING SA'S TB STORY
⏰3:00 PM SAST
📅7 August 2025

REGISTER AT: bit.ly/4lWOinK

@ghs.bsky.social @bhekisisa.org

As South Africa marks Women’s Month this August, we recognize the leadership of women at the forefront of TB research, care, & advocacy.

📣 WEBINAR
🔍 NEW IDEAS, REAL IMPACT: HOW WOMEN ARE CHANGING SA'S TB STORY
📅 7 Aug 2025
⏰ 3:00 PM SAST

Register at: bit.ly/4lWOinK
@ghs.bsky.social @bhekisisa.org

Call For Global Strategy To Counter 'Vaccine Misinformation From US' - Health Policy Watch A clear global strategy is needed to “counter vaccine misinformation from the United States” (US),  Heidi Larson and Simon Piatek write in The Lancet this week.

Call for Global Strategy to Counter ‘#Vaccine Misinformation from US’

“The world cannot afford another crisis in which lives are lost not for lack of vaccines, but for lack of truth."
@profheidilarson.bsky.social @lshtm.bsky.social

@panaction.bsky.social | @thelancet.com | @gavi.org

​​Oral Health Left Out Again? Why The UN’s NCD Declaration Must Not Repeat Past Mistakes - Health Policy Watch Amid protests over the weakening of the political declaration for the UN High Level Meeting on NCDs, one huge issue was omitted from the start: oral health.

Oral Health Left Out Again? Why the @unhcr.org’s #NCD Declaration Must Not Repeat Past Mistakes

INSIDE VIEW: Dr. Habib Benzian

The zero draft, released around WHA25, omits oral health entirely. This silence has raised concern among advocates, stakeholders, and Member States.

@thelancet.com

As South Africa marks Women’s Month this August, we recognize the leadership of women at the forefront of TB research, care, & advocacy.

📣 WEBINAR
🔍 NEW IDEAS, REAL IMPACT: HOW WOMEN ARE CHANGING SA'S TB STORY
📅 7 Aug 2025
⏰ 3:00 PM SAST

Register at: bit.ly/4lWOinK
@ghs.bsky.social @bhekisisa.org

Grassroots Groups In Uganda Keep GBV Services Going Despite Aid Cuts - Health Policy Watch The small clinic in northern Uganda’s Obongi District sits at the end of a dusty road, its tin roof catching the morning sun. Inside, two volunteer health

Grassroots Groups in Uganda Keep GBV Services Going Despite Aid Cuts

“With nothing else coming in, we are becoming the solution,” said a 19-year-old refugee.

✍️ Nanfuka Fatuma

@newhumanitarian.bsky.social
healthpolicy-watch.news/grassroots-g...

Health Organizations Must Cut Ties With Fossil-Fueled Public Relations And Advertising Firms - Health Policy Watch As health actors meet this week in Brasilia to refine a Health Action Plan for COP30, ending relationships with PR firms that engage with fossil fuel

Health Organizations Must Cut Ties with Fossil-Fueled Public Relations and Advertising Firms

INSIDE VIEW: Dr. Jemilah Mahmood & Edward Maibach

🧨Join the Break the Fossil Influence initiative.

@influencemap.bsky.social @cleancreatives.bsky.social @gchalliance.bsky.social @mason4c.bsky.social

Join the conversation to celebrate, learn from, and amplify the voices of women transforming TB research, policy, and community engagement.

📢WEBINAR
🔍NEW IDEAS, REAL IMPACT: HOW WOMEN ARE CHANGING SA'S TB STORY
📅7 Aug 2025
⏰3:00 PM SAST

Register at: bit.ly/4lWOinK

@ghs.bsky.social @bhekisisa.org

Addressing Alzheimer's: Speech And Smell Tests May Help To Detect Cognitive Decline - Health Policy Watch DAC supports an innovation ecosystem to accelerate healthcare solutions to end Alzheimer's disease globally, and DAC-supported projects in Kenya, India, Egypt

Addressing #Alzheimer’s: Speech and Smell Tests May Help to Detect Cognitive Decline

Better screening tests are essential, as an estimated three-quarters of people with Alzheimer’s are never diagnosed.

✍️ @kerrycullinan.bsky.social
@alzassociation.bsky.social
#AAIC25 #BrainHealth #DementiaResearch

Health Taxes Offer Solution To Africa’s ‘Burning Platform’ Of NCDs - Health Policy Watch Taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugary drinks offer African countries the opportunity to regain their “sovereignty” in response to the collapse of donor

Health Taxes Offer Solution to Africa’s ‘Burning Platform’ of NCDs - @vitalstrategies.org

“Low & middle-income countries are at risk of losing up to $21 trillion by 2030 if no action is taken on the prevention & control of NCDs,” Dr. Mary-Ann Etiebet.

✍️ @kerrycullinan.bsky.social

Governments ‘Backslide’ On NCD Commitments After Pressure From Unhealthy Industries - Health Policy Watch Governments have weakened their commitment to addressing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) after pressure from “big tobacco, alcohol, junk food, and fossil

Governments weaken commitment to addressing non-communicable diseases after pressure from “big #tobacco, #alcohol, junk food, and fossil fuels”, ahead of the @unhcr.org #HLM4 meeting in September 2025.

✍️ @kerrycullinan.bsky.social
@vitalstrategies.org @wepublichealth.bsky.social @who.int

Hunger Declines Globally, But Rises In Africa - Health Policy Watch The proportion of the world’s population suffering acute hunger declined globally in 2024 to about 673 million people, but continued to rise in most African

Hunger Declines Globally, but Rises in Africa

"Tonight, more than 670 million people will go hungry," @aminamohamed.bsky.social

Latest report on hunger released by the @unhcr.org. ⬇️

@ifad.org @unicef.org @wfp.org

Exposure To Leaded Fuel Affects Memory Loss Of Older Americans - Health Policy Watch Americans are about 20% more likely to experience memory problems if they lived in areas with high levels of atmospheric lead, according to a study of over

Exposure to Leaded Fuel Affects Memory Loss of Older Americans

Research suggests half of the US population – more than 170 million people – were exposed to high lead levels in early childhood.

✍️ @kerrycullinan.bsky.social
@alzassociation.bsky.social @jama.com @topublichealth.bsky.social #AAIC25

The Accelerating Health Impacts of Heat: UK Climate and Health Summit Highlights Trends Ahead of #COP30

“No significant climate and clean air investments have been made in the least developed economies.” Sean Maquire with @cleanairfund.bsky.social.

@wellcometrust.bsky.social

📖⬇️ bit.ly/4l85gye

The Accelerating Health Impacts Of Heat: UK Climate And Health Summit Highlights Trends Ahead Of COP30 - Health Policy Watch "Physiology includes the study of the body's responses to external challenges such as heat, cold, flooding, fire, pollution, starvation and dehydration,

The Accelerating Health Impacts of Heat: UK Climate and Health Summit Highlights Trends Ahead of #COP30

@wellcometrust.bsky.social @jarottingen.bsky.social @itsbecksmith.bsky.social @zoemolyneux.bsky.social @cleanairfund.bsky.social @thelancet.com @greenclimate.fund

US Drafts Plan To Change PEPFAR's Focus From HIV To Diseases That Could Threaten Americans - Health Policy Watch US State Department officials are developing a plan to transform the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) from an entity that tackles HIV to

US Drafts Plan to Change PEPFAR's Focus From HIV to Diseases that Could Threaten Americans

"Plus the creation of new markets for American drugs and technologies,” @nytimes.com.

✍🏻 @kerrycullinan.bsky.social
@usstatedept.bsky.social @unaids.org @cdcgov.govmirrors.com

Smoke Signals From The Plastics Treaty: Why Geneva Negotiations Can't Ignore Health Governance - Health Policy Watch As negotiators prepare to meet in Geneva, 5-14 August in yet another attempt to finalize the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty addressing a pollution

Smoke Signals from the Plastics Treaty: Why Geneva Negotiations Can’t Ignore Health Governance

INSIDE VIEW: Deborah Sy

@ashorguk.bsky.social @stopcorpabuse.bsky.social @breakfreefromplastic.org @ciel.org @fctc-kh-fiocruz.bsky.social @whofctc.bsky.social @ggtc.bsky.social

States Have A Duty To Prevent Significant Harm From Climate Change, ICJ Rules - Health Policy Watch The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled on Wednesday that states have a duty to prevent significant harm to the environment from climate change in a

States Have a Duty to Prevent Significant Harm from Climate Change, ICJ Rules

"The message is clear: the polluters must pay,” - @harjeet11.bsky.social @satatsampada.bsky.social

✍🏽Disha Shetty
@icjp.bsky.social |@gchalliance.bsky.social | @unpga.bsky.social | @jenimiller.bsky.social | @who.int

Bloomberg Calls For RFK To Be ‘Brought To Heel Or Sent Packing’ - Health Policy Watch United States (US) Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr should promote public confidence in vaccines or be fired, according to Mike

Bloomberg Calls for RFK to be ‘Brought to Heel or Sent Packing’

“Secretary Kennedy, who has no training in medicine or health, has long been the nation’s foremost peddler of junk science.” - Amb. Mike Bloomberg

✍️ @kerrycullinan.bsky.social
@cdcgov.govmirrors.com @seckennedy.govpeeps.us