Klimawandel ist auch eine Gesundheitskrise und wir schauen noch immer weg

Seit vier Jahren leidet die Bevölkerung in der Ukraine unter dem Konflikt. Die humanitären Bedürfnisse sind enorm. Lars Staring vom Schweizerischen Roten Kreuz (SRK) unterstützt das Ukrainische Rote Kreuz (URK) dabei, mehr finanzielle Mittel für die humanitäre Hilfe vor Ort zu gewinnen. Er arbeitet dafür regelmässig in Kiew. Stromausfälle und Luftalarme gehören zum Alltag. Er erzählt, wie er die Situation vor Ort erlebt.

• Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz

"Im Iran, Israel, dem Libanon und zahlreichen weiteren Ländern der Region kam es zu heftigen Angriffen. Die nationalen Rotkreuz- und Rothalbmond-Gesellschaften stehen im Einsatz. Sie leisten Erste Hilfe und sichern die medizinische Versorgung."

• Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz

"Gerechte Sprache ist für Mission 21 mehr als Stil oder Grammatik: Sprache prägt Wahrnehmung und schafft Wirklichkeit. Sie kann Teilhabe ermöglichen oder Ausgrenzung verstärken. Dieser Leitfaden ist unser praxisnahes Arbeitstool für gendergerechte und inklusive Kommunikation. Er zeigt auf, wie dekoloniale und antirassistische Sprache aussehen kann. Der Leitfaden versteht sich als Einladung, Sprache bewusst und verantwortungsvoll weiterzuentwickeln."

• Mission 21

"Regierungen weltweit kürzen ihre Gelder für die internationale Zusammenarbeit – so auch die Schweiz. Und das, obwohl die Not gross ist: Alle zwei Minuten stirbt irgendwo auf der Welt eine Frau an den Folgen von Schwangerschaft oder Geburt. Die meisten dieser Todesfälle wären vermeidbar – wenn Frauen Zugang zu Gesundheitsdienstleistungen hätten. Zu Hebammen. Notfallversorgung. Pränataler Betreuung. Grundlagen, die in vielen Ländern selbstverständlich sind – und in anderen tödlich fehlen. Doch dieses Ungleichgewicht ist kein Schicksal. Es ist eine politische Entscheidung. Darum hat Women’s Hope International einen Appell für sichere Geburten lanciert: Setze auch du ein Zeichen: Keine Frau sollte sterben, während sie Leben gibt"

• Women's Hope International

"Liebe Freund:innen des Albert Schweitzer Spitals Haiti (HAS) Am 26. Juni feiert das Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti seinen 70. Geburtstag. Seit 1956 ist das Spital für die mittlerweile 450 000 Einwohner:innen des Artibonite Tals ununterbrochen in Betrieb. Wäre es auch ohne die Freundschaft des Gründungspaares William Larimer (Larry) und Gwen Grant Mellon mit Albert Schweitzer so weit gekommen? Wir wissen es nicht. Unstrittig ist eine tiefe geistige Verbundenheit der Dreien."

• Schweizer Partnerschaft HAS Haiti (SPASH)
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With the aim of preparing themselves thoroughly for work in international cooperation, Domenic and Jutta Ganzoni completed the CAS in International Cooperation and Global Health at Swiss TPH as a couple. Today, they reflect on their experiences – from the Swiss mountains to projects in Kenya and the Philippines.

• Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

Urban health leaders sometimes face a false choice: expand treatment access or invest in prevention. We tested what actually happens when you integrate both strategies – using São Paulo's health system data. "Together with our partners, we used simulation modelling to assess the impact of integrated intervention strategies on hypertension control and cardiovascular outcomes."

• Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

"Mental health care in Peru has long been concentrated in urban areas, leaving rural populations with limited access to support. Recent reforms are changing this by bringing services closer to communities. Swiss TPH and partners explored how these reforms are being implemented in three rural provinces in northern Peru. Drawing on interviews with service users, health workers, and community members, the study shows that having care nearby can make a real difference – helping more people seek support and stay in treatment"

• Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

"Seit April 2023 erschüttert der Konflikt im Sudan das Leben von Millionen Menschen. Familien müssen fliehen, die Versorgung bricht zusammen und die humanitäre Not wächst stetig. Das Schweizerische Rote Kreuz (SRK) steht an der Seite des Sudanesischen Roten Halbmonds im Einsatz. Sonia de la Cruz, SRK-Delegierte vor Ort, berichtet über ihre Arbeit inmitten von Leid und Not."

• Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz

"«Das bin ich auf dem Arm meiner Grossmutter Lydia!» Sacha zeigt auf ein Foto auf dem Tisch im Büro des Schweizerischen Roten Kreuzes (SRK) in Wabern bei Bern. Die 20-Jährige besucht zusammen mit ihrer Mutter Natalya Girard die Leiterin des Suchdienstes SRK, Nicole Windlin. Mutter und Tochter sind da, um dem Suchdienst SRK für seine Arbeit zu danken."

• Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz

"The World Health Organization (WHO) has only mobilised 37% of the funds it needs for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) amid a “deteriorating health situation”, regional director Dr Hanan Balkhy told a media briefing on Wednesday. Welcoming the two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States-Israel, Balkhy called for the “permanent cessation of hostilities”, warning that the damage from the regional wars would take generations to address. She also called for the ceasefire to apply to Lebanon, which Israel claims is not covered."

• Health Policy Watch

"On World Health Day, global leaders gathered in France for a milestone “One Health Summit”, where the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners announced a new wave of concrete actions to better protect people, animals and the planet from future health crises."

• World Health Organization

"The gas that keeps hospital MRI scanners running has been caught in the crossfire of the war in Iran, raising the prospect of diagnostic delays, rising costs and rationing of one of modern medicine’s most important imaging tools. Roughly a quarter of all helium consumed worldwide goes toward cooling the superconducting magnets inside MRI scanners. While helium is the second most abundant element in the universe, on Earth, it is found only in trace quantities within certain natural gas deposits. It cannot be synthesised and requires highly advanced equipment to transport, making its supply chain so shaky that the global current helium shortage is the fifth in the past two decades."

• Health Policy Watch

"The death of a child has profound and lasting emotional consequences for families, underscoring the importance of improving survival for children with cancer. According to the CONCORD-4 study, published in The Lancet, many countries are on track not just to achieve, but to surpass, the 2018 WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer target of 60% survival at 5 years for all childhood cancers by 2030. Yet this achievement masks data gaps and deep disparities in cancer care worldwide, with children in the poorest countries likely to face far lower survival rates."

• The Lancet Global Health

"The World Health Organization (WHO) has convened the historic first Global Forum of Collaborating Centres—one of the world’s largest and most diverse public health networks—bringing together representatives from over 800 institutions designated as WHO Collaborating Centres (CCs) across more than 80 countries."

• World Health Organization

"OECD data reveals a record drop in aid led by the United States, slashing core development funding and raising fears of deepening instability across the global south."

• devex

"Countries are being “held hostage” by their reliance on fossil fuels, a former UN climate chief has warned, describing the health impacts of climate change as “the mother of all injustices”."

• The Guardian

"Opinion: The COVID-19 pandemic revealed less about Africa’s dependence on imported medicines and more about the constraints of poor incentive structures and private manufacturers’ behavior."

• devex

"The European Commission announced that it will contribute €700 million to the next funding cycle of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at the G7 One Health Summit in Lyon on Tuesday."

• Health Policy Watch

"Historic declines in Official Development Assistance (ODA) have set international aid back a decade, prompting civil society warnings that the ODA cuts will further devastate funding for global health, education and social protection."

• Health Policy Watch

"US President Donald Trump wants to eliminate $4.3 billion from the US government’s global health budget, including all funding for the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional organisation for the Americas."

• Health Policy Watch

"After three years of war, Sudan now accounts for the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 34 million people needing aid, 21 million lacking health services, and repeated attacks crippling a medical system already weakened by disease and hunger."

• World Health Organization

"Opinion: The U.S. has been the backbone of the global health workforce for decades. But without a clear strategy — and with looming funding cuts — that support risks unraveling. What’s at stake goes far beyond aid."

• devex

"Data assessed from 17 clinical trials of anti-amyloid drugs found no ‘meaningful effect’ on cognitive decline Drugs that have been hailed as a gamechanger for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease make no noticeable difference to patients, according to an extensive review."

• The Guardian

"Amid plummeting donor contributions, particularly from the US, the UN’s aid office announced a reform plan aimed at making the sector more efficient while hyperprioritising assistance and shifting leadership more to local NGOs. A year later, aid experts question if the plan has lost its way."

• Geneva Solutions

"n the frantic days after the Trump administration began dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, Nicholas Enrich was instructed to fly to Kenya and somehow gain access to 27,000 sets of personal protective equipment stored in a World Health Organization warehouse. By this point, the administration had cut ties with WHO. Enrich, who briefly led USAID’s global health bureau after 58 other officials were put on leave, had 12 hours to get there from Washington, D.C., and then get the PPE across the border to Uganda, which was in the midst of an Ebola outbreak."

• devex

"Lack of access to clean cooking fuel and technologies has extensive impacts on health, environment, economy, and women’s equality, say experts at the World Bank Group Spring Meeting."

• Health Policy Watch

"Smaller pharmaceutical companies and those outside countries with trade deals with the US will bear the brunt of President Donald Trump’s 100% tariff on imported patented pharmaceuticals and their active ingredients announced last week." The tariff will be imposed on large companies 120 days from the announcement, and in 180 days for smaller ones."

• Health Policy Watch

"Countries should invest in citizens’ mental health the same way they invest in economic infrastructure, experts said on a panel during the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings."

• devex

"The majority of the countries with the biggest cuts are also transitioning out of Global Fund support in the coming years, which would mean the fund’s resources will be more focused on the lowest-income countries in the future."

• devex

"The world’s darkest ongoing war – defined by sexual violence, extermination, famine and genocide – enters its fourth year today. With no end in sight, tens of millions of Sudanese people are facing a historic humanitarian crisis of “industrial proportions,” according to the United Nations (UN)."

• Health Policy Watch

"Der Einfluss des Irankriegs auf die globale Gesundheit? Groß! Der Ursprung von Corona? Unklar. Der Austritt der USA? Eine Chance. WHO-Chef Ghebreyesus im Interview"

• Die Zeit

"Less than 0.1% of all philanthropic funding has gone to the fight for clean air. Yet globally, nearly eight million deaths are attributed to the particles and gases that pollute the air – making air pollution the second biggest risk factor for premature death after high blood pressure"

• Health Policy Watch

"The huge push to reach children who missed vaccinations during COVID-19 has largely paid off, reaching 18.3 million children – but plummeting aid and misinformation threaten future childhood immunisations."

• Health Policy Watch

"At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, oxygen became one of the clearest symbols of global health inequity. Hospitals ran out. Families scrambled. Patients suffocated. Billions of dollars later, oxygen plants, concentrators, and cylinders have been deployed across low- and middle-income countries. But the crisis did not end. In many places, oxygen still does not reach the patients who need it."

• devex

"Yet another negotiating session on the outstanding annex of the Pandemic Agreement begins at the World Health Organization’s (WHO) headquarters on Monday (27 April) – and developed nations have presented a “hybrid” solution in an attempt to find consensus."

• Health Policy Watch

"Member states gathered in Geneva this week to negotiate a key addition to the Pandemic Agreement ahead of the World Health Assembly next month. Major obstacles remain, but a positive outcome would help the world better prepare for future pandemics."

• Geneva Solutions

"Colombia has appealed for a new “method” to settle the outstanding annex of the Pandemic Agreement, after World Health Organization (WHO) member states failed to reach agreement last week after almost a year of talks."

• Health Policy Watch

"Resistance to a key drug used to treat malaria in Africa is spreading. Experts warn action is now urgent and any delay will cost lives and create economic misery. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) is the main first-line malaria treatment used in Africa and the best available option, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). "

• Health Policy Watch

"Climate change is increasingly recognized as a major global public health challenge, affecting both human and planetary health as well as the functioning of health systems. Its impacts, from heat-related mortality and infectious diseases to food insecurity and mental health challenges, are wide-ranging and disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. This update explores the climate-health nexus, highlights global initiatives, and examines the role of International Geneva in advancing evidence- and human rights-based responses."

• Geneva Environment Network

"Each year, hundreds of thousands of women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth that are well understood and largely preventable. Most of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, with sub-Saharan Africa carrying the greatest burden. At the same time, millions of families continue to face financial barriers to essential health services, with out-of-pocket costs still accounting for a significant share of health spending."

• Health Policy Watch

"Although the World Health Organization (WHO) recognises comprehensive abortion care as an essential health service, countries all over the world are tightening access, inspired by the United States. But all this means is worse outcomes for women’s health"

• Health Policy Watch

"At a time when information is proliferating with immense speed, finding evidence-based, trustworthy content is a challenge. ChatHRP is a new AI-assisted tool launched for beta-testing to help policy-makers, experts and health workers find sexual and reproductive health and rights facts fast."

• World Health Organization

"Ahead of World Malaria Day on 25 April, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a significant step forward in the fight against malaria with the prequalification of the first treatment developed specifically for newborns and young infants weighing between two and five kilograms. The prequalification designation indicates that the medicine meets international standards of quality, safety and efficacy, and will help to expand access to quality-assured treatment for one of the most underserved patient groups."

• World Health Organization

"Le baromètre annuel en matière de cybersanté montre que les patients et les professionnels sont globalement favorables à la numérisation. Ils veulent toutefois qu’elle soit sécurisée et utile"

• Le Temps

"Gesundheitsinformationssysteme sind der Schlüssel zu gut funktionierenden Gesundheitssystemen. Aus diesem Grund hat die WHO gerade eine neue Datenbank ins Leben gerufen, die politische Entscheidungsträger, Experten und die Öffentlichkeit in den Ländern der gesamten Europäischen Region der WHO dabei unterstützen soll, ihre Gesundheitsinformationssysteme und die Datenverwaltung besser zu verstehen und zu verbessern. Die Datenbank vereint fast 70 Indikatoren und bietet einen klaren, leicht zugänglichen Überblick darüber, wie Länder Gesundheitsdaten erheben, verwalten und nutzen."

• World Health Organization