Die Welt in der Krise - Klimawandel, Pandemie und Krieg

800'000 Menschen sind im Norden von Mosambik auf der Flucht vor islamistischen Rebellen. SolidarMed Geschäftsleiter Jochen Ehmer hat die Lager besucht und berichtet direkt vor Ort.

• Youtube - Videobotschaft

"Nach Anzeichen einer Beruhigung kam es in den letzten Tagen erneut zu mehreren gewalttätigen Ausschreitungen in der Provinz Cabo Delgado in Mosambik. Barbara Kruspan, Landeskoordinatorin in Mosambik, beschreibt die dramatische Situation und wie SolidarMed vor Ort unterstützt. - Barbara, beschreibst du uns die aktuelle Situation in Cabo Delgado?"

• SolidarMed

"Im Süden von Äthiopien verschlimmert sich die Dürre. Das Schweizerische Rote Kreuz (SRK) leistet Nothilfe für rund 6000 Menschen in der Region Moyale. Sie erhalten unbürokratische Bargeld-Hilfe, um sechs Monate zu überstehen. Gemeinsam mit dem Äthiopischen Roten Kreuz realisiert das SRK weitere Aktivitäten wie die Beseitigung von Tierkadavern."

• Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz

"Die Unterbringung und Versorgung der Binnenflüchtlinge in der Ukraine gelingt dank der Unterstützung von Partnern der Internationalen Rotkreuz- und Halbmondbewegung. Ein Team des Schweizerischen Roten Kreuzes (SRK) ist in Iwano-Frankiwsk und im benachbarten Ternopil im Einsatz. Geflüchtete und Rotkreuz-Mitarbeitende berichten von ihren Erfahrungen."

• Schweizerisches Kreuz

"In der bisher längsten und schlimmsten Dürre in Afrika kämpfen Millionen Menschen ums Überleben. Unter ihnen viele Menschen mit Behinderungen. Der Ukraine-Krieg hat die Lage zusätzlich verschärft. Die CBM leistet Nothilfe. Bereits das vierte Mal in Folge ist die Regenzeit am Horn von Afrika und im Süden Madagaskars ausgefallen. Es herrscht die schlimmste Dürre seit mehr als vierzig Jahren. Auch in der Sahelzone hat die Dürre vielen Menschen die Lebensgrundlage entrissen. Die Lage in vielen Ländern Subsahara-Afrikas ist schlicht katastrophal."

• Christoffel Blindenmission - CBM Swiss

"Kuba führt keinen Krieg, und es bedroht auch niemanden. Auf Kuba gibt es keine Oligarchen. Dennoch wird es seit 60 Jahren seitens der USA mit einer totalen Handels-, Wirtschafts- und Finanzblockade belegt. Dokumentation eines schändlichen Kniefalls: Diese für Kuba verheerende Blockadepolitik findet auf Druck der USA seit Jahren auch extraterritoriale Anwendung – der sich auch die Schweizer Banken in vorauseilendem Kniefall unterwerfen. Und die Politik sieht taten los zu!"

• mediCuba Suisse
• Bulletin Nr. 77, Juli 2022: Erfreuliches aus dem Kinderspital Borrás-Marfán

"Digital tools are critical to improve the care for sick children, particularly in resource-constrained settings. In a new study, Swiss TPH and partners were able to show the positive impact of a digital clinical decision support system on improving the management of childhood illness in primary care in Nigeria. The findings, published in BMJ Open, support the use of digital tools for health systems strengthening on a broader scale."

• Swiss TPH

"Seit diesem Jahr arbeitet Fatoumata Sangaré als Projektverantwortliche Mali in Bamako. Im Gespräch mit Serena O. Dankwa gibt Fatoumata Einblick in ihren Lebensweg, ihre Überzeugungen und ihre Motivation, sich für die sexuelle und reproduktive Gesundheit und Rechte der Frauen und Mädchen einzusetzen. Du engagierst dich seit vielen Jahren für Frauenrechte. Wie hat dieser Kampf gegen die Ungleichheit der Geschlechter bei dir begonnen?"

• IAMANEH Schweiz

"Wem erzähle ich, dass ich HIV-positiv bin? Das ist wohl eine der ersten Fragen, die sich eine Person stellt, die gerade ihre Diagnose erhalten hat. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Krankheiten gibt man eine HIV-Diagnose nicht leichtfertig preis, und es ist besonders wichtig, dass der Datenschutz für Menschen mit HIV greift. Auch heute noch verzeichnen wir als Diskriminierungsmeldestelle bei der Aids-Hilfe Schweiz jedes Jahr zahlreiche Verletzungen des Datenschutzes. Angehörige erzählen es weiter – mitunter auch ohne böse Absicht, die Information macht am Arbeitsplatz die Runde, oder sie wird im Gesundheitswesen über eine Krankenakte weitergegeben."

• Aids-Hilfe Schweiz

"Migrierte Menschen aus Hochprävalenzländern werden informiert und motiviert, sich bei Risikoverhalten kostenlos auf HIV zu testen. In der diesjährigen Kampagne von August bis Dezember 2022 werden insbesondere migrierte Menschen aus Hochprävalenzländern der Subsahara, Brasilien und Thailand angesprochen. Ende Juli sind Plakate und Flyer in 10 Sprachen auf dem Shop verfügbar. Infos und Teststellen finden sich auf get-tested.ch."

• Aids-Hilfe Schweiz

"Gratis Verhütungsmittel, ganzheitliche Sexualaufklärung für alle und eine verbesserte Gesundheits-Statistik für alle Geschlechter fordert SEXUELLE GESUNDHEIT SCHWEIZ (SGCH) in ihrem Alternativbericht an den UN-Menschenrechtsrat. Dieser Bericht hat SGCH zusammen mit der «Sexual Rights Initiative» im Rahmen der allgemeinen Menschenrechtsüberprüfung (Universal Periodic Review) eingereicht."

• SEXUELLE GESUNDHEIT SCHWEIZ
• Universal Periodic Review of Switzerland

"If you followed the recently concluded AIDS 2022 Conference in Montreal, you will have heard several complaints about how, once again, visa issues forced many registered participants to miss out on a forum where decisions were to be made about a condition that disproportionately affects them in the first place, and their countries. This is not a new problem. We have known for a long time that the current educational model of knowledge production and dissemination in global health not only stifles equity, but also actively entrenches the imbalances created by supremacist and colonial origins."

• International Health Policy Newsletter

"MONTREAL – Activists took over the stage at the opening of the International AIDS conference in Montreal on Friday morning to protest Canada’s denial of visas to hundreds of delegates, primarily from Africa, and the inequality and lack of funding that is driving new HIV infections. South African activist Vuyiseka Dubula, former head of the Treatment Action Campaign, told the conference that activists needed to speak on behalf of those who were denied access to the conference: “TB [HIV co-]infections are increasing. Our governments do very little to address the opportunistic infection cryptococcal meningitis. Young women are used in clinical trials to test [HIV] products but when these products are ready, they are not accessible,” said Dubula, as the crowd chanted “Another minute, another death, AIDS is not over.”

• Health Policy Watch

"MONTREAL/GENEVA, 30 July 2022—Global AIDS leaders have joined forces in issuing a strong warning that derailing of progress to end AIDS is putting millions of people in danger. They came together to launch UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2022, ahead of the opening of the 24th International AIDS Conference currently taking place in Montreal, 29 July to 2 August. “The data we are sharing brings painful but vital news,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “The latest findings reveal that the response to the AIDS pandemic has been derailed by global crises, from the colliding pandemics of HIV and COVID, to the war in Ukraine and the resulting global economic crisis. Progress has been stalled, inequalities have widened, resources have shrunk, and millions of lives are now at risk.”

• UNAIDS - Press release
• UNAIDS - Global AIDS Update 2022

"Die weltgrösste Konferenz zu HIV/Aids fand vom 29. Juli bis zum 2. August 2022 in Montréal statt. Die Konferenz verbindet Prävention, Wissenschaft und Community. In unserem Blog berichteten wir live von den wichtigsten Ergebnissen und Einsichten für die Arbeit in der Schweiz."

• BLOG zur Welt-AIDS-Konferenz 2022

"The history of the HIV response is woven into the International AIDS Conferences. Ground-breaking science and political activism at the conferences have uniquely shaped the trajectory of the response. Conferences in Canada have played key roles. (...) Today, AIDS 2022 returns to Montreal and also takes place virtually. But other crises like monkeypox, surging COVID-19 cases and climate change, remind us why now more than ever, we need to re-engage and follow the science. In this episode of HIV unmuted, the award-winning IAS podcast, we take a deep dive into the breaking science being released at AIDS 2022, address important access concerns at the International AIDS Conferences and understand how to translate cutting-edge science into meaningful action."

• HIV unmuted

"Nobel laureates, business leaders, former premiers and celebrities have urged a UK pharmaceutical company to lower the price of its groundbreaking HIV prevention drug and ensure it is not kept “out of reach” of the world’s poor. In a letter signed by dozens of high-profile figures, including Sir Richard Branson, the singer Olly Alexander, the economist Joseph Stiglitz and Helen Clark, the former prime minister of New Zealand, the pharmaceutical company ViiV Healthcare is praised for having developed the first of a new kind of HIV prevention drug. But, the letter says, the “transformative effect” that cabotegravir (CAB-LA), a long-acting injectable, could have on the global Aids pandemic would be restricted to high-income countries unless ViiV lowers the price."

• The Guardian

"Being told her baby, Lesedi, was born without the HIV virus was “probably the happiest news I’ve heard”, says Neo Goitsemang, a street vendor. “The relief, from the guilt and fear, was unmatched.” Lesedi, from Selebi-Phikwe, a mining town in the east of Botswana, was born just months after her 35-year-old mother learned she was HIV positive. “What frightened me the most was the idea of ruining my baby’s life before she was even born, by passing the virus on to her.” According to the World Health Organization, Goitsemang had a 15% to 45% chance of passing the virus on to her daughter."

• The Guardian

"The portal is a joint initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) equipping multiple stakeholders with the necessary evidence and “how to” tools to advance the SRH-UHC integration agenda. The portal heeds the call of the 2019 United Nations High-Level Meeting on UHC, the WHO Human Reproduction Programme’s Governing Body (Policy Coordination Committee), national-level decision-makers, civil society and women, girls and diverse populations to urgently prioritize the integration of SRH in wider UHC strategies and plans."

• World Health Organization (WHO)/ UNFPA

"A key message throughout this document is that progress towards universal access to SRH services depends on the meaningful participation of intended beneficiaries in every aspect of planning, implementation, monitoring and accountability. Listening and responding to the voices of those most left behind is essential and mechanisms to enable participation and voice must be integral to all national efforts. Acting together, everyone concerned with achieving universal access to SRH services through strengthened PHC systems can benefit from the evidence and lessons outlined in this guidance document​."

• World Health Organization

"The fifth annual Global Health 50/50 report, Boards for all?, presents our first-ever analysis of the gender and geography of who governs global health. Through an examination of the demographics of over 2,000 board members of the most influential organisations active in global health, the report warns that global health is not living up to its name. The report further presents its annual review of the equality- and gender-related policies and practices of 200 global organisations. Building on five years of evidence, it finds signs of rapid progress in building more equitable and gender-responsive global health organisations, while also revealing stagnating progress among a large subset of global health organisations. For the first time, the Index categorises all organisations by performance and presents dedicated pages for each organisation to explore and compare findings."

• Global Health 50/50
• 2022 Global Health 50/50 Report

Nicht erst seit der COVID-19 Pandemie wächst das Bewusstsein für die Bedeutung der kommunalen Gesundheitshelfer:innen (Community Health Workers – CHWs), die nicht nur zur Verbesserung der Gesundheit der Bevölkerung beitragen, sondern auch die Umsetzung einer weltweiten flächendeckenden Gesundheitsversorgung (Universal Health Coverage – UHC) beschleunigen können. CHWs sind kein neues Konzept, sie sind in vielen Ländern schon seit langem eine wichtige Stütze der Gesundheitssysteme und für viele oft marginalisierte Bevölkerungsgruppen in abgelegenen Gebieten der einzige Zugang zu einer primären Gesundheitsversorgung. (...) Die Beiträge in diesem Bulletin berichten über die vielfältigen Herausforderungen bezüglich der Anerkennung von CHWs und machen auf ihre weltweit meist rechtlose und prekäre Situation aufmerksam.

• MMS Bulletin

"More than 6 million women worldwide are subsidising health systems with their unpaid or grossly underpaid labour, according to a new report by Women in Global Health (WGH), released on July 7. Most of these women work in low-income and middle-income countries, mainly in community health roles. But the Subsidizing Global Health report also found examples of women working without pay in some professions, including nursing. Although men also work unpaid in health systems, usually at the community level, their numbers are smaller compared with women."

• The Lancet
• WGH Report

“Our world is in deep trouble, and so are the SDGs.” Mit diesen Worten wandte sich UNO Generalsekretär António Guterres an die versammelte Staatengemeinschaft in New York. Im Juli findet dort das jährliche Hochrangige Politische Forum statt, an dem UNO-Organisationen und Staaten über Fortschritte bei der Erreichung der SDGs berichten. Oder eher Rückschritte. Denn nach mehr als zwei Jahren Pandemie sowie dem sich hinziehenden Krieg Russlands gegen die Ukraine meldet die UNO (UN, 2022) einen Anstieg der Menschen, die in Armut und Hunger leben, weniger Kinder, die eine Impfung erhalten und die Schule besuchen können, mehr Menschen, die an Tuberkulose sterben. Noch bleiben acht Jahre, um die ambitionierten Ziele der Agenda 2030 zu erreichen.

• Medicus Mundi Schweiz

"Human-induced climate change has made extreme heatwaves, wildfires, and flash floods substantially more likely and more severe. Yet, health impacts are widely underestimated. Most countries have failed to adequately plan, adapt, and use evidence-based information to protect their populations. For some countries, this is a dangerous failure of action, but others lack the adequate human and financial resources to respond. So far this year, India, Pakistan, the USA, China, and Europe have experienced extreme and dangerous heatwaves that damaged vital infrastructure and threatened to overwhelm emergency service capacity. The mortality toll is staggering. According to WHO, there were at least 1700 premature and avoidable deaths in Spain and Portugal alone. For each of these deaths, many more people will have suffered serious ill health."

• The Lancet
• For the Lancet Series on heat and health see

"The publication of Bill McGuire’s latest book, Hothouse Earth, could not be more timely. Appearing in the shops this week, it will be perused by sweltering customers who have just endured record high temperatures across the UK and now face the prospect of weeks of drought to add to their discomfort. And this is just the beginning, insists McGuire, who is emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at University College London. As he makes clear in his uncompromising depiction of the coming climatic catastrophe, we have – for far too long – ignored explicit warnings that rising carbon emissions are dangerously heating the Earth."

• The Guardian

"A recent report by the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) on the effects of commercialization of healthcare in Kenya on access and quality of care points out that for most people living in urban settlements, health care remains out of reach. The same communities are affected by extremely harsh social and environmental determinants of health that lead to widespread presence of respiratory illnesses or vision-related diseases, among other things. (...) The People’s Health Dispatch talked to Sharon Joan, a resident of the Kibera urban settlement in Nairobi, who contributed to the creation and sharing of the report results, to learn more about the issues encountered by those trying to access health care in Kenya."

• People's Health Dispatch
• Latest edition of the People’s Health Dispatch newsletter

"Monkeypox was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on July 23, 2022. This is the seventh declaration of a PHEIC since 2005. The PHEIC is governed by the International Health Regulations (IHR). A PHEIC should be declared if a disease outbreak is an extraordinary event; when it constitutes a public health risk to other states through international spread; and when a coordinated international response is potentially required."

• The Lancet

"The first medical school in Nigeria was founded in 1948 as part of University College Ibadan. Its curriculum, modelled on that of the University of London in the UK, was not designed for Nigerians—neither was its sparkling teaching hospital. The alternative would have been to centre equity-promoting primary health care tailored to diverse local needs and built on Indigenous health systems, knowledge, and social organisation. Nigeria's first medical school was a colonial edifice, as were many medical schools founded by colonial governments across Africa and elsewhere."

• The Lancet

"2021 was the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic, a global health crisis that is not yet finished but already provides some lessons in health governance and health cooperation that need to be observed. The major obstacle for achieving the aspiration of “health for all”, for all people, all over the world, is not any disease, not even Covid-19. Inequity remains the major health problem, as we could observe in the unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines, but also in how the pandemic disproportionally affected the lives and livelihood of the poor and marginalized in all countries and all societies. Prevailing social and economic models are not fit for properly dealing with transboundary health emergencies and fail both at the level of national responses and global cooperation and solidarity."

• Medicus Mundi International Network (MMI)

"Some reflections related to section IV of the “working draft, on the basis of progress achieved, of a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” (INB document A/INB2/3) discussed by the INB on 19 July 2022. As stated various times in yesterday’s INB deliberations, the “Intergovernmental Negotiating Body to draft and negotiate a WHO convention, agreement or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response” (INB) is still very much in a compilation and “cultivation” mode, and not yet properly negotiating."

• Medicus Mundi International

"Should the corporate sector be allowed to engage in negotiations around the new binding instrument on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response that is being developed by World Health Organization member states? This week’s closed-door debate by WHO member states to decide who should get a seat around the table risks opening a Pandora’s box of vested interests. Twenty years ago the WHO Tobacco Convention (FCTC) initiative, the first treaty negotiated at the WHO in response to the globalization of the tobacco epidemic, set very clear ground rules. Governments included a specific statement that tobacco companies should neither participate in the negotiations of the convention nor in national tobacco policy-setting."

• Health Policy Watch

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how health emergencies can stop sustainable development in its tracks. This crisis has claimed millions of lives and it has wreaked havoc on economies, political parties, global supply chains, businesses, and livelihoods, as well as health, education, and international travel systems. Any doubt that health is a political choice, and a social and economic imperative, has surely been dispelled. (...) The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that science delivers results. Safe and efficacious vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics were developed at breakneck speed with international and public–private scientific collaboration. The challenge has been in making sure these essential products are distributed fairly and equitably."

• The Lancet

"Access to information is a basic human right. In times of crisis, timely and accurate information plays an important role in controlling a situation. Our partners of the AQH project share how effective communication saved lives during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kosovo. In Kosovo, as in many other places worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by another contagious phenomenon, namely disinformation or fake news. Conspiracy theories around COVID-19 vaccines also met interest in Kosovo and the wider Balkan region."

• Swiss TPH

"SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, such as Omicron (B.1.1.529), continue to emerge. Assessing the impact of their potential viral properties on the probability of future transmission dominance and public health burden is fundamental in guiding ongoing COVID-19 control strategies."

• nature

"In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), urgent action is needed to curb a growing crisis in cancer incidence and mortality. Without rapid interventions, data estimates show a major increase in cancer mortality from 520 348 in 2020 to about 1 million deaths per year by 2030. Here, we detail the state of cancer in SSA, recommend key actions on the basis of analysis, and highlight case studies and successful models that can be emulated, adapted, or improved across the region to reduce the growing cancer crises. Recommended actions begin with the need to develop or update national cancer control plans in each country. Plans must include childhood cancer plans, managing comorbidities such as HIV and malnutrition, a reliable and predictable supply of medication, and the provision of psychosocial, supportive, and palliative care."

• The Lancet Oncology

"Patients suffering chronic pain are being denied treatment in low-income countries because of restrictive laws and concerns about opioid addiction, which have been fuelled by the crisis engulfing the US. Palliative doctors, who say there is a huge unmet need for pain-relief drugs in poorer countries, have called for laws to be relaxed and for the stigma around opioids to be addressed. Only 17% of the morphine produced worldwide in 2020 for medical purposes was consumed in low- and middle-income countries, despite them being home to close to 83% of the global population (...). "

• The Guardian