Corona und die internationale Zusammenarbeit

Medicus Mundi Schweiz Die COVID-19-Pandemie hat gezeigt, dass kein Land der Welt ausreichend auf eine Pandemie vorbereitet war. Die 194 Mitgliedstaaten der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) haben daher Ende 2021 beschlossen, aus den Erfahrungen der Pandemie zu lernen und ein weltweites Abkommen zu erarbeiten, dass grenzüberschreitend verbindliche Massnahmen zur Verhinderung von künftigen globalen Gesundheitskrisen vereinbart. Zentral ist die Verbesserung der internationalen Zusammenarbeit, Koordinierung und Solidarität sowie eine sektorübergreifende Kooperation. Lesen Sie in dieser MMS-Bulletin-Ausgabe welche Lehren aus der Covid-19 Pandemie gezogen und welche konkreten Massnahmen zur Vorbeugung von Gesundheitskrisen umgesetzt werden. Wir berichten ausserdem über einen Austausch zwischen Parlamentarier:innen und Schweizer Gesundheitsepert:innen zu Fragen der gegenwärtigen Gesundheitssicherung.

• Medicus Mundi Schweiz

Health Policy Watch "Following the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA)’s endorsement of a delay of up to one year for finalizing a pandemic agreement, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) is set to resume talks on 16-17 July 2024. INB member states will face contentious procedural issues and thorny debates over the resolution of substantive matters including a system for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS), One Health; and a formula assuring more equitable access to pandemic health products, where wide gaps remain. Debate around these outstanding issues is a focus of this latest issue of the Governing Pandemics Snapshot."

• Health Policy Watch

Health Policy Watch (HPW) "One Health is critical to future prevention of outbreaks and pandemics, and wider application of One Health principles should be a common agenda of both the global North and South – even if negotiators continue to wrangle over its inclusion in the still-unfinished World Health Organization (WHO) pandemic agreement. Those were key messages emerging from a dialogue co-sponsored by the Global Health Center (GHC) together with the Geneva Health Forum on the sidelines of last week’s World Health Assembly. At WHA, negotiators received a new mandate from member states to continue talks to conclude a pandemic accord by the 2025 WHA at the latest. The talks are set to resume in July."

• Health Policy Watch

The Lancet "With the number of COVID-19 cases decreasing across the continent, it is time to reflect on the first months of the pandemic in Africa. Munyaradzi Makoni reports. In February 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Africa. Borders were closed, confirmed cases quarantined, and curfews imposed early, which helped countries to slow down the spread of the virus. A slow rise in cases compared with other parts of the world resulted, highlighting Africa's weak health systems, fragile infrastructure, inadequate availability of trained personnel, and poor access to medical supplies and equipment." (Photo by 2Photo Pots on Unsplash)

• www.thelancet.com

Devex "Drastic measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, such as strict lockdowns, are not sustainable on many parts of the African continent because of crowded living conditions and the need to keep economies afloat. That’s why an effective vaccine is one of the best chances African countries have to return to normalcy, experts said this week. “A COVID vaccine would allow member states to return to a fully functional economy and society,” said Dr. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, during a virtual two-day conference focused on the role the continent hopes to play in the development, production, and distribution of future coronavirus vaccines." (Photo: KB Mpofu / International Labour Organization ILO/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.devex.com

naturemedicine "Given the current trends in incidence and underlying healthcare systems vulnerabilities, Africa could become the next epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic transitions to more widespread community transmission, how can the lessons learned thus far be consolidated to effectively curb the spread of COVID-19 while minimizing social disruption and negative humanitarian and economic consequences?" (Photo: USAFRICOM/flickr, CC BY 2.0)

• www.nature.com

Health Policy Watch "African countries are lifting lockdowns even as COVID-19 cases across the continent reached a grim new milestone, topping 200,000 cases. The pandemic took only 19 days to reach 200,000 cases in Africa, while it took 98 days to reach the first 100,000 cases. Yet carefully easing lockdown orders in Africa may be the right move according to former United States CDC director Tom Frieden, who is currently president and chief executive officer of Resolve to Save Lives, an Vital Strategies initiative." (Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• healthpolicy-watch.news

The Lancet "Despite over 100 000 confirmed cases and infections in every country, the passage of COVID-19 through the African continent remains somewhat enigmatic. High numbers of deaths were expected in the region due to fragile health systems, lack of access to preventive measures, barriers to testing, and potentially vulnerable populations. But, according to WHO, Africa is the least affected region globally, with 1·5% of the world's reported COVID-19 cases and 0·1% of the world's deaths." (Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.thelancet.com

The New Humanitarian "No country escapes coronavirus unscathed, but South Africa seems to have done better than most – despite dire predictions that African countries are a “ticking time bomb” of COVID-19 devastation. President Cyril Ramaphosa has won international praise for a generally sure-footed response, and, after years of bad news, the country is experiencing a tentative feel-good bloom over its ability to pull together." (Photo: GovernmentZA/flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

• www.thenewhumanitarian.org

Health Policy Watch "Low and middle-income countries urgently need affordable personal protective equipment, diagnostics, treatments and vaccines to ward off even bigger waves of COVID-19 infection and mortality – and global production capacity is failing to ensure timely supply even of those products now on the market. Now, more than ever, producers in poor countries need to be integrated into the health products ecosystem – at national, regional and global level – something that is good for public health, local economic development – and global public health security." (Photo: UNICEF Ethiopia/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• healthpolicy-watch.org

Imperial College London "COVID-19 has the potential to cause disruptions to health services in different ways; through the health system becoming overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, through the intervention used to slow transmission of COVID-19 inhibiting access to preventative interventions and services, and through supplies of medicine being interrupted. We aim to quantify the extent to which such disruptions in services for HIV, TB and malaria in high burden low- and middle-income countries could lead to additional loss of life." (Photo: CDC Global/flickr, CC BY 2.0)

• www.imperial.ac.uk

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) “Since the lockdown in Zimbabwe was mandated beginning on March 30th, I take my daily walks to get out of the confines of my house. As the weeks progress, these walks have become…busier. Cars everywhere, people everywhere. My local potato and tomato vendors started reappearing at street corners, attempting to sell their produce. At one point I asked one of the vendors if the lockdown had ended, and I had somehow missed that announcement. No, the lockdown hadn't ended but the need to feed their families and earn some income had intensified. As one vendor gently mentioned ‘kusiri kufa ndekupi’ which loosely translates to ‘we are all going to die anyways’." – Constancia Mavodza." (Photo: UN Women/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.lshtm.ac.uk

Le Temps "Les pays africains sont dans l’ensemble peu touchés par le Covid-19. La jeunesse de la population et le climat freinent sans doute la transmission du coronavirus mais l’évolution de la pandémie est incertaine, d’autant que le confinement de la population est intenable." (Photo: Social Distancing in the Market/World Bank Photo Collection/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.letemps.ch

British Medical Journal (bmj) "The covid-19 pandemic has undoubtedly challenged our previously held assumptions about global disease epidemiology. Classic public health teaching promulgates the theory of a prevailing epidemiologic transition—one in which the burden of disease morphs from predominantly infectious causes to non-communicable causes as countries industrialize. That theory has now been turned on its head as public health campaigns in industrialized countries promote basic hygiene, while restrictive lockdowns upend regular life. For many, these developments feel like regression to a hitherto forgotten era, with industrialized nations now living the contemporary experience of many in developing countries." (Photo: 217 Cuban Health Specialists arriving in South Africa to curb the spread of COVID-19/GovernmentZA/flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0)

• blogs.bmj.com

Heidi.News "The ​Geneva Health Forum​, created in 2006 in Geneva, was forced to postpone its eighth annual conference, from March to 16-18 November due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But that has not prevented the Forum’s leadership, including GHF Director, Dr Eric Comte, from responding to the unprecedented challenge created by the crisis. From a small and modest gathering of booths and stands, the ​Geneva Health Forum has grown into an international event with a strong array of scientific sessions. ​Geneva Solutions interviewed Comte to hear about the role GHF is playing in the present emergency, and his views gleaned from years in epidemic management." (Photo: DFID - UK Department for International Development/flickr, CC BY 2.0)

• www.heidi.news

MMS Vor allem europäische Tourist*innen und danach Reisende aus den USA haben das Coronavirus in diese Region gebracht, wo sich die Epidemie Ende März 2020 noch weitgehend im Anfangsstadium befindet. Schwache und teilprivatisierte Gesundheitssysteme, in meist hochverschuldeten Ländern mit einem Grossteil der Bevölkerung ohne formelle Anstellung und mit schwachen Sozialversicherungssystemen, lassen für die kommenden Monate Böses ahnen. Von Beat Schmid, Koordinator von AMCA in Zentralamerika. (Leon Nicaragua. Foto: Massimo Pedrazzini)

• www.medicusmundi.ch

World Health Organisation (WHO) Brazzaville/ Cairo, 7 April 2020 – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has risen to more than 10 000 and caused more than 500 deaths. While the virus was slow to reach the continent compared to other parts of the world, infection has grown exponentially in recent weeks and continues to spread. Reaching the continent through travellers returning from hotspots in Asia, Europe and the United States, Africa’s first COVID-19 case was recorded in Egypt on 14 February. Since then a total of 52 countries have reported cases. Initially, mainly confined to capital cities, a significant number of countries in Africa are now reporting cases in multiple provinces. (Photo: UN Geneva/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.afro.who.int

Third World Network (TWN) "The new draft decision on a so-called “pandemic treaty” proposes a special session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) in November to take a decision on the establishment of an intergovernmental process to negotiate a new agreement. The new draft decision dated 25 May, which is published as a WHA conference paper (A74/A/Conf./7) is the result of several rounds of informal talks over the last ten days, with strong push back from the United States, Brazil and Russia to the initial draft."

• Third World Network

The Lancet "The COVID-19 pandemic is the most disruptive global political and economic crisis since World War 2, which gave birth to the UN, Bretton Woods institutions, and WHO. Although COVID-19 has prompted calls for equally ambitious reforms, the global polity is far more fragmented than the victor-dominated post-World War 2 era. The president of the European Council called for a so-called pandemic treaty in December, 2020. This proposal has since been endorsed by 26 heads of state and by the director-general of WHO."

• The Lancet

Kristof Decoster´s personal blog "My assessmentof the current corona moment and how global health, so far,fails toseize it. See also the intro of this week. Our “global health financing toolbox”still seems, by and large, stuck in the neoliberal/Third Way MDG era. Anybody who believes that will suffice to deal with the challenges of the 21stcentury (not the leastthe climate emergency & widespread populism) can raise his/her hands. PS: that would include the fansof ‘Team Europe’." (Photo: Trinity Care Foundation/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• kdecoster.blogspot.com

UHC2030 "The COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, reshaping the global health landscape and sparking an economic crisis deeper than anything seen since the great depression. The pandemic has plainly shown the interdependence of health security and economic security. While health security - reducing the vulnerability of societies to pandemics like COVID-19 - is a distinct goal, it is interlinked with efforts to move towards universal health coverage (UHC). Neither UHC nor health security can be achieved without the foundation of common goods for health, produced through strong and resilient health systems." (Photo: USAFRICOM/flickr, CC BY 2.0)

• www.uhc2030.org

British Medical Journal (bmj) "Principles and methods drawn from decades of work showing that lower socioeconomic status is associated with poorer health should guide efforts to monitor and mitigate the impact of the covid-19 pandemic argue Geoffrey Anderson and colleagues." (Photo: USAID U.S. Agency for International Development/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.bmj.com

Handicap International Die Pandemie, mit der wir konfrontiert sind, hat unsere Organisation gezwungen, 131 ihrer Projekte anzupassen. Unsere Aktion konzentriert sich derzeit hauptsächlich auf die Sensibilisierung, die Verteilung von Hygienepaketen, Inklusion, psychosoziale Unterstützung und die Verteilung von Lebensmitteln. Erfahren Sie alles darüber in dieser neuen Ausgabe!

• Handicap International

MMS Gemessen an der Einwohnerzahl, zählte Südafrika schon vor der Corona-Pandemie weltweit die meisten Opfer von sexueller und häuslicher Gewalt. Die strengen Lockdown-Massnahmen der letzten Monate haben die Ausbreitung des Virus zwar eindämmen können, jedoch die Zahl der Fälle von geschlechtsspezifischer Gewalt in die Höhe schnellen lassen. Ausgerechnet in einer Zeit, in der die ohnehin hohe Zahl der Gewaltopfer nochmals ansteigt, ist die Arbeit der HelferInnen massiv beeinträchtigt. Am Beispiel der Arbeit von Lifeline, südafrikanische Partnerorganisation von terre des hommes schweiz, zeigt sich, wie gross der psychische Druck und die konkreten Hindernisse für die Hilfesuchenden als auch Helfenden sind. Ein Bericht von Hafid Derbal und Tayson Mudarikiri, terre des hommes schweiz. (Foto: Wichtige und öffentlichkeitswirksame Proteste wie hier 2018 sind heute nicht mehr möglich / © terre des hommes schweiz)

• www.medicusmundi.ch

Graduate Institute Geneva - Global Health Centre "Like previous pandemics, Covid-19 has led to a broad range of human rights violations around the world, from censorship and the silencing of criticism to the excessive use of police force. Minority groups and migrants have found themselves particularly vulnerable to abuse, as well as to Covid-19-related stigma and violence. By Sara (Meg) Davis Special Advisor on Strategy and Partnerships at the Global Health Centre. The Graduate Institute, Geneva." (Photo: Logo GIG)

• globalchallenges.ch

Medicus Mundi International (MMI) "In these difficult times, we welcome the fact that a World Health Assembly takes place. We also welcome the intense negotiation process on the COVID-19 resolution as a strong sign that Member States still want WHO to direct and coordinate the global response to COVID-19 and other international health problems, with the World Health Assembly as its decision-making body."

• www.medicusmundi.org

La Centrale Sanitaire Suisse Romande (CSSR) Il n’y a pas encore de catastrophe due au COVID-19 en Amérique latine, mis à part en Equateur. Dans tous les pays avec lesquels nous travaillons, il y a confinement, constatation de la fragilité des systèmes de santé, manque de matériel pour contenir l’épidémie. Les projets de la CSSR vont continuer, mais aussi ralentir. C’est le cas au Nicaragua, au Guatemala, au Mexique. (Photo: CSSR)

• css-romande.ch

Il n’y a pas encore de catastrophe due au COVID-19 en Amérique latine, mis à part en Equateur. Dans tous les pays avec lesquels nous travaillons, il y a confinement, constatation de la fragilité des systèmes de santé, manque de matériel pour contenir l’épidémie. Les projets de la CSSR vont continuer, mais aussi ralentir. C’est le cas au Nicaragua, au Guatemala, au Mexique. (Photo: CSSR)

Enfants du Monde Am 9. März 2020 gab es in Burkina Faso die ersten Fälle von COVID-19. Mit 766 bestätigten Fällen und 52 Todesfällen (Stand am 13. Mai 2020) ist das Land heute eines der am schlimmsten betroffenen in Afrika. Neun der 13 Gesundheitsregionen des Landes sind von der Epidemie betroffen. Um das Gesundheitsministerium von Burkina Faso im Kampf gegen COVID-19 zu unterstützen, stellt Enfants du Monde in Zusammenarbeit mit unserem lokalen Partner IPC/BF (Initiative Privée et Communautaire pour la santé et la riposte au VIH/Sida au Burkina Faso) und mit finanzieller Unterstützung der Schweizer Entwicklungszusammenarbeit und ihrer Geldgeber, Schutzausrüstungen für Gesundheitsdienstleister zur Verfügung und informiert die Bevölkerung. (Foto: Enfants du Monde)

• www.edm.ch

Comundo Comment s'en sortir dans une grande ville comme El Alto / La Paz durant la crise du Coronavirus ? Économie informelle au point mort, violence domestique, système de santé défaillant : Jérôme Gyger relate la situation sur place et explique son projet d'agriculture urbaine, qui donne une partie de la solution. (Photo: Avec Doña Bartolina Ticona dans sa petite serre de production biologique à El Alto/ © Comundo)

• www.comundo.org

Comundo Überforderung, fehlende Betreuung und steigende Gewalt dominieren Städte wie Cochabamba in Bolivien in Zeiten der Coronakrise. Dabei geht vergessen: Kinder sind nicht nur Opfer, sondern besitzen auch Potential zur Krisenbewältigung in Familie und Gesellschaft. (Foto: Ein Mädchen, das an einem Markt in der Nähe von Quillacolo (ausserhalb Cochabamba) trotz Quarantäne versucht ihren Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen. | Lizeth Salazar Bustos/AVE)

• www.comundo.org

Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC) "National Societies' and volunteers' roles will change through the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective countries and communities, based on which activities to support public health, clinical and health systems activities are likely to be most impactful in their context and with their outbreak dynamics. This Health Help Desk Website provided by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) offers three functions: 1) Huge resource library of all available health documents, guidelines and research. Scroll down the page and click on the bold themes, and further information will open. 2) Pose any question you have to the helpdesk. They try to answer asap 3) Any questions and related answers are available on the Q&A site. Please check the Q&A section, before you pose a new question to the help desk." (Photo: © GDPC)

• www.preparecenter.org

Comundo Viele leiden aktuell unter den weltweiten Quarantäne-Massnahmen. Doch es gibt Menschen, die zu ihrem Eigenschutz zuhause bleiben möchten, dies aber nicht dürfen. Die Psychotherapeutin und Comundo-Fachperson Bitia Vargas unterstützt staatliches Sicherheits- und Gesundheitspersonal in der Krise und gewährt uns einen Blick hinter die Kulissen der bolivianischen Polizei. (Im Bild die bolivianische Polizei mit einer Einheit für Bio-Sicherheit. ©ABI )

• www.comundo.org

rts.ch "Tous les vendredis, "CQFD" reçoit un homme ou une femme de science pour parler de son travail et de ses recherches. Aujourd'hui, Sarah Dirren a invité Vinh-Kim Nguyen, médecin urgentiste, professeur dʹanthropologie et de sociologie de la santé et co-directeur du Centre de santé globale au Graduate Institute de Genève (IHEID), professeur au Département de médecine sociale et préventive de lʹUniversité de Montréal et Research Fellow au Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, à Halle, en Allemagne. - Une heure pour faire connaissance avec ce spécialiste dont les activités se partagent entre action sur le terrain et analyse plus globale des crises sanitaires, du VIH au Covid-19, en passant par Ebola." (Photo: IHEID)

• pages.rts.ch

Graduate Institute Geneva - Global Health Centre "Gian Luca Burci and Jennifer Hasselgard-Rowe examine the rights-related measures that have been adopted by the Swiss Confederation and the Cantons to respond to the current Covid-19 crisis. The main regulatory avenue that Switzerland’s Federal Council has used in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been to issue federal orders effective across the entire Swiss territory." (Photo: GIG_GHC)

• graduateinstitute.ch

Eidgenössisches Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten (EDA) "Seit Beginn der COVID-19-Pandemie ist in gewissen Ländern aufgrund der Lockdown-Massnahmen und des eingeschränkten Zugangs zu Hilfsangeboten ein erhöhtes Risiko von häuslicher Gewalt zu beobachten. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat Bundesrat Ignazio Cassis zusammen mit Vertreterinnen und Vertretern von 58 anderen Ländern eine gemeinsame Erklärung zur Stärkung des Schutzes von Frauen und Mädchen in Zeiten von COVID-19 unterzeichnet. Die gemeinsame Erklärung ruft die internationale Gemeinschaft auf, sich für den Schutz der Gesundheit und der körperlichen Integrität von Frauen einzusetzen und sicherzustellen, dass die Frauen an allen Entscheidungsprozessen im Zusammenhang mit der Pandemie umfassend teilhaben. Sie appelliert ausserdem an alle Akteure (inkl. Privatsektor), ihre Anstrengungen zu vereinen, um in besonders betroffenen Ländern Soforthilfe zu leisten, und die globale Verpflichtung für einen universellen Zugang zur Gesundheitsversorgung vollumfänglich wahrzunehmen."

• www.eda.admin.ch

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World Health Organisation (WHO) "When health systems are overwhelmed, both direct mortality from an outbreak and indirect mortality from vaccine-preventable and treatable conditions increase dramatically. Countries will need to make difficult decisions to balance the demands of responding directly to COVID-19, while simultaneously engaging in strategic planning and coordinated action to maintain essential health service delivery, mitigating the risk of system collapse. This document expands on the content of the Operational planning guidelines to support country preparedness and response, and provides guidance on a set of targeted immediate actions that countries should consider at national, regional, and local level to reorganize and maintain access to high-quality essential health services for all." (Photo: UN Geneva/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.who.int

Help Age International "This document provides guidance and advice for care homes about coronavirus, or COVID-19. While older people in care homes are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, there are steps that can be taken to reduce their risk, and to ensure they are well cared for and supported. Care home staff must also be looked after and must be equipped with information to protect themselves as well as those in their care. The document includes information on personal behaviour, action to take inside the care home, interaction with the outside environment, management responsibilities, governance, and what to do if someone has COVID-19." (Photo: Katja Busch / Kwa Wazee)

• www.helpage.org

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World Health Organisation (WHO) "All countries should increase their level of preparedness, alert and response to identify, manage and care for new cases of COVID-19. Countries should prepare to respond to different public health scenarios, recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to managing cases and outbreaks of COVID-19. Each country should assess its risk and rapidly implement the necessary measures at the appropriate scale to reduce both COVID-19 transmission and economic, public and social impacts." (Photo: UN Geneva/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.who.int

World Health Organisation (WHO) "This rapid advice has been updated with the latest information and is intended to guide public health and infection prevention and control (IPC) professionals, health care managers and health care workers (HCWs) when addressing issues related to home care for patients with suspected COVID-19 who present with mild symptoms and when managing their contacts." (Photo: UN Geneva/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• www.who.int

International Civil Society Centre "This page is part of a series of COVID-19 resource pages that we are creating to help civil society actors. On this page, you will find links to readings, podcasts and videos related to the latest COVID-19 news and analysis. If you have a recommendation or a suggestion, let us know."

• icscentre.org

The Lancet "To assist health workers and researchers working under challenging conditions to bring this outbreak to a close, The Lancet has created a Coronavirus Resource Centre. This resource brings together new 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) content from across The Lancet journals as it is published." (Photo: Coronavirus/duncan c/flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

• www.thelancet.com

Medicus Mundi International (MMI) Basel/Geneva, March 2020. The outbreak of the “coronavirus” (covid19) all around the world is not only feeding headlines and news. It influences very concretely the lives of many of us. But it also raises questions on health systems, health policies, access to health, health governance or international cooperation. (Photo: MMI)

• www.medicusmundi.org

People´s Health Movement This page is a collection of statements and articles that have been prepared by PHM, its regional and country circles and also like minded civil society organisations on the issues around the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

• phmovement.org