Personnel de santé : des systèmes et des hommes

The global shortage of healthcare staff means that countries are both actively and passively poaching doctors and nurses from each other. The losers in this situation are especially countries with weaker healthcare systems. Such countries are not only losing staff but also the investment made in training them. Until now, the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel has been applied on a voluntary basis. This Code urgently needs to be tightened up and binding regulations introduced at an international level. The 2024 MMS Symposium explored the consequences of and possible solutions to the healthcare staff crisis and discussed ways out of the misery it is creating.

• Documentation MMS Symposium 2024

"On the occasion of the Human Rights Platform's Annual Conference taking place on November 5th at the Geneva Graduate Institute, the Global Health Centre’s International Geneva Global Health Platform invited Helena Nygren-Krug, Senior Advisor at UNAIDS, for a two-part podcast where they unpack the relationship between health and human rights and assess the challenges but also opportunities of this relationship in a changing global context. In the first episode, they discuss the essential links between health and human rights and examine the role of human rights in contemporary health politics. In the second episode, they reflect on the mutual impacts of health and human rights in the context of current crises and their role in multilateral governance negotiations."

• Graduate Institute - Global Health Centre Geneva

"Genève, 10 octobre 2024 – Pharmaciens Sans Frontères Suisse (PSF Suisse) met en garde contre les dangers et les conséquences imprévus de l’envoi de médicaments non utilisés (MNU) vers les pays à ressources limitées. « Bien que motivée par des intentons généreuses, cette pratique présente plusieurs risques, tant sur le plan sanitaire qu’économique » explique Marie-José Barbalat, présidente de PSF Suisse. Voici un résumé des principaux problèmes identifiés par PSF Suisse."

• Pharmaciens Sans Frontières Suisse (PSF Suisse)
• Download (pdf | 512 kB)

"Les réunions statutaires du Mouvement international de la Croix-Rouge et du Croissant-Rouge ont lieu du 22 au 31 octobre 2024 à Genève. Le Mouvement y rencontre les Etats et les organisations partenaires. Il s’agit de répondre ensemble aux défis humanitaires les plus urgents de notre temps. La Conférence est un rendez-vous unique d’acteurs des quatre coins du monde. Sur fond de crises multiples, de polarisation croissante de la société et de politisation de l’aide humanitaire, elle est plus importante que jamais."

• La Croix-Rouge Suisse

"La Croix-Rouge suisse (CRS) a débloqué un total de 800 000 francs pour répondre à l’urgence au Liban. De quoi fournir un soutien vital aux familles qui ont fui les violences et assurer l’approvisionnement en sang."

• La Croix-Rouge Suisse

"Lors de la conférence de l'Union Interparlementaire à Genève « Conflits armés et handicap : renforcer l’action parlementaire pour aborder la question du handicap pendant et après les conflits armés », marquant le 25e anniversaire du Traité d'interdiction des mines antipersonnel, Gniep Smoeun, survivante d’une mine au Cambodge et porte-parole de Handicap International, a partagé son histoire. Amputée à l'âge de 10 ans après avoir marché sur une mine, elle a rappelé aux parlementaires l'urgence d'agir pour protéger les civils des ravages des mines et des armes à sous-munitions. Découvrez son discours complet."

• Handicap International

"L'Observatoire des armes à sous-munitions 2024, publié en septembre 2024, continue de révéler de nombreuses utilisations de ces armes, ainsi que de nouvelles victimes. Alors que la Lituanie s'est récemment retirée de la Convention d’Oslo sur les armes à sous-munitions, nous rappelons son importance pour protéger les civils et l'impact à long terme de l’utilisation de ces armes interdites."

• Handicap International

"Plus de 230 personnes, dont 35 enfants, ont perdu la vie lors des inondations et des glissements de terrain de fin septembre - environ 7600 familles sont gravement touchées. FAIRMED a donc pris des mesures, en collaboration avec ses partenaires locaux, pour apporter une aide aux ménages les plus touchés. Nous avons notamment organisé une distribution de biens de première nécessité, au cours de laquelle ces ménages ont reçu de la nourriture, des articles de literie, des kits d'hygiène et des articles ménagers tels que des seaux, des ustensiles de cuisine ou de la mousse pour matelas. Ces articles de secours ont contribué de manière décisive à stabiliser la situation et à garantir que les familles puissent commencer à reconstruire leur vie."

• FAIRMED

"La première pierre du nouveau centre chirurgical de jour a été posée hier. Grâce au large soutien que cet ambitieux projet recueille notamment en Suisse et en Europe, le calendrier des travaux du plus grand chantier actuel de Bethléem est respecté. La construction de cette extension offre l’espoir de meilleurs soins de santé pour les enfants de la région. « En accord avec la valeur chrétienne de dignité humaine, l’hôpital continue à soigner tous les enfants, indépendamment de leur origine, et contribuera à garantir leur droit fondamental à la santé. » Cette inscription sur la première pierre de la nouvelle aile de l’hôpital pédiatrique exprime sa vision pour de meilleurs soins de santé pour les enfants malades de Palestine – un objectif qui s’est aujourd’hui sensiblement rapproché."

• Secours aux Enfants Bethléem

"Als Siyabonga dem Team der mobilen Klinik in Lesotho auffiel, wog er nur 6,2 Kilo. Dabei war er schon eineinhalbjährig und hätte über elf Kilo wiegen sollen, wenn er gesund entwickelt gewesen wäre. Seine akute Mangelernährung könnte weitgehende Konsequenzen für sein zukünftiges Leben haben, denn die ersten 1000 Tage eines Menschen sind entscheidend für die weitere Entwicklung. Doch Siyabonga wird im Rahmen eines neuen SolidarMed-Projekts unterstützt."

• SolidarMed
• Webinar 5. Dezember 2024 (17:00 Uhr): Frühkindliche Entwicklung in Lesotho

"Over the past 25 years, huge progress has been made in the prevention, control and elimination of parasitic worm infections, which affect more than a billion people worldwide and pose a considerable public health burden. Mass drug administration mainly targeting school-aged children, facilitated by public-private partnerships and donations of billions of deworming drugs by pharmaceutical companies, played a key role. However, with declining infection rates and pharmaceutical companies considering an end to the large-scale drug donations, it is time to reflect on a "post-donation era." Jürg Utzinger discusses a proposed paradigm shift based on a more targeted and versatile approach that aims to deliver the right drug at the right place for the right people."

• Swiss TPH

"A new study published today in the International Journal of Health Geographics by researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) reveals how climate change, socio-economic changes such as urbanization and malaria control efforts are influencing the spread of malaria in Kenya. Using geostatistical modelling, the study found that despite a decline in malaria overall, there was a significant rise in malaria risk in some regions. The findings underscore the pressing need for tailored public health strategies that can adapt to the impacts of climate change."

• Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute

"The Chronic Diseases Clinic of Ifakara (CDCI) is celebrating its 20th anniversary, marking two decades of providing healthcare, health training and clinical research in rural Tanzania. Established through a collaboration between Swiss and Tanzanian institutions to support individuals living with HIV/AIDS, CDCI has evolved into a leading model for HIV care in rural Africa. To honour this milestone, the clinic hosted a two-day event focused on HIV/AIDS and non-communicable diseases (NCDs)."

• Swiss TPH

L’engagement collectif en faveur de la paix mondiale apparaît indéniable – par exemple à travers la promotion d’une conception commune des droits humainse –, et il se manifeste notamment dans la façon dont le droit international et l’ONU contribuent à la construction d’un monde plus libre et plus équitable. Pourtant, un ordre juridique universellement valable suppose une base de valeurs commune et une compréhension uniforme des concepts qui définissent cet ordre. Cela peut-il fonctionner dans un monde de plus en plus globalisé, marqué par la diversité des cultures, des traditions, et en particulier par l’histoire coloniale ?

• Medicus Mundi Suisse

"Between emerging diseases and pandemic threats, abortion and reproductive health, climate change, and humanitarian aid to war zones, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have wildly divergent visions for global health, with the outcome in next week’s US presidential election likely to reverberate across Europe and the world. (...) In a second term, Moon said Trump may seek to undermine negotiations over a global pandemic treaty."

• Euronews

"Universal health coverage means that “all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship.” All United Nations member states have committed to make progress towards universal health coverage. Despite two high level meetings on the topic, a persistent gap remains between ambitious commitment and concrete actions. One challenge limiting progress is the fragmented and convoluted way by which advocates make the case for it. Advocates can reduce such confusion and simplify political arguments by focusing on four core elements for what implementing universal health coverage needs to look like in practice."

• British Medical Journal (bmj)

"To effectively tackle public health challenges, policy-makers increasingly advocate for aligning global health security (GHS) and universal health coverage (UHC), two influential norms driving international health cooperation. However, despite operating within overlapping spheres of governance, the normative histories linking GHS and UHC remain relatively unexplored in the literature. This article examines how GHS and UHC have been (re)constructed—from distinct policy sectors to synergistic norm regimes—through repeated contestation and interaction. Utilizing the ‘norm life-cycle’ framework to trace development across three stages (emergence, tipping-point/cascade and internalization), this study discursively analyses key texts from major crises and international agreements spanning several decades to unpack how norms and their underlying discourses and core functions have influenced each other as they evolved. The findings illustrate that GHS and UHC norms would be better understood as dynamic ‘processes’ rather than static concepts."

• International Affairs

"Global health continues to be a field where Global North actors see themselves as leaders.1,2 Although the decolonising global health movement has exposed the deep inequities inherent within the architecture of global health,1 this movement, prone to elite capture, faces several institutional barriers that prevent meaningful shifts in power."

• The Lancet Global Health

"The WHO Investment Round event in Brazil is less than three weeks away. So far WHO has been able to garner US $ 1.1 billion as on October 2024. Although far from the initial goal of US $7 billion, these funds pledged so far are mostly flexible in nature marking a significant change in the way the WHO will be funded in the short to medium term. This was never going to be easy, but the efforts to garner “undictated” resources for WHO could be one of the defining changes for the 76-year-old institution. WHO will not meet its target to raise funds to bridge a gap of US $ 7 billion that it needs for a period for four years between 2025-2028, sources close to the process in Geneva say. We reported in May, that WHO is hoping to raise USD $ 4 billion culminating in the Investment Round, a pledging ceremony on the sidelines of the G20 in November this year, hosted by Brazil."

• Geneva Health Files

"At the World Health Summit 2024, the largest donor event for the WHO Investment Round so far was hosted, with pledges totaling one billion US dollars made or reaffirmed. “All for Health, Health for All: Signature Event for the WHO Investment Round” was attended by high-level speakers such as Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Chair of the Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. During the WHS 2024, more than 50 partner events, side events, announcements, and launches took place, such as the launches of Global Health 2050: The Lancet Commission on Investing in Health 3.0 and of the Inauguration of the WomenX Collective Berlin Hub."

• World Health Summit 2024

"Primary health care (PHC) stands as the principal interface between the health system and communities – the locus where the formal health system meshes with people’s lives. More than that, primary health care can shape and reshape health systems to make them more accessible, more integrated and more sustainable. This Primer or policy textbook synthesizes the global evidence on PHC in one place, with a strong focus on country lessons and implementation as a guide on the “how” of PHC. The aim is to inspire policy-makers with best practice evidence but also provide insights into challenges which may arise. The book builds on the tacit knowledge that countries have generated with a more formal research and analysis."

• World Health Organization

"In addition to pursuing the goal of universal health coverage, primary health care (PHC) helps to ensure health system resilience and health security. Community engagement plays a vital role in PHC leading to increased trust and safeguarding vulnerable groups against health threats. It is also critical for reducing inequalities, a key weakness when facing health threats. The comprehensive approach and expanded roles in multi-disciplinary teams within PHC strengthen the capacity to address community needs and enhance resilience. Greater integration of PHC and public health, as observed in some settings during the COVID-19 pandemic, can lead to better outcomes. PHC played a crucial role during the pandemic and can protect against future health shocks."

• Eurohealth

"The health community recognizes the climate crisis as an existential threat to humanity and human health, requiring immediate and effective action across all sectors. However, global-level policy guidance reveals a disconnect between primary health care and climate; most political declarations, reports and resolutions for primary health care make only cursory references to the climate crisis, mentioning its implications for health but not linking them. Given that primary health care should be the entry point for the population’s interaction with the health system, it is alarming that ongoing efforts to revitalize primary health care fail to adequately consider climate action, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation. In this paper, we examine this disconnect, elaborate on its implications and offer recommendations for policy-makers to ensure an effective primary health care–climate crisis nexus."

• Bulletin of the World Health Organization

"As health narratives in the climate change discourse become more visible, the intersection of health and climate change will soon become a critical area vulnerable to misinformation and disinformation campaigns. Disinformation in this space will attempt to undermine evidence about the health effects of climate change and, most importantly, efforts to tackle these challenges"

• The Britisch Medical Journal

"Despite the initial hope inspired by the 2015 Paris Agreement, the world is now dangerously close to breaching its target of limiting global multiyear mean heating to 1·5°C. Annual mean surface temperature reached a record high of 1·45°C above the pre-industrial baseline in 2023, and new temperature highs were recorded throughout 2024. The resulting climatic extremes are increasingly claiming lives and livelihoods worldwide. The Lancet Countdown: tracking progress on health and climate change was established the same year the Paris Agreement entered into force, to monitor the health impacts and opportunities of the world's response to this landmark agreement. Supported through strategic core funding from Wellcome, the collaboration brings together over 300 multidisciplinary researchers and health professionals from around the world to take stock annually of the evolving links between health and climate change at global, regional, and national levels."

• The Lancet

*As UN chief António Guterres called on the G20 to “lead” on climate, Climate Home can reveal that the group of big countries watered down a report by top economists on how the financial system should shift to enable climate action. Guterres made his comments by video at the launch of the United Nations’ Emissions Gap Report which showed that, under their current policies, the G20 countries as a group will fail to meet their 2030 targets to cut planet-heating emissions."

• Climate Home News

"Only 35 countries have submitted the national strategies required by the UN biodiversity treaty showing how they’ll meet its binding nature protection targets. While 33 of these plans recognise links between human health and biodiversity, they offer few specifics on implementation and policy, a Health Policy Watch analysis found. Negotiators in Cali aim to bridge the gap this week by adopting a global health action plan under the treaty that provides a roadmap for meeting its health protection requirements."

• Health Policy Watch

"While Rwanda appears to have its Marburg virus outbreak under control with no new cases reported in the past three days in Rwanda, mpox continues to spread – now affecting 18 countries with 3051 new cases in the past week. Since declaring the Marburg outbreak three weeks ago, Rwanda has confirmed 62 cases, of which 15 have died, 38 have recovered and nine cases are still receiving treatment with the majority improving, said Health Minister Dr Sabin Nsanzimana on Thursday. “The case fatality rate overall is 24% and we’ve vaccinated 856 people,” Nsanzimana told an Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) briefing, describing the trend as “very encouraging”.

• Health Policy Watch

Malgré les avancées en matière de santé et droits sexuels et reproductifs (SDSR) au niveau mondial, des lacunes importantes subsistent. C’est notamment le cas en ce qui concerne l’éducation complète à la sexualité, l’accès à la contraception, le dépistage et le traitement des infections sexuellement transmissibles, les services d’avortement sans risque et la prévention des violences sexuelles et basées sur le genre (VSBG). Bien que les taux de mortalité maternelle et infantile aient considérablement diminué dans le monde, l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS, 2024) estime que 800 femmes meurent encore chaque jour de causes évitables liées à la grossesse. Et que 99 % de ces décès surviennent dans des environnements à faible revenu, en particulier au sein de communautés rurales et marginalisées. Les crises humanitaires ne font qu’exacerber ces disparités.

• Medicus Mundi Suisse

"Women’s health is being neglected worldwide with “maternity care deserts” more common, millions denied abortions and maternal death rates surging, Melinda French Gates has warned as she launches a $250m (£190m) fund to improve women’s physical and mental health globally."

• The Guardian

"Brown L and colleagues discuss the association between various mental health conditions and the menopause transition, but eating disorders were not included in this discussion. This decision was unexpected, since women are twice as likely as men to experience these disorders. However, Brown L and colleagues reviewed evidence supporting an increased risk of major depressive disorder across the menopause transition in individuals with pre-existing depression—a disorder commonly co-occurring with eating disorders. We agree that substantial lifestyle changes typically coincide with menopause and contribute to mental health concerns; however, the potential role of reproductive hormones in eating disorders should be considered."

• The Lancet
• Menopause 2024 - The Lancet series

"The announcement by Gilead that six generic manufacturers have been awarded voluntary licenses for the production of lenacapavir—a groundbreaking, twice-yearly injectable for HIV prevention and potential treatment—raises significant concerns despite the inclusion of most African countries in the license territory."

• Kelin Kenya

"This report highlights the substantial impact of commercial determinants on noncommunicable diseases (‎NCDs)‎ in the WHO European Region. Nearly 7500 deaths per day in the Region are attributed to commercial determinants, such as tobacco, alcohol, processed food, fossil fuels and occupational practices. These commercial products and practices contribute to 25% of all deaths in the Region. The report’s chapters systematically explore various facets of how commercial interests exacerbate NCDs and key strategies used by commercial actors to negatively influence NCD-related policies at the national and international level. The report also provides selected case studies from the Region to illustrate key strategies and outcomes of industry influence on health policies. The report then calls for urgent and coordinated action to address the commercial determinants of NCDs."

• World Health Organization

"Care responsibilities are excluding and holding back millions of women worldwide from taking paid employment, and with climate and demographic changes on course to increase the demand for care, measures to support the care economy are urgently needed, according to a new ILO brief."

• International Labour Organization - ILO

"The active participation and engagement of health and care workers (‎HCWs)‎ in health emergency preparedness, readiness and response is crucial to support risk communication, community engagement and infodemic management (‎RCCE-IM)‎ interventions during emergencies. HCWs hold unique positions in society – repeatedly being identified among the main influencers of people’s behaviours: they are one of the most trusted sources of health information and advice in communities and role models for the acceptance and uptake of protective measures during health emergencies. On the frontline, HCWs have valuable insights and knowledge that can be harnessed to support health emergencies across the entire emergency cycle."

• World Health Organization (WHO)

"Für unsere Geschäftsstelle in Luzern und zur Verstärkung von unserem Fundraisingteam suchen wir auf den ​1. Januar 2025​ oder nach Vereinbarung eine motivierte und selbstständige Persönlichkeit als Verantwortliche:n Projektpartnerschaften (80%). Ihre Aufgaben: In dieser spannenden Position in unserem Kommunikations- und Fundraisingteam pflegen Sie den institutionellen Austausch mit Stiftungen, Kirchen und öffentliche Geldgeber in der Schweiz. Sie schaffen die Verbindung zwischen unseren Finanzpartnern und unseren Gesundheitsprogrammen im südlichen und östlichen Afrika. (...) Sie identifizieren neue Partnerschaften, gewinnen und betreuen neue Geldgeber und leisten einen Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung des Portfolios von SolidarMed. Haben Sie Fragen? Andreas Rösch gibt Ihnen gerne Auskunft. T: +41 41 310 66 60 E-Mail: a.roesch@solidarmed.ch

• SolidarMed