The COVID-19 pandemic exposed vulnerabilities within national health systems, including in vaccine delivery and distribution. This has underscored the vital importance of having in place effective vaccination strategies and the need to strengthen national and regional capabilities in the fi

Welcome to Bhutan, the land of the Thunder Dragon nested amidst the breathtaking grandeur of the Eastern Himalayas. Guided by the concept of the Gross National Happiness, Bhutan’s constitution mandates access to free basic public health services, for both modern and traditional medicine. Nonetheless

(Reuters) – At an ill-fated press conference in 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler boldly predicted an effective AIDS vaccine would be available within just two years.But a string of failed attempts – punctuated by a 2007 trial in which a Merck vaccine appeared to make p

(Reuters) – Republican governors bent on rejecting the healthcare law’s expanded insurance coverage for millions of low-income Americans may see their gambit backfire if their party fails to sweep the November elections.Five governors have vowed to opt out of the Medicaid expansion for low-income pe

(Reuters) – AstraZeneca is to conduct a new global clinical trial of key new heart drug Brilinta involving 11,500 patients with peripheral artery disease, Britain’s second biggest drugmaker said on Tuesday.Peripheral artery disease affects around 27 million people in Europe and North America, with s

(Reuters) – The World Health Organization has endorsed using HIV medicines among people who do not have the infection but are at high risk of getting it and suggested that poor and wealthy countries alike set up pilot projects to better understand the benefits.The United Nations agency made its sugg

The findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine could fuel a political furor over new plans for a nationwide expansion of Medicaid that erupted after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to uphold President Barack Obama’s healthcare law in late June.In an unexpected move, the high court rul

All two to 17-year-olds in the UK are to be offered annual flu vaccinations.If 30% take up the offer, there will be 11,000 fewer hospitalisations and 2,000 fewer deaths each year, the chief medical officer for England says.The children will be immunised using a nasal spray rather than an injection,

A drug which can extend the lives of men with incurable prostate cancer has been approved for use in Scotland.Scotland was the only part of the UK where abiraterone was not yet available on the NHS.But the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has now given doctors the green light to prescribe it.The

(Reuters) – A U.S. health panel may soon make HIV testing as standard a practice as checking cholesterol levels, a move that would fundamentally change how the virus is detected and treated.The U.S. Preventive Services Task force, a government-backed group of clinicians and scientists, is expected t