Tag: international health
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WHO statement on notification of withdrawal of the United States
World Health Organization Note: This statement, published on 24 January 2026, is also available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish As a founding member of the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States of America has contributed significantly to many of WHO’s greatest achievements, including the eradication of…
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Strong public health workforce needed to manage next global crisis
Adj Assoc Prof Priscilla Robinson and Hon Assoc Prof Leanne Coombe Following the release of the COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report last week, there has been plenty written about Australia’s response to the pandemic. Commentaries have explored the ongoing impacts on mental health through to the erosion of public trust in…
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Nations struggle to reach consensus on Pandemic Agreement as negotiations continue
Leanne Coombe and James Scheibner The 77th World Health Assembly (WHA), held from 27 May – 1 June 2024, promised to be historic. In the wake of COVID-19, the event marked the deadline for countries to come together on an agreement for how countries collaborate to prepare for, and prevent,…
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Global field experience to benefit future health professionals
Dr Muhammad Aziz Rahman, Professor of Public Health Health and wellbeing are determined by many sociocultural factors aside from the structure of the health system and available resources. In developed countries like Australia, it can be less obvious how factors such as religion, gender, and socioeconomic status impact health, as…
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Timor-Leste’s Institute of Public Health builds links with Australian partners
Malcolm Baalman, PHAA Senior Policy and Advocacy Advisor This week the PHAA national office hosted Dr Merita Monteiro, foundation President of the newly created Timor-Leste (East Timor) National Institute of Public Health (Prezidente do Conselho Diretivo do Instituto Nacional de Saúde Pública de Timor-Leste, INSP-TL). (Photo from left: PHAA Senior…
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Turning a corner for public health workers: Updates on a global workforce roadmap
Adj. Assoc Prof Priscilla Robinson and Hon. Assoc Prof Leanne Coombe, PHAA Policy and Advocacy Manager Public health has achieved a great deal of visibility because of the pandemic, but it is important that this momentum is not now lost as we ‘return to normal’. This is the first of…
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Minimum Unit Pricing for Alcohol: Lessons from Scotland for Australia
Dr Mark Robinson, Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland and School of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow; Dr Sarah Callinan, Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University, Australia and Dr Nicholas Taylor, National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University Five years after Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP)…
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Successes and challenges related to ending the HIV pandemic
Nwogo. I.Ekeji, Ph.D., MPH, PHAA member Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has thus far infected over 79.3 million people globally, leaving an estimated 40.1 million dead. In 2021, just over 38 million people were estimated to be living with HIV globally, of which 85% were aware of their HIV-positive status and…
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Australia’s Centre for Disease Control: Signposts from foreign lands
Dr Babatunde Balogun, PhD candidate at the Australian Institute of Health Service Management, University of Tasmania Here we are. The end of a journey that started 35 years ago is now within sight. The seed sown in a 1987 meeting of Australia’s epidemiology experts about a federal coordinating body for…
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Education key to breaking barriers and empowerment
Raquel de Brito, Curtin Commons As India’s extreme gender disparities prevailed around her, a young Jaya Dantas buried herself in her studies and broke through what seemed like impossible barriers the only way she knew how, with education. Today, she continues to use her education as a beacon of hope for others…
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Monkeypox – the next global vaccine equity failure?
Deborah Gleeson, La Trobe University Inequitable access to COVID-19 vaccines has turned out to be the catastrophic moral failure the World Health Organization’s director-general warned about at the beginning of 2021. International efforts to equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccine doses failed miserably during 2020-2021, when wealthy countries bought up the bulk…
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Should ACDC go global?
Meru Sheel and Joel Negin The new government’s proposed Australian Centre for Disease Control (and Prevention) faces a daunting task coordinating across eight states and territories and providing national leadership. And yet, there is an important discussion required about adding a further, extremely complicated element of scope to the initiative:…
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Monkeypox in Australia: should you be worried? And who can get the vaccine?
Jaya Dantas, Curtin University On July 23, World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took the unprecedented step and declared the monkeypox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” – the highest global alert level for a disease outbreak. Following this and with 45 cases in Australia, Chief Medical…
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Asylum seekers and undocumented migrants lived the COVID-19 pandemic twice but were left out to struggle
1Zelalem Mengesha and 2Esther Alloun 1Centre for Health Equity Training, Research & Evaluation (CHETRE), UNSW Australia Research Centre for Primary Health Care & Equity, A Unit of Population Health, Member of the Ingham Institute, Sydney, NSW 2170, Australia 2Health Equity Research and Development Unit (HERDU), UNSW Australia Research Centre for…
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Many places are starting to wind back COVID restrictions, but this doesn’t mean the pandemic is over yet
Holly Seale, UNSW Sydney This month, mask mandates were lifted in South Australia, and vaccine requirements for dining and nightlife were removed in Queensland. Public health experts at the World Health Organization have begun discussing what conditions would eventually signal the public health emergency declared on January 30, 2020 can…
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Australia’s ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury. What happens next?
Dr Silvana Bettiol – University of Tasmania On December 7, 2021, Australia became the 136th State party to ratify the Minamata Convention on Mercury. The Convention seeks to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds. It addresses 11 of the United…
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A mentor’s experience: A Q&A blog on the National Mentoring Program
Students & Young Professionals Committee – PHAA The PHAA’s nine month mentoring program unites experienced public health professionals (mentors) with early career PHAA members (mentees) who have similar interest areas. The program aims to build the capacity of mentees, provide experience in mentorship to public health professionals, and offer valuable…
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The CODE COVID-19 International Update, 26 January 2022
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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The CODE COVID-19 International Update – 12 January 2022
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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The Code COVID-19 International Update – 7 January 2022
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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Vaccines and beyond: why partnerships and preparation are key to overcoming the pandemic
Dr Stephanie Williams, Australia’s Ambassador for Regional Health Security In 2021, the initial shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine development race gave way to new variants and outbreaks that challenged our regional neighbours and the world. These events reiterated the importance of effective national vaccination campaigns alongside ongoing public…
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The Code COVID-19 International Update – 16 December 2021
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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The Code COVID-19 International Update – 9 December 2021
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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The Code COVID-19 International Update – 2 December 2021
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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On World AIDS Day, peak body says elimination can be achieved in Australia by 2025
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA Today, 1 December, is World AIDS Day. After 40 years of trying to control the spread of HIV in Australia, the peak national organisation for Australia’s community HIV response, says 100% elimination should now be our goal, and is achievable. Every year 900 Australians are diagnosed…
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The Code COVID-19 International Update – 18 November 2021
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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The Code COVID19 International Update – 11 November 2021
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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The Code COVID19 International Update – 4 November 2021
Dr Priscilla Robinson The Code COVID19 International Update is a weekly snapshot of the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing efforts by nations around the world to test, track and fight the virus. It’s compiled by Dr Priscilla Robinson, an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at LaTrobe University, and an editor for…
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Pandemics are by definition GLOBAL. Will Australia share the solution?
Terry Slevin – PHAA “The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine for people aged 18 years and older, six months after their second dose. “In high-income countries, over 60% of people have had at least one vaccine dose, compared to around 4% in low- income…