Mercury Treaty: WHO Consultation on Vaccines

Prior to the 4th meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to prepare a global legally binding instrument, states have requested additional information on alternative preservatives e.g. 2-phenoxyethanol for vaccines (instead of small quantities of mercury in thiomersal containing vaccines), and on the economic, programmatic and manufacturing implications of moving (globally) to single dose, preservative free vaccines. WHO held an information consultation from 3-4 April in Geneva for the purposes of scinentific exchange.
WHO Vaccines Website

PAHO and Climate Change

The 51st Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) adopted a new strategy and action plan on climate change drafted by the PAHO Secretariat. These documents call call for, inter alia, improving regional, national and local capacity to respond to public health needs during climate-related emergencies, and creating new PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centers to study the health effects of climate change and to support national and regional capacity building in this area.
Regional Strategy and Action Plan

WHO: Health and Green Economy Series

The World Health Organization has launched a report on health co-benefits of climate change mitigation in the housing sector, the first of a new series of reports on health in the green economy, which undertakes a systematic analysis of climate change mitigation and green growth strategies in five economic sectors: housing, transport, health care facilities, household energy in developing countries and agriculture.

WHO Health in the Green Economy Website

WHO: 64th Assembly

The 64th Session of the World Health Organization's (WHO) World Health Assembly met from 16-24 May  in Geneva (Switzerland) and adopted a framework on pandemic influenza preparedness covering the sharing of influenza viruses and access to vaccines and other benefits.

The framework establishes a specific regime for access and benefit-sharing (ABS) with regard to influenza viruses, and for sharing of benefits arising out of research performed on those viruses, in particular through access to vaccines, antiviral drugs and scientific information. It aims to improve pandemic influenza preparedness and response, and strengthen protection against the pandemic influenza by improving the WHO's global influenza surveillance and response system (GISRS).

Draft WHO Resolution and Framework