Health

• [New] Increasingly frequent, extreme weather events linked to climate change are causing devastation to toilets, water supplies, waste systems and treatment facilities, threatening the health of some of the poorest people in the world.
• [New] Price increases of drugs approved through UDI have boosted U.S. health spending by $3.2 billion so far, and will increase costs by tens of billions more in coming years.
• [New] Now scheduled for full implementation in 2021, the EU MDR will replace the Medical Device Directive MDD 93/42/EC and introduce a wide range of changes in the way medical devices are regulated in Europe.
• [New] Policy makers have an important opportunity to center equity in the health care enterprise and to improve the health of the US people.
• [New] Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health said in a statement that it is reviewing the current family visitation policy at long-term care homes and considering factors including vaccination rates and current community transmission risk.
• [New] The FDA recognizes that medical devices share the responsibility of cybersecurity threat across the ecosystem but specifically holds manufacturers primarily responsible for managing cybersecurity risks within their products.
• [New] Carbon-14 was not a health risk, arguing that chemical contaminants in seawater like mercury should concern consumers more than anything that comes from the Fukushima site.
• [New] The rare blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine could help U.S. health officials as they investigate six reported cases of blood clots, including one death, associated with the J&J vaccine.
• [New] Others receive N82 visa stamps on their travel documents, falsely labeling them as a threat to public health, safety and/or order and making their return to Turkey impossible.
• [New] Led by UNICEF UK, it aims to help fund almost two billion Covid-19 vaccines for health workers and the most high risk and vulnerable people on our planet.
• [New] The COVID-19 vaccines that have been approved by Health Canada are safe, effective and will save lives.
• [New] While Africa has so far largely avoided the worst case Covid-19 scenario, the emergence of new variants could potentially create health, social, economic and political emergencies in the coming months and years, especially as vaccine rollouts remain slow.
• [New] Europe passed the grim milestone of one million coronavirus deaths on Monday, as the World Health Organization warned that infections are rising exponentially despite widespread efforts aimed at stopping them.
• [New] The events of the past year have underscored the serious and rapid threat that emerging viruses pose to global health.
• [New] Nuance's technology will be used to augment Microsoft's cloud products for health care, which were launched last year.
• [New] Europe's health system governance will continue to invest and reimagine health systems to ensure that telemedicine and other digital health technologies are improved and adapted to emerging regulations and ever-changing patient demand.
• [New] A recent report by University College London researchers argues that early vaccinations in prisons would not only protect the health of an at-risk group, but restore prisoners' access to education, work, and rehabilitation programmes, as well as lower the risk of reoffending.
• [New] For years, the U.S. health care system lagged behind many industries when it came to embracing new technology and software, wary that sensitive health records could be breached.
• [New] In the US, sales of full-calorie sodas plummeted over a 20-year period as the health risks of sugar were publicized and government took action.
• [New] Board of Health urge the Government of Ontario to decrease the risk and spread of COVID-19 by prioritizing COVID-19 vaccine registration for Toronto's highest risk hotspot areas.
• [New] Strengthening the provision of essential services like WASH in the most vulnerable communities builds resilience to climate change, future pandemics and emerging global health threats such as antimicrobial resistance.

Last updated: 16 April 2021