A nurse prepares to provide care to a patient with coronavirus in Brussels, Belgium, October 2020. Credit: Keystone/Gaetan Bally

How increasing patient engagement can improve health systems. Experts at the Geneva Health Forum discussed how solutions for today’s public health challenges need to involve more “patient-centric” approaches to health.

A new era in the fight against antimicrobial resistance - can we revert the silent tsunami? This week is World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, marking the fight against the silent and rising global threat of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs. Can patients be part of the solution?

Challenges to Covid-19 vaccine access. Moderna’s and Pfizer's news about the 95 per cent efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate is a big milestone, but fair distribution of proven vaccines to the world’s population remains a huge challenge.

Extending social health protection to promote equity. Speakers at the Geneva Health Forum met to discuss the hurdles to extending social health protection, which is critical to achieving Universal Health Coverage.

The children never had the coronavirus. So why did they have antibodies? This piece explores one of the big puzzles of the pandemic: why are children so much less likely than adults to become infected with the new coronavirus and, if infected, less likely to become ill?

Credit: Antibiotic Footprint

The Antibiotic Footprint is a scientific collaboration funded by The Wellcome Trust which aims to raise awareness about antibiotic use and overuse in different countries and sectors (community, hospitals, animal agriculture). Portrayed above is a graphic comparing antibiotic use in animal populations among countries around the world for which data is available, measured in metric tonnes.

20-22 November | Online: AMR Youth Summit. Taking place during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, the first-ever global AMR Youth Summit is a 3-day virtual event where youth around the world come together to discuss, learn, and get empowered about various AMR related topics and challenges.

3 December | Online: IAPO launches new AMR Patient Alliance. A group of patient organisations led by IAPO will launch the AMR Patient Alliance by inviting organisations and individuals to sign the Global Patient Consensus and Call to Action on AMR.

3-4 December | Online: Asia Pacific Patients Congress. In rhetoric, patients are at the centre of healthcare; in reality their voices are left unheard. Despite hard times, patients of the Asia-Pacific region gather for the second time to explore and strengthen patient leadership in health systems.

12 December | Online: International Universal Health Coverage Day. UHC advocates raise their voices for the millions of people still waiting for health, calling on leaders to make bigger investments in health, and encourage diverse groups to make commitments to help move the world closer to UHC by 2030.