The World Health Organization has granted emergency approval for the use of a Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccine for adults 18 and older.   The U.N. health agency approved a vaccine Tuesday made by Sinovac Biotech, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company. It was the second time the WHO approved a vaccine made by a Chinese company on an emergency basis.     The WHO said data submitted by Sinovac indicated that two doses of the vaccine prevented symptoms from developing in just over half of those who received vaccinations. The agency also said it could not estimate the efficacy of the vaccine in people over 60 because few people in that age group participated in trials.   The WHO’s decision makes another vaccine available for use in poorer countries through COVAX, an international program that distributes vaccines to developing nations, many of them impoverished.   But COVAX’s distribution efforts have been slowed after …

Member nations of the World Health Organization have approved a plan to negotiate the terms of an international pandemic response treaty.Attendees at the closing session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva voted Monday on resolution to create a special WHO assembly session in November aimed at reaching a treaty or convention that would help nations better prepare and respond to a potential pandemic similar to the COVID-19 outbreak.The ongoing outbreak has sickened over 170 million people around the world and led to more than 3.5 million deaths since it was first detected in central China in late 2019.   WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told attendees “the time has come” for such a treaty, saying it would strengthen both the U.N. health agency and global health security as a whole.  He said it will address “the lack of sharing of data,  information, technologies and resources” that marked the sluggish response …

Violent confrontations continue between armed groups on the Colombia-Venezuela border, displacing thousands of people.  One Venezuelan nurse is crossing into Colombia to help those in need. For VOA, Jair Diaz has the story from Arauquita, Colombia, in this report narrated by Cristina Smit. Camera: David Hernandez, Oscar Cavadia …

Member nations of the World Health Organization have approved a plan to negotiate the terms of an international pandemic response treaty.Attendees at the closing session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva voted Monday on resolution to create a special WHO assembly session in November aimed at reaching a treaty or convention that would help nations better prepare and respond to a potential pandemic similar to the COVID-19 outbreak.The ongoing outbreak has sickened over 170 million people around the world and led to more than 3.5 million deaths since it was first detected in central China in late 2019.   WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told attendees “the time has come” for such a treaty, saying it would strengthen both the U.N. health agency and global health security as a whole.  He said it will address “the lack of sharing of data,  information, technologies and resources” that marked the sluggish response …

A man in eastern China has contracted what might be the world’s first human case of the H10N3 strain of bird flu, but the risk of large-scale spread is low, the government said Tuesday. The 41-year-old man in Jiangsu province, northwest of Shanghai, was hospitalized April 28 and is in stable condition, the National Health Commission said on its website. No human case of H10N3 has been reported elsewhere, the commission said. “This infection is an accidental cross-species transmission,” its statement said. “The risk of large-scale transmission is low.” …