Tejshri Shah

Sep 25, 2024 | samoaobserver.ws | Natasha Turia |Stephen Howes |Tejshri Shah |Jessica Collins

Australia has form for bold regulation. It was the first country to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes, a model exported globally. Tobacco companies took legal action and used obscure international treaties to try and force Australia to abandon plain packaging, but it was ultimately hailed a success. Now the government wants to enforce a minimum age for using social media.

Sep 22, 2024 | samoaobserver.ws | Tejshri Shah |Gaurav Saini

Last week, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, James Marape, emerged the victor in what has been a relentless campaign of opposition-led no confidence votes this year seeking to topple him from the leadership. Marape has not flinched from the parliamentary challenges, emphasising that they are part of the democratic process.

Sep 21, 2024 | samoaobserver.ws | Natasha Turia |Stephen Howes |Tejshri Shah |Gaurav Saini

He is a teenager living on the streets in a town in Fiji and was recently confirmed as one of the new HIV cases. The 19-year-old was referred to Empower Pacific by a doctor at one of the divisional hospitals in the country for counselling. Like him, doctors have also referred some new HIV cases to the NGO, which focuses on providing counselling and social support services. Many of the new cases referred by doctors for counselling are youths living on the streets.

Sep 16, 2024 | devpolicy.org | Tejshri Shah

For months, the mpox epidemic has been sweeping through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with more than 20,000 suspected and confirmed cases, and over 630 deaths recorded from January to early September. On 14 August 2024, the World Health Organization’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared that this surge of mpox cases in DRC and a growing number of other African countries constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.