I first set foot in Tanzania 20 years ago as a medical student. Rather ambitiously at the time, I came with the intention of conducting an evaluation in Tanzania and the UK of the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative, which aimed to promote and facilitate breastfeeding. That work led to an editorial in The BMJ, which […]
Category: Global health
Stuart Brown: Antimicrobial resistance—a local, national, and global threat
I have presented at many events on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and come across difficult to treat infections in my own practice, but I had never seen an untreatable infection. That changed this summer when we had our first carbapenemase producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) infection, an OXA-48. A normally difficult to treat infection with limited treatment options, […]
Showing solidarity with health professionals everywhere on the need for water, sanitation, and hygiene
Delia Jepson and Cheryl Stanley, midwives, Liverpool Women’s Hospital We started this year by travelling to rural Tanzania with WaterAid to experience what daily life is like for the committed midwives working in a busy referral hospital where the taps only worked sporadically. It is an experience that will never leave us—observing the caring and creative […]
Seema Biswas: Conflict is a global health challenge
“The first principle of health is life. War is a direct threat to life. For millions of people worldwide, surviving war is the predominant objective in their daily existence. Ending war would be the first step toward health and wellbeing in any sense of these ideal conditions.” At the recent World Health Summit in Berlin, leaders […]
Visa headaches and inequalities in attending global health conferences
Faraz Khalid, Sara Ardila-Gómez, and Kerry Scott Enthusiastic preparations are underway for the Fourth Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, which is to be held in Vancouver on 14-18 November 2016. This year’s symposium will bring together over 2000 delegates from around the world. As part of the Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH) program, we […]
Bayad Nozad: Antimicrobial resistance in conflict zones
The UN’s declaration on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was signed by every member of the United Nations General Assembly. Unfortunately, not all member states have the necessary infrastructure to ensure action is taken on the same scale in every part of the world. The challenges faced by war-torn countries in addressing AMR is significantly important to the […]
Behrooz Astaneh: Iran’s scientific community shouldn’t be put in the shade
A recent news report published in Science ran with the alarming headline: “A shady market in scientific papers mars Iran’s rise in science.” The story reports that some Iranian scholars buy scientific papers to publish under their name, and that there is a prosperous market in Iran to sell such articles to researchers. While it […]
Peter Grabitz et al: How can we improve data sharing in public health emergencies?
At the recent World Health Summit in Berlin there was a workshop discussing the case of data sharing in Public Health Emergencies” organized by the Centre Virchow-Villermé. About two years ago, during the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa, it became clear that researchers weren’t sharing screened viral genomes openly, thus delaying the outbreak response. At […]
Sian M Griffiths: How to implement handwashing with soap in schools
11 March 2016 was an important day for global public health. It was the day the UN adopted a hygiene indicator as part of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6–the goal that covers the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, and which will guide funding and policy in this area for the […]
After Hurricane Matthew: The fight to prevent a cholera epidemic in Haiti
Cholera has been in Haiti since shortly after the earthquake in 2010. Before Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti this month, it was predicted there would be 50 000 cases by the end of this year. Sadly, with some areas showing as much as a 91% increase in cases last weekend, this number is now feared to be […]