Several days ago I returned from Borno state in northeast Nigeria, where a catastrophic humanitarian emergency is quietly unfolding. I was there to assess the situation and help set up Médecins Sans Frontières’ aid activities in one of those towns—Bama, approximately 70 kilometers southeast of Maiduguri, the state capital. On arrival, we found high numbers […]
Category: Global health
David Hughes: London, Zika, and the Rio Olympics
I remember clearly the night of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. I was team doctor for the Australian women’s basketball team, the Opals. The Australian Olympic Team (AOT) usually sends one or two doctors to the opening and closing ceremonies, with a few basic medical supplies, to take care of any medical issues that […]
Pietro Dionisio: The shortage of medicines in Venezuela is a humanitarian crisis
Venezuela is a powder keg. A major objective of the Chávez government after the Bolivarian revolution was to improve healthcare for the Venezuelan people, and they built thousands of new clinics, hospitals, and diagnostic centres across the country. But now there is a grave risk that all this progress will vanish and those living in poverty […]
Chris Simms: The Iraq war, Chilcot, and cherry picking data: How to find a way forward?
The first week of July 2016 was a week to remember. A cluster of war related stories dominated the media, including the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme (1 July), the death of Elie Weisel on 2 July, on 3 July there was the deadliest bombing in Bagdad since 2003, three days later we had the release […]
Madhukar Pai: How drug resistant TB can show the path to tackling antimicrobial resistance
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health threat, and it is estimated that if we do not find solutions to tackle the rise of drug resistant pathogens, by 2050 10 million lives a year and a cumulative 100 trillion USD of economic output will be at risk. Since the introduction of antibiotics, microbes have evolved a variety of […]
Lara Fairall: Serendipity and scaling up towards universal primary care
A Brazilian adaptation of our PACK training programme for primary care doctors and nurses went live last week in the Southern city of Florianὸpolis, or Floripa as it is known to locals, amid great excitement including a clip on local television. We’ve spent 15 years in South Africa developing, researching, and fine tuning our programme. PACK, […]
Andy Haines: Why health partnerships are good for global health
Global health is in a state of constant flux. Trends are perpetually changing and evolving, and new challenges arise on an almost weekly basis. The great gains seen in the fight against many infectious diseases are accompanied by increases in mental ill health, and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer in […]
Katherine Sievert, Suong Le, Paul O’Neill: Engaging new migrant populations—a lesson in humility
Our Rohingyan community leader sits with us in Springvale Community Centre, Melbourne, Australia, educating us on what he perceives as the major risks for the transmission of hepatitis B virus in Myanmar. He reports that Burmese people love to drink Red Bull, Coca Cola, and tinned juice. However, in Myanmar these canned drinks are kept […]
Peter Thomson: Standing up for the rights of migrants and refugees in Europe
Recently I had the opportunity to watch a special screening of “Frontline Doctors: Winter Migrant Crisis” supported by Doctors of the World UK. Originally shown on the BBC in March, this uncompromising documentary follows Chris and Xand Van Tulleken across Europe, observing migrants fleeing during winter, and offers an insight into the sheer scale of […]
Rosanna O’ Keeffe: A week in Calais
My teenage patient presents with a cough, fever, and a sore throat. This sounds like an ordinary, everyday consultation in general practice. The only difference is that this time the consultation is taking place in a caravan, in the refugee camp (also known as the Jungle) in Calais. My father and I (GP and GP […]