The developed world only woke up to the fact that there was a problem, when the first cases of Ebola arrived in the USA and Europe. Until then, the Ebola epidemic was merely another quaint story from darkest Africa. Apparently, this outbreak was caught from fruit bats, who were being trapped for food. It was […]
Category: Global health
Stephane M Shepherd: Cultural awareness training for health professionals can have unintended consequences
The overpoliticisation of simple medical encounters may do more harm than good […]
Anthony McDonnell and Neil Woodford: Hype can undermine hope for new antibiotics
Every time a newly discovered molecule or preclinical drug makes the headlines as a “cure for drug resistant infections,” we risk people thinking that the problem has been solved […]
Ian Hamilton: Language alone cannot reduce the stigma that people who use drugs experience
The derogatory language we use to describe people who use drugs is merely a symptom of a deeper problem, says Ian Hamilton […]
Charles Clift: Tedros is refreshingly honest about the deficiencies in WHO governance and financing
Will member states respond? The executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO) will meet on 22-29 January. A key agenda item will be the latest draft of WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work (GPW) for the period 2019-2023. WHO’s constitution obliges the executive board to submit a GPW periodically for approval by the World […]
Monika Gattinger: How can Europe be more traumatising than Mosul?
The people living in Moria, a refugee camp in Greece, have been abandoned by Europe and treated like criminals for nothing more than wanting to be safe […]
Richard Smith: Little global progress in countering non-communicable disease
In 2011 the United Nations held a high level meeting on preventing and controlling non-communicable disease (NCD) and produced a declaration on what countries should do. In 2018 it will hold another meeting to review progress, and unless there is a dramatic acceleration the meeting is likely to conclude that progress has been poor, said […]
Peter Taylor: Achieving the health related SDGs—why we need major shifts in thinking
Real momentum is building around the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as national governments integrate the 2030 Agenda with their own policy processes. Recognition of the multi-sectoral nature of the SDGs is encouraging different stakeholders to get involved in many national contexts and in a wide range of actions. Health in particular, is acting as a […]
Lulwa Al-Kilani: From one refugee to another, I hope you can go home soon
Since the start of the civil war, 165 000 South Sudanese refugees have fled the violence at home and crossed the border into Sudan’s White Nile state. Lulwa Al-Kilani, a Palestinian project manager with medical humanitarian organisation Medécins sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has been working in the Al Kashafa refugee camp hospital in White […]
Sofia Gruskin: We must follow California’s example and repeal archaic HIV laws
Recently, my home state of California made national headlines when it repealed an HIV criminalisation law and reduced penalties for exposing other people to the virus. It was a landmark decision grounded in science and human rights that will go into effect next month. The law that was repealed had violated people’s fundamental human rights […]