History has witnessed numerous drug patent wars, but in April 2013, the Indian Supreme Court did something which captured the attention of the international media. It denied a patent to the beta crystalline form of Imatinib mesylate, a life saving anticancer drug, to the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. The verdict was noteworthy because this drug […]
Category: Global health
Fran Baum on the final day of the WHO global health meeting
Fran Baum is blogging from the 8th World Health Organization Global Health meeting. Read her other blogs here. The morning session of the final day of the WHO 8th global health meeting (8GCHP) had many contributions looking to the future. Heidi Hautala, minister for internal development, Finland, spoke of the importance of woman in development, […]
Fran Baum on Finland’s primary healthcare system
Fran Baum is blogging from the 8th World Health Organization Global Health meeting. Read her other blogs here. Yesterday was “Europe Day” and the impact of the financial crisis in Europe was at the forefront of people’s minds. Many talked of its health impact and especially the devastating impact of high unemployment. Zsuzsanna Jakab, World […]
Fran Baum: How can governments globally get “Big Food” to change its addiction to sugar and fat?
Fran Baum is blogging from the 8th World Health Organization Global Health meeting. Read her other blogs here. It was good to hear Pekka Puska present Finland’s health promotion success which has resulted in an 80% reduction in cardiovascular disease over 30 years. He stressed that this has been a long term complex process. The […]
Anita Jain on the Bangladesh factory collapse and corporate responsibility for worker safety
“A mother of two, her left arm amputated, she refuses to ever go near a sewing machine again.” In April this year, the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh collapsed killing over a 1000 people and injuring many more. Among poignant accounts of despair that emerged from the incident, I felt this woman’s situation reflected the […]
Fran Baum on economics and health at the WHO global health meeting
Fran Baum is blogging from the 8th World Health Organization Global Health meeting. Read her other blogs here. The day started with Cecilia Vaca Jones, the Minister of Social Development in Ecuador presenting some impressive indicators of Ecuador’s progress. They have tripled health and social spending between 2006 and 2012 with the aim of eradicating poverty. […]
Jane Parry: Why real name HIV testing won’t fly in China
Two interesting documents that came across my desk this week got me thinking about how different HIV-related human rights look depending on where you’re standing. The first was a press release from UNAIDS, UNDP, and the International Commission of Jurists about the first ever judicial dialogue about HIV, human rights, and the law. The second […]
Fran Baum on the globalisation of unhealthy lifestyles
Fran Baum is blogging from the 8th World Health Organization Global Health meeting. Read her other blogs here. Sauli Ninistö, President of Finland, opened the conference stressing that health is important for achieving other goals, but also has value in its own right. He spoke of Finland’s huge improvements in health since the 1940s achieved […]
Sandra Lako on x-ray machines and emergency rooms in Sierra Leone
Today marks three years of working for Welbodi Partnership and it’s hard to believe that so much time has gone by. The last time I blogged, I wrote about getting more involved clinically. Well, that spell ended rather quickly, and before I knew it I was back to managing various projects. Managing projects might sound […]
Fran Baum: From Ottawa to Helsinki—the 8th global conference on health promotion
In 1986 the World Health Organisation held the first global conference on health promotion at which the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion was drafted and adopted. It has become the bible for health promoters with its five strategies of building healthy public policy, creating a supportive environment, strengthening community action, promoting individual skills and re-orienting […]