Ilona Kickbusch, Gian Luca Burci, Austin Liu A new election process After a “rollercoaster” year the World Health Organization (WHO) elected its ninth Director General (DG) in May 2017. The new DG has received many congratulations, but it is equally important to congratulate the WHO for opening up the process by which the DG was […]
The nature of civil conflicts and wars is changing, with civilian deaths far exceeding the number of military fatalities. [1] The effect of weapons on civilians is widespread in ways that pervade civilised society. In Kashmir, we are witnessing an epidemic of pellet gun injuries for the first time and at a scale previously unknown […]
Dengue fever was first detected in Sri Lanka in 1962. Although cases were initially sporadic, dengue has reached epidemic proportions during the past 15 years. Dengue fever used to show a clear seasonal pattern, with two incidence peaks during the northeast and southwest monsoon periods. However, patients with dengue fever are now seen throughout the […]
“I’m not talking to you about Ebola or Zika virus but about a virus that everyone in this room has had and everyone of your children and probably all children in the world get in their first few years of life,” said Roger Glass, director of the Fogarty Institute, as he began his Wolfson Lecture […]
The start of a journey In January 2016, shortly after 194 countries signed on to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and an ambitious, universal, and transformational vision for global development, The BMJ published an editorial titled “Accelerating achievement of the sustainable development goals.” The article drew on ideas that had emerged from a meeting—hosted in […]
Decades before the advent of complexity science, H L Mencken wrote that “For every complex problem there is a solution which is clear, simple, and wrong.” These solutions typically complicate existing problems while creating new ones. Local and global health communities likely have lessons to offer political leaders at risk of opting for these kinds […]
Global health advocates need to look critically at themselves, get out of their health bubble, and start to mobilize for global health […]
The idea came to me in September 2016 when the United Nations General Assembly held a high level summit to address the large movements of refugees and migrants. At the meeting it was increasingly clear that the world is experiencing a huge humanitarian and health crisis affecting migrants, refugees, and internally displaced patients (MRIDP). In […]
It’s been 18 months since I witnessed the decimation of our fully functional hospital in Kunduz, Northern Afghanistan by aerial bombardment. I still can’t find words to adequately describe the all-consuming panic, nauseating fear, and chest-clutching grief that clouded my judgement as I darted between my friends, my colleagues, their dying bodies ripped apart by […]
Current economic and political climates are posing a threat to women’s sexual and reproductive rights […]