This week the World Health Organization and the Brazilian Government are jointly hosting the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health in Rio de Janeiro from 19 to 21 October (the Rio Conference). This conference came about as the result of a resolution at the World Health Assembly in 2009 to follow up the work […]
Category: Guest writers
Alison Spurrier: Caring for older people
To care for older people one vital ingredient is needed…time. Nothing can be rushed. Everybody needs to be washed, have their teeth cleaned, their mouths checked and cleaned, and their nails and hair sorted out. Don’t forget the never ending call for the commode, and if they don’t need help to get to the toilet they will need […]
Joseph Ana: Breast flattening, ironing, straightening, and pounding: a new form of violence against girls and women
Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard about the cultural barbarism of breast flattening, a native attempt to delay the development of a girl’s breasts so that they are not “attractive” to men and boys before they are ready for marriage. Just before a girl reaches puberty her mother will (sorry but please […]
Aneez Esmail: Understanding patient safety in general practice
It was a comment that I made in an interview for a BBC 4 File on Four programme that caught the eye of producers at Channel 4’s Dispatches programme. I had been speaking about the problems of understanding patient safety in general practice and how we knew so little about issues related to wrong diagnosis […]
Aser García Rada: Ex-smokers are unstoppable
For the first time a large European awareness campaign to help smokers quit focuses on the positive aspects of doing so, rather than highlighting cancer, heart disease, or death. We are so used to dreadful messages, such as the striking images already seen on cigarette packages in many countries worldwide, that this new proposal from […]
Bob Roehr: The changing complexity of HIV vaccine trials
Successes in treating and preventing HIV infections are making it more difficult, more expensive, and perhaps more uncertain to plan and conduct HIV vaccine trials in the countries most affected by the epidemic. That is because those trials are driven by the endpoint of new infections, which are being reduced. […]
Peter Johnson: Reforming the European Clinical Trials Directive
The European Clinical Trials Directive (EUCTD) has been a contentious issue across the UK’s medical research community since its introduction in 2004. Promising to bring a unified system of approvals and standards of clinical practice to the UK and across Europe, the directive has at best fallen short on delivering these promises and at worst […]
Bob Roehr: Rise of the antibodies
The focus of HIV vaccine research has shifted over time as one aspect or another has offered more of a glimmer of hope for success. Lack of progress in creating a vaccine that prevents infection led to a focus on T cells in the hope that if one could not prevent infection, then perhaps one […]
Jeremy Sare: Liberal Democrats-fighting the fear of talking about drugs
A British party of government has just agreed, almost with unanimity, to policies that would shred many of our drug laws. Perhaps you didn’t notice. You may have already guessed it was not the Conservatives. Most of the media did not even report it, or mentioned it only in a somewhat “eyes-rolling upwards” manner, as […]
Babatunde Osotimehin: Maternal healthcare in a Kenyan refugee camp
Seated on her bed at a maternity clinic in Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya, Daruno Abdi, a mother of six, watches other mothers breastfeed their newborns. She has been here for the past three days and can’t wait for her turn to deliver her baby. Daruno fled conflict and famine in her country Somalia. She never expected to […]