To absolutely no one’s surprise, the US Congress is still going after foreign aid in an attempt to seem tough on spending, as The New York Times reported this week. Although there appear to be few developments since I wrote about this issue in July, the discussions and subsequent hand-wringing are back in the open. […]
The UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) was held last week in New York and resulted in the adoption of a Political Declaration (PDF here). As I feared a few weeks ago, the declaration is weak and does not set hard goals or targets to curb the NCD epidemic, which caused two-thirds of […]
Today, I’d like to share articles published this week that explore developments and discoveries in global health. Drug-resistant strains of bacteria are on the rise, and there is a need for conservation of antibiotics. Genetically-modified mosquitoes are the latest attempt to curb malaria. Scientists have used modified HIV-1 to kill leukemia (really). Medical […]
I write often about communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, which get a lot of international attention and popular support, spurred on by celebrities, government leaders, and the media. What is ignored, however, is the growing epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), also known as chronic or “lifestyle” diseases. With the upcoming United Nations High Level Meeting […]
I’ve made a recent move to San Francisco, California, and a few days ago, I found myself wandering around The Mission, a neighborhood that is undergoing rapid gentrification. Apart from the somewhat small but popular Dolores Park (pictured left), there isn’t a lot of green space in the area, in contrast with many other (generally […]
I ran across a few interesting health and human rights issues in the news this week, and I thought I’d share them. Researchers have concluded that the benefits of Vitamin A supplements for children’s health have been established so clearly that further trials would be unethical. A woman who sued a Tennessee sheriff’s department after […]
Just in time for National Women’s Day in South Africa, Human Rights Watch published a report last week on failing maternal care in the country. South Africa has seen its maternal mortality ratio quadruple in the last ten years. The report focuses on the Eastern Cape, one of the least developed provinces in the country, […]
This post is not really about global health. However, there’s little in the news to go on (which sort of contributes to my later points) as the famine in Somalia and drought in East Africa are everywhere in the media recently, as are photos of starving children. Apart from being a very real humanitarian crisis, […]
Well, it’s a new week and the same old, same old is happening in Washington. The House Appropriations Committee has released the 2012 State and Foreign Operations Bill and, unsurprisingly but disappointingly, in its current form the bill proposes an 18% cut below last year’s appropriation. The proposed total on for appropriations is $39.6 billion, […]
I’ve written about the potential positive effects of mobile technology on global health and human rights before, but I came across a paper from AudienceScapes (PDF) on inequalities in mobile phone access and penetration rates in lower-income countries and thought I’d follow up. The brief, by Gayatri Murthy, outlines the gender and wealth disparities that […]
This week, The Guardian reported that the CIA fabricated a vaccination program in Abbottabad, Pakistan, as part of its efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden. The scheme was hatched in an attempt to collect DNA from the Bin Laden family to verify its presence in the area. This tactic is concerning, to say the […]
Documenting the seldom-seen world of child brides Photographer Stephanie Sinclair is interviewed about her work documenting child brides — some as young as 5 — in Nepal, India, Yemen, Afghanistan, the U.S. and elsewhere. An estimated 50 million girls younger than 18 in developing countries were married, with 100 million more expected during the next […]
Original photo here, taken by NYC-MetroCard / CC BY Public Health researchers at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health released a study last month that estimates the number of deaths in the US in 2000 due to social factors such as poverty, low education, and income inequality. The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 47 studies […]
Study shows that AD syringes help stem infections from vaccination shots The Measles Initiative and the GAVI Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) announced today that infections resulting from the re-use of syringes for immunizations have been reduced to practically zero in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a study released in the Supplement […]
Over the past week, reports have emerged about pervasive lead poisoning in China and allegations of a cover-up and intimidation by the Chinese government. The New York Times had a prominent article this week and Human Rights Watch has released a 75-page report. Of course, we’re talking about a regime that already drastically represses the […]