Monday was World Polio Day, and there was much to celebrate: as of now, the world has seen a 99% reduction in polio cases. That’s incredible news. We have reached a point where polio could be wholly eradicated in less than five years. Isn’t it nice to hear that it is possible to successfully combat […]
Back in mid-February, amid the optimism of the immediate post-Mubarak era, I wrote a blog post exploring the future of philanthropy and the NGO sector in Egypt, noting that the field had been developing quite rapidly despite a restrictive operating environment. I speculated that if regulatory interference from the Ministry of Social Solidarity receded, the future […]
There are exciting new developments in the fight against malaria. More attention must be paid to mental illness around the world. Finally, a community-based program out of Senegal is stamping out female genital cutting, and the model should be developed to be scalable and replicable for areas where the practice endures. Malaria Developments: As fellow […]
Every day across the globe children die from preventable diseases. One of the biggest and most preventable killers is malaria. Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes. According to the World Malaria Report 2010, there were 225 million cases of malaria and an […]
Earlier this month, a study published in The Lancet discussed findings that hormonal contraceptives doubled the risk of HIV infection and transmission. The study examined 3,790 sero-discordant heterosexual couples (meaning that one of the two has HIV) in seven African countries. Some of the women were using hormonal contraceptives, mostly injectable (such as Depo-Provera) but […]
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 […]
Next month (October 23rd) the people of Tunisia will vote to elect a Constituent Assembly, with the primary task of drafting a new constitution! The National Constituent Assembly (NCA) will be composed of 218 members, and will have to draft a new constitution for Tunisia within a year. Furthermore, the NCS will also elect from […]
Wangari Maathai, Nobel laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, passed away late Sunday night while undergoing cancer treatment in Nairobi. But she left the world having fully lived her 71 years, to the benefit of the rest of us. Like many prominent women her age, Maathai had to break through many […]
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 […]
“[In the decade since 9/11] I think we have learned a lot about limits. But I don’t think the lesson is: We can do nothing to shape better outcomes in the world; we only make things worse. I would say that the American people, far from being interventionist, as they were in the aftermath of […]
As we observe the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and we contemplate what went wrong with the past decade, we should look at Libya for lessons on western intervention! In the aftermath of 9/11, American neoconservatives tried to ‘liberate’ the Arab world, and bring ‘democracy’ in the Middle East. It was argued that failed states like […]
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 […]
Over the weekend, Médecins Sans Frontières president Dr. Unni Karunakara created a stir by chastising charities for creating an unrealistic expectation of what humanitarian aid was capable of achieving in Somalia. According to Karunakara: There is a con, there is an unrealistic expectation being peddled that you give your £50 and suddenly those people are […]
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 […]