The impact of COVID-19 on people with pre-existing health problems has been devastating. To speak of any benefit of the COVID crisis for them is perhaps heretical. But an important COVID-induced change in the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) is a crisis response with demonstrated benefits. In many countries, people living with OUD […]
Category: Universal health coverage
COVID-19 vaccination in India: we need equity
Just a few days after starting its own COVID-19 vaccination program , India provided vaccines as grant- in-aid to other countries1 . This was in sharp contrast to some high-income countries which stockpile vaccines, and block proposals to suspend intellectual property rights in World Trade Organisation2. India now is in the midst of a […]
How the World Trade Organization could facilitate access to COVID-19 health technologies?
Governments have faced difficult decisions over the past months, but the decision to remove unnecessary barriers to accessing COVID-19 health technologies like vaccines, diagnostics and treatments should be an obvious one. This decision is currently under debate among member states of the World Trade Organization, who are considering a proposal to waive global intellectual property […]
There are two pandemics, but why do we keep forgetting the underlying one?
The pervasive poverty pandemic is a major threat to health and survival. History books and fiction frequently feature the tight links between poverty and health, but this ‘common knowledge’ is consistently ignored in political responses to public health challenges. Given the firmly established relationship between poverty and health inequalities, explained by the “inequitable distribution of […]
Providing primary care in COVID-19 lockdown to rural, underserved areas of Rajasthan, India
The first case of SARS-COV-2 was reported in India in 30th January 2020. A few months down the line, the Government of India announced a sudden lockdown on 24th March. Following the lockdown, all local transport, private and public, came to a halt, private healthcare providers closed their clinics, and government health facilities significantly […]
Implementation research for advancing action against non-communicable diseases
The failure to translate health and medical research into policy and services action is well-documented (1). Human behaviour is complex, and results from trials in controlled settings often do not translate into real life settings (2). Knowing how best to deliver proven life–saving interventions for the management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), within existing health systems, […]
What does data privacy and its commercialisation mean for global health?
In the world where digital health is becoming the norm – what does data privacy and commercialisation mean for global health ? writes Michael Johnson Imagine you are an activist working to fight corruption within your own government. For ten years you have been receiving regular HIV treatment, but your HIV status is known only […]
Why we need to talk about NCDs in children ?
Recent years have seen a notable shift in the field of Global Health. Whereas attention used to focus on the prevention, management and control of the ‘big three’ infectious diseases – HIV, tuberculosis and malaria – the Sustainable Development Goals and WHO’s Global Action Plan mark the beginning of a new era. This puts welcome […]
The Acronyms that Divide Us
TLAs that every HCW Should Know to Better Understand the UNGA HLM on UHC and SDGs writes Alexander W. Peters . The Chair of Medicine (CoM) at a leading hospital cut me off mid-sentence, and I briefly lost my train of thought. “What are NCDs?” he asked. We had been discussing, in broad terms, how […]
Do we really need more skilled health workers?
Do we really need more skilled health workers in a world of Artificial Intelligence and digital health ? Discusses Kenneth Yakubu As at 2013, the world was in need of 7.2 million health workers and this shortage is projected to increase to 12.9 million by 2035. This number captures only the need for skilled health […]