The Ebola virus is finally receiving attention after years of being ignored as just another deadly disease in Africa. Yet it was only when the current outbreak got out of […]
Global health
Richard Smith: Leapfrogging to universal health coverage
Low and middle income countries have the chance to create health systems that will perform much better than those in high income countries. Copying health systems that look increasingly unsustainable […]
Abdullah Aljoudi: An epidemic free Hajj
“Complete the pilgrimages … for the sake of God” Quran 2:196 The 2014 Hajj was epidemic-free, according to Saudi Arabia’s acting health minister. In addition to the regular Hajj health regulations, this […]
Sian Falder: Burns care overseas—the forgotten health crisis
The role of UK medical professionals overseas often captivates the public, especially when there are dramatic scenes and mass suffering. There is something about war zones and huge natural disasters […]
The price of joining the middle income country club: reduced access to medical innovation
When people think about medical humanitarian aid, the usual association is with war zones and natural disasters, and the assumption is that the most critical medical needs are concentrated in […]
Vinitha Soundararajan and Alisha Patel: Sustainable Healthcare
Climate change, an ageing and growing global population, and depleting planetary resources are well established issues. There is a call for urgent action, especially in healthcare. The NHS has been […]
Richard Smith: A tobacco company CEO writes to his marketing department
Dear all, I see a great opportunity for us. You won’t believe this, but I’m at a public health conference in Sousse in Tunisia. I’ve come with my twin brother, […]
William Cayley: Thinking about Ebola from the sidelines
Recently I was staring at two dramatically different bits of “news” on my computer screen. Yet another story on the spreading Ebola outbreak was in one window, and the latest update […]
Tony Waterston and Jean Bowyer: Teaching and learning about disability in the West Bank
“We want to improve the attitudes of nurses towards their patients.” This call from senior nurses at an Educating of Educators course in Ramallah (a Palestinian city in the central […]
Sharon Lewin: The challenge of infectious diseases
It was not so long ago that there was a broadly held belief that modern society had defeated the worst of the world’s most lethal infectious diseases, and that the […]