Last Saturday saw more than 250 people attend a Medact conference on the interfaces between health, politics, ecology, economics, and violence. There were about 30 speakers including well known figures […]
Global health
Suchita Shah: Polio resurgence in Syria—the importance of vaccination in wartime
Today, on Remembrance Day, while the nation remembers the fallen, battles continue to rage throughout the world. Alongside wars, the scourge of disease is claiming victory over the weak and […]
Gabriel Scally: A grotesque parody of fairness
It’s a long way to go from Bristol to Boston for a conference, but I’m adding to my carbon footprint and attending the 141st American Public Health association meeting. It’s […]
Dave Albert: Cycling surgeons for safer surgery
Why would one ever consider cycling from Glasgow to London when there is a perfectly good train? Particularly if you choose a really hilly route, with 20 percent climbs through […]
Jane Parry: The disease of poverty is a doctor’s business everywhere
“If you miss the poor, you’ve missed the point,” said Margaret Mungherera in her recent inaugural speech as incoming president of the World Medical Association. She urged doctors around the […]
Susan Cookson et al: Success with disease surveillance in Somalia
Photo: Children receiving the polio vaccine in Somalia. Despite violence and abuse in Somalia, we wish to report some successes with disease surveillance. […]
Seye Abimbola: Polio eradication and the lens of established thought
In the introductory essay to their timely collection of ethnographic papers on global health, “When People Come First: Critical Studies in Global Health” (which I think everyone working in global […]
Richard Smith: Moving from global heath 3.0 to global health 4.0
Global health 1.0 was called tropical medicine and was primarily concerned with keeping white men alive in the tropics. Global health 2.0 was called international health and comprised clever people […]
Saleyha Ahsan: Syrian frontline medicine is under fire
Two weeks ago we braced ourselves for US military strikes in Syria. I have been based in a northern Syrian hospital, working under the umbrella of non-governmental organisation Hand in […]
Julien Potet: How access to life saving antisera is dwindling fast, and what to do about it
What do snakebites, tetanus, and rabies have in common? Answer: Treating patients with these life threatening conditions relies on antisera, a class of immunoglobulin-rich products derived from the plasma of […]