The Chinese phrase, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” is widely used, […]
South Asia
Amir Attaran and Marvin Shepherd: Denialism and India’s risky medicine
Governments that lie are dangerous to public health [1]. South Africa’s shameless denial that HIV causes AIDS delayed treatment for millions, and many needlessly died. Now India’s government is doing […]
Farah Kidy on volunteering in India with the Institute of Rural Health Studies
After years of planning and plotting, I was finally getting ready to head off to India. This was going to be a voyage of discovery; I was going to explore […]
Shalini: A 100 million lives, up in smoke
So it seems that the apocalypse didn’t occur and the world hasn’t come to an end. 2012 is not the end of existence as we know it—the Mayans were wrong. […]
Jacob Puliyel on the pentavalent study in Kerala
The 14 December 2012 marked the end of a year long pentavalent vaccine study in Kerala, India. Kerala is a small state in the south with some of the best […]
Anita Jain: Delhi rape—how doctors can help heal a survivor
As a brutal rape attack in Delhi has outraged masses and spurred the demand for urgent action, my thoughts turn to to the thousands of cases every year that suffer […]
Jacob Puliyel: Advertising standards and vaccine promotion in India
Until last week few people in India had heard of the existence of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Suddenly in the newspapers on the 15 December 2012 the […]
Radhika Arora et al: Challenges and opportunities for female health systems researchers
Juggling personal and professional lives in search of the perfect balance is an art that women and men across the world, in different spheres of work, are familiar with. How […]
Rakhal Gaitonde et al: The mortar that holds the BRICS together
We are young researchers from Brazil, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS). Given our collective experience as citizens and researchers in these countries, and deeper understanding gathered during our three […]
Rej Bhumbra: Is it ethical to donate second hand implantable devices to the developing world?
Few would disagree that organ donation and transplant surgery is a remarkable achievement. It is a selfless gift that unlocks the potential to cure disease or allay symptoms. But if […]