As I type this, there is a 14-year-old Rohingya girl sitting alone in a shelter home in the Indian state of Assam, probably scared and confused. She was returned to the home after being accompanied to the Indo-Myanmar border by eight police officers, upon the Indian government’s order to deport her back to Myanmar […]
Latest articles
The gendered and public health consequences of anti-Asian racism in America
Six of the eight victims killed in the Atlanta massacre on Tuesday March 16, 2021 were women of Asian descent. This horrific incident is illuminating the United States’ long history of anti-Asian racism and violence, especially gender-based violence, and raising questions about what we know and don’t know about the intertwined effects of racism, […]
Global Health Diplomacy Failures in the COVID-19 Era: Surviving Denialism and Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa is currently bordering close to four million Coronavirus cases, with over 100 000 deaths, the rate of recovery is close to 90%. Northern and Southern Africa remain the hardest hit with the COVID-19 pandemic, 1.5 million cases are recorded in South Africa. There have been a range of health responses, from strong responses […]
Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on the private health sector in Africa
The for-profit private sector is an important provider of health services in most countries, and the sub-Saharan African region is no exception. A recent study puts the percentage of health services sourced from private providers in the World Health Organization’s AFRO region at some 40%. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the private health sector in […]
How can we overcome pandemic fatigue in 2021?
COVID-19 has shocked the world and requires constant vigilance; but until the roll-out of safe and effective vaccines (of high-uptake), we should not easily revert to life prior to the pandemic. Public support for mitigation measures have been remarkable; still, as expected, signs of pandemic fatigue are reported throughout the world. Published and unpublished […]
The democratisation of health care: will Kenya be left behind?
“Young man, I would be dead without this device.” Mr. Ngatia[1] said as he shook my hand vigorously. Mr. Ngatia was in his early 50s and had spent much of his life in Korogocho slum in Nairobi. I met him about seven years ago when I was leading a community-based health research project on […]
Inclusion & accessibility for disabled doctors: a public health issue
Disabled people constitute up to 15-20% of the world’s population; but the proportion of disabled doctors is low globally. There is a need to move away from traditional narratives of disability to rights-based perspectives, which offer respect, dignity, equity and inclusion for disabled medical students and doctors. While global estimates of proportion of disabled […]
An interview with last year’s BMJ Global Health Grant winner, Dr. Dickson Lwetoijera
As we prepare to announce the recipient of the 2020 BMJ Global Health Grant, we went back to 2019’s winner and asked him what receiving the grant meant to him and his research career. Dickson Wilson Lwetoijera is Chief Research Scientist at Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Ifakara, Tanzania; Professor at Nelson Mandela African Institution […]
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 […]
An effective national response to COVID-19: what not to learn from Sweden
“The measures enjoined were far from Draconian and one had the feeling that many concessions had been made in a desire not to alarm the public” (The Plague, Albert Camus, 1947) Why is it that Sweden, which was first to introduce mandatory use of seatbelts in cars, seems to be the last country […]