Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck such a ferocious blow to the global health community, there was a trend in the right direction in eradicating other longstanding infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), between 2015 and 2020, global tuberculosis (TB) incidence fell by 11%. Now, unfortunately, it seems that we’re losing that […]
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Healthcare organizations condemn Israeli decision to designate human rights NGOs as “terrorist organizations”
The COVID-19 crisis has been marked by various restrictions placed on people to secure global health. Yet this is only one aspect of the relationship between public health and the limitations on human rights and freedoms. Recent years have seen authoritarian governments around the globe shrinking civil space – repression that has an impact […]
How COVID-19 exposed crevices in Uganda’s health workforce
At the outset of the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in December 2019, the magnitude and impact of the current global pandemic was inconceivable. As it ravaged one country to another, trepidation grew in Uganda. Locally, we wondered whether we could mount and coordinate an effective response: how would we cope with inextricably high patient loads, access […]
Vaccine hesitancy: Perspective from the global polio eradication program in Balochistan
Sitting in my apartment in Geneva, my thoughts inevitably return to the streets of Quetta, Balochistan (Pakistan) where I led a network of community health workers in Quetta Block who went door to door to raise awareness and immunize children against poliomyelitis. Polio is 99% eradicated but remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Following […]
We must increase people’s access to and willingness to take COVID-19 vaccines
Recent research published by the journal Nature shows that people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are more willing to take COVID-19 vaccines than their counterparts in high-income countries. The researchers analysed 15 COVID-19 vaccine acceptance surveys involving 44,260 respondents across 13 countries – Burkina Faso, Colombia, India, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sierra […]
Beyond health: Connecting art, COVID-19 and the Sustainable Development Goals in the rural plains of Nepal
Art and the SDGs is a public engagement project between artisans from the Janakpur Women’s Development Centre (a centre of Mithila art and culture) in the southern plains of Nepal, researchers at UCL Institute for Global Health and the United Nations in Nepal to promote dialogue between students and artisans about local meanings of […]
Colonialism in speech-language pathology: Moving forward
How we communicate is one way through which we tell the world who we are. The vocabulary, syntax, and speech sounds we use tell others where we are from, our age, our gender, our socioeconomic background, and our cultural associations. The language learning process initiates us into our communities by implicitly teaching us the […]
Lessons from COVID-19: Strengthening the public health system in India or accelerating privatisation?
When Manisha’s husband passed away in a private hospital from Maharashtra state in October 2020 she was given a handwritten bill of Rs 14 lakh (18,892 USD). The hospital withheld his body for ten hours till the dues were settled. Sandeep Dhande was given a bill of 1.5 lakh (2,040 USD) on a piece […]
Stigma related to COVID-19 threatens to divide humanity further
. The global spread of COVID-19 has been accompanied by a deeply troubling rise of stigma. Stigma related to COVID-19 included stereotyping, blaming and ostracizing groups or individuals that were infected or associated with the disease. This pattern of stigmatization has been fueled by political rhetoric, inequity, and mistrust . Many of these stem from […]
Should take-home medication for opioid use disorder become the norm?
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 […]