Modern colonization drastically differs from what it was historically. Today’s control does not require economically rich countries to invade, set up physical colonies, or exert military control in less powerful countries. Instead, the neo-colonial power dynamics and approaches of today are more complex. A key difference is the emergence of global health in the […]
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Reflexivity in quantitative research – A Master of Global Health class perspective
“Are numbers in quantitative research objective?” Our 2021-2022 Masters of Global Health class at Karolinska Institutet reflected during an in-class discussion on the role of reflexivity in quantitative research. The question was raised after learning about the concept in our qualitative research lectures. While reflexivity was used as a quality measurement in qualitative research, […]
Preventing tooth decay in resource-limited settings
For the first time since it was first published in 1977, dental medicines have been added to the World Health Organization Essential Drug List. How could it take 44 years to include these items on a list addressing people’s priority needs given that untreated tooth decay is the most common global health condition? The […]
COVID-19 response allowing epidemics like tuberculosis to mount a comeback
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 […]
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 […]