Deepti Chavan When the Government of India in its National Tuberculosis Strategic Plan 2017-2022 announced that tuberculosis (TB) patients would be provided direct economic benefits while on treatment, I was overjoyed. I have seen up close and upfront how TB affects a family’s economic status. I am a multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB survivor. My six-year […]
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Addressing the global health funding gap: Italy needs to step up!
Dr Giorgia Sulis Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) account for as much as 85% of the world population and over 90% of the global burden of disease, and mostly count on international donor funding for health, the average domestic health expenditure being lower than 12% (Figure 1). Although there has been a dramatic increase in […]
Role of the private sector in epidemic response and preparedness
By Jennifer Esposito, Health & Life Sciences, Intel Corporation In today’s interconnected world, pandemic disease threats have the potential to not only have a devastating human impact, but could also cost tens of billions of dollars to the global economy and private enterprise. These threats could exacerbate political and economic instability, and threaten the national […]
India’s toilet use challenge and the dilemma of human behaviour
By Pritha Chatterjee and Dr K. Viswanath, Harvard School of Public Health The single biggest problem in communication, as the erudite George Bernard Shaw worried, is the illusion that it has taken place. While this applies profoundly in many areas of public health, the open defecation challenge in India lends itself as a particularly telling […]
“Science is everywhere, let’s keep it that way.” Increasing threats to science both in the North and South: some responses
By Sara Ardila-Gómez (Emerging Voices for Global Health, 2014, Argentina) & Kati Wilkins (Emerging Voices for Global Health, 2016, United States of America) Over the last months, quite a few governments from both Northern and Southern countries have turned their backs on science by questioning its value, importance, and contribution to human and planetary sustainable […]
The intersection of gender, trauma and global health: what we know and what we should know
Many experts would argue that trauma is not just a one-time incident; it is a lifelong burden, affecting physical, psychosocial and emotional aspects of health. I have been interested in the subject of gender-based violence since childhood. As a child, I remember accompanying my mother to the domestic violence shelter where she volunteered on weekday […]
Fee-for-service – a bold measure by the Afghan health ministry
The Afghan Ministry of Public Health has recently announced a User Fee Regulation under which user fees will be levied for services in secondary and tertiary public health facilities. The details of how much will be charged, for what services, and when the regulation will actually come into effect are yet to be known. What […]
Tales of a small town surgeon in India: the case for global health investment on essential surgery
Dr. A works as a surgeon in a small town of India. Like any other small town doctor he has settled for a practice here because of affinity and close proximity to his home. Building up from the scratch, Dr. A has slowly set-up an infrastructure that provides the best possible quality and affordable healthcare […]
Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar: Five tasks for the new WHO DG
Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar set out five tasks for the newly elected DG of the WHO […]
Is India’s national health policy geared towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals?
The adoption of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) in 2015 marked a shift in the global development agenda from the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era. SDGs are particularly important for the health sector, since they reaffirm the premise of the Alma Ata declaration that health cannot exist in isolation. SDG’s intrinsically link health with actions […]