When will things get back to normal? A question we have asked since COVID-19 hit us in 2020. Who imagined it would last for more than a year, and return in waves as deadly as the second wave in India, which was nothing less than a nightmare. Practically every family was suffering, grieving, pleading; […]
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Planetary health care and Barbara Starfield´s legacy
Barbara Starfield advanced academic scholarship on the role of primary care in health systems and universal health coverage. Her research on equity contributed to evidence-informed health policymaking1. On June 10th 2021, we commemorate her 10th death anniversary. Starfield described four attributes of primary care- first contact, continuity of care, comprehensiveness, and coordination – and […]
COVID-19 vaccination in India: we need equity
Just a few days after starting its own COVID-19 vaccination program , India provided vaccines as grant- in-aid to other countries1 . This was in sharp contrast to some high-income countries which stockpile vaccines, and block proposals to suspend intellectual property rights in World Trade Organisation2. India now is in the midst of a […]
Healthcare workers in Myanmar are under attack. The world cannot afford to be silent.
On April 12th, Dr. Maw Maw Oo, a senior Emergency Medicine doctor was forcibly abducted by armed soldiers at his office in Yangon General Hospital. Dr Oo, who was coordinating his hospital’s COVID vaccination and treatment efforts, is just one of dozens of physicians to have been arrested by Myanmar security forces since widespread […]
Call for Papers — COVID-19 and high impact respiratory pathogens: epidemic and pandemic preparedness in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region
BMJ Global Health, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO), are pleased to announce a call for papers on COVID-19 and high impact respiratory pathogens: epidemic and pandemic preparedness in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. The special issue will be guest edited by Prof. Ziad […]
Men and COVID-19: where’s the policy?
The COVID-19 pandemic has refocused attention on many health inequalities, not least those related to gender. Globally, men and women are thought to be infected with COVID-19 in roughly equal numbers. But, overall, men are 40% more likely than women to die from COVID-19 and almost three times more likely to require admission to an […]
Rohingyas, human rights and raising our voice
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 […]
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 […]