South-East Asia

Nearly 40% of estimated global cholera cases are reported from Asia, yet scant research exists on the overall economic burden of the disease.   

It was January of 1925, and Nome’s children were dying. Diphtheria had struck the Alaskan town, but the curative serum the local doctor needed was in Nenana, nearly 700 miles away.

For anyone who performed surgery on landmine survivors, the need to ban the weapon was obvious. We were seeing kids with their limbs being blown off. It’s little different to see a child in need of amputation from a preventable post-surgical infection that got out of…

When the UN convenes its High-Level Meeting next week on universal health coverage, increased access to surgery not only needs to be a top priority for political rhetoric but for genuine commitment.

While Russia has made strides in tackling NCDs and TB, its policies pose a grave threat the control of other global health concerns like HIV.   A laundry list of antagonistic actions have overshadowed Russia’s global health efforts. On certain issues, the country’s approach…

Although Germany only published its first global health strategy in 2013, it has rapidly accelerated its pace in the field—like a new Porsche on the Autobahn.

In Africa and Asia, 2 million women and girls live with obstetric fistula that leaves them incontinent.   The condition is “effectively a hole in the birth canal” resulting from lengthy, obstructed labor without key emergency care, Sarah Newey reports. In developed nations…

Move over, concrete-and-steel behemoths. There’s a new high-rise on the rise.   Amid growing environmental concerns about concrete, high-tech timber buildings have shot up in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific. Innovations in timber technology have eroded concerns…

Complications from premature birth are among the leading causes of under-5 deaths—and more than 60% of such births happen in Africa and South Asia.   Preemies have the best chance of surviving and thriving if they are given their mother’s milk immediately after birth.  

Recently, an African researcher I met expressed her frustration about how American “kids” with little or no experience come all the time to “advise” her government on what to do about health. I have seen this myself, but her rant really hit a nerve. For the want of a…