Conflict

South Sudan buried years of reports detailing the dire health problems that coincide with the oil operations that prop up the young nation’s economy.   Birth deformities have spiraled since oil production began. People die of “unknown diseases”; babies are born with six…

At 49%, Indonesia’s rate of female circumcision is the third highest in the world—despite laws banning the practice.   What keeps it going? In Indonesia, female genital mutilation is rooted as much in family tradition as in religion, according to new research from Gajah…

Eastern Africa is dreading the hatching of a new generation of locusts that stands to be 500% larger than the swarms that swept the region earlier this year.   Tens of millions of people in the region already face extreme hunger—and the swarms wreak havoc on crops,…

Compared to white women, American Indian and Alaska Natives are more than 2X as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes.   And Native women in urban areas—where there’s better access to care—fare no better than those on rural reservations.  

In a fresh push to end FGM by 2030, WHO launched a new tool today that calculates the cost of the practice, marking the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, UN News reports.  

Professional athletes are known for overcoming mental limits to achieve incredible physical feats.  For some athletes, the “invisible tattoos” of childhood trauma may manifest as an all-important drive to succeed, writes William D. Parham, director of the Mental Health and…

Opioid makers teamed up with a tech company to create a computer pop-up alert system designed to maximize—and extend—prescriptions to the addictive painkillers, a government investigation revealed this week, Los Angeles Times reports.  

Over 15+ years, Kenya received $72.5 million from the US government to build up its blood safety and transfusion program “nearly from scratch.”   But that funding has tapered off and dried up—and the Kenyan government hasn’t budgeted to fill the gap this year, leaving…

Countries should fight public health threats with the same vigor they use to tackle terrorism, WHO warns in a roundup of the top health challenges of the next decade.   Highlights from the list (in no particular order): 

There were signs of hope for peace in Yemen in the new year.   But while bombs may have stopped, the country is still haunted by disease and displacement, writes Susan Schulman in a powerful account in the Telegraph of returnees amid one of the world’s worst humanitarian…