One day last summer after I returned home to Mongolia, my uncle knocked frantically at the door. He stormed inside, gasping for air. He had been diagnosed with cancer a few months earlier and was now struggling to breathe. We needed to get him to the hospital right away.…
At the start of the UN General Assembly this week in New York, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed and the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stepped into an “air pollution pod” and visibly struggled to breathe. This is often our first thought of…
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.
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.
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…
UNICEF and the World Food Programme provide food and nutrition aid to North Korean children—but a lack of funds, fueled by political tension and the US-led strategy of pressure and isolation of North Korea, have limited their reach. The country’s most vulnerable children…
After decades of effort by the global health community and governments, more women are giving birth in health facilities than ever, and maternal and newborn mortality have declined since 1990.
Update 10/1/2019: Deadline extended to October 15, 2019! Do you know an important global health story that’s been overlooked by the media and deserves special notice?
In September 2017, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control faced an outbreak of monkeypox—a disease unseen in our country for nearly 40 years. The skin rashes, swollen lymph nodes and other symptoms of this “cousin to smallpox” caused great concern in communities. Misleading…
