Each year, more than 1 million babies globally are born with a congenital heart defect—and most require corrective surgery within weeks. Because of a lack of resources and cardiac specialists, many babies in low-income countries go untreated. In Tanzania, for example, only…
Despite expanding Interest in global surgery, particularly the unmet need in low- and middle-income countries, little data exists to pinpoint the barriers to surgical care. To determine whether surgical conditions vary depending on geospatial considerations, researchers…
For women in Sierra Leone needing surgery for fistula, the lack of access to safe anesthesia is yet another hurdle. Frequent power cuts and a lack of oxygen tanks meant that most health facilities in the country can’t provide general anesthesia, ruling out procedures like…
By Dayna Kerecman Myers Imagine that your child has been injured and desperately needs surgery, but instead of getting immediate treatment, you’re hunting around the market for surgical supplies. Or driving from clinic to clinic, trying—in vain—to find someone to…
2 billion people around the world lack access to basic surgery, but not enough is known about operative care in low-resource settings—especially in Africa, which has perhaps the greatest unmet need.
Back in August, Yusra Ribhi Shawar and colleagues provided an analysis of factors preventing surgery from becoming a global health priority in the Lancet Global Health. They underscored the need to find consensus on training and supervising non-surgeons to deliver surgical…
A lucrative black market is meeting the demand for kidneys in Bangladesh, where at least 2,000 people need transplants annually, but donation is only legal between living relatives. Many in poor farming areas sell kidneys to raise cash—one woman was paid $4,500—by easily…
By Tigistu A Ashengo When I return home to Ethiopia, I look forward to visiting my grandparents’ house to reconnect with uncles, aunts and cousins with whom I share a closeness that belies my bi-continental life. Growing up in Addis Ababa, I spent my summers at my…
Little attention is paid to the public provision of surgery in modern India, even though it’s a cost-effective method of improving health care, note Sristi Sharma and Joshua Ng-Kamstra of Harvard Medical School’s Program in Global Surgery and Social Change.
Approximately 5 of the world’s 7 billion people have no or little access to basic surgical care. Injuries alone cause 5.7 million deaths yearly, much more than the 3.8 million deaths caused by malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis combined. Many of these fatal injuries could…
