Health

Partnering for Youth in Central Asia

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Young people around the world are facing increasingly insurmountable, persistent barriers as they try to achieve their full potential and secure a prosperous future. However, Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific have already begun working to ensure that no one is left behind.

Are Hotels Dangerous? Putting in Context Dominican Republic Tourist Deaths

By Jan Lundius
Being a frequent visitor to the Dominican Republic, where I occasionally have enjoyed the high standard, security and excellent service of its resorts, I became puzzled by recent, quiet excessive media reactions to statistically insignificant cases of deaths in these resorts. The number of demises in Dominican resorts have been more or less the same over the years and do not at all differ from those of most other tourist destinations. People die in hotels all over the world. There may even be specific reasons for this and they are far from being unique to the Dominican Republic.

Low-Income Countries Pay Over 20 Times More for Generic Drugs

By Caley Pigliucci
A recently-released report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD) shows that generic drugs, like omeprazole (used to treat heartburn), can cost 20-30 times more in low and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.

Sharing the Burden of Refugees; the World Can Do Better

By Siddharth Chatterjee
As the world marks World Refugee Day on June 20th to celebrate the strength, courage and perseverance of refugees, a glaring concern remains just how inadequate the global response to the refugee crisis has been.

Poor Outlook for HIV-positive Children in Pakistan

By Charlotte Munns
Over 785 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Larkana, Pakistan. 82% of those individuals are children, and only half are receiving the treatment they need.

U. S. Backing for Heated Tobacco Products Triggers Misrepresentation

By Wendell Balderas
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision authorizing the sale of Philip Morris International (PMI)’s heated tobacco system, IQOS, in the United States inadvertently puts a foot in the door to increase sales of new tobacco products in the developing world.

Dignity & Strength for Venezuelan Refugees & Migrants in Colombia

By Tomer Urwicz and Liliana Arias Salgado
Not long ago, 15-year-old Nelsmar attended a middle-class school in central Venezuela. That was before her family was uprooted by the economic and humanitarian crisis in her country, which has pushed nearly 3.9 million persons to migrate or flee, according to recent estimates of the Coordination Platform for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela.

Mothers in the US Are Dying: What Are We Doing to Save Them?

By Juan Pablo Segura
The maternal mortality rate in the United States is the highest of any developed country – and the rate is rising. The US is currently the most dangerous place to give birth in the developed world.

We Must do More to Speed up Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies

By Niklas Hagelberg
Fossil fuels—oil, gas, coal and their derivatives—pollute the atmosphere and emit the greenhouse gases that are ramping up global heating to dangerous levels. But did you know that governments around the world are subsidizing this pollution?

An Escalating War on Reproductive Rights

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Abortion has long been a contentious issue across the world, and the debate is only heating up, prompting women to stand up and speak out for their reproductive rights.

Exploitation and Acculturation

By Jan Lundius
There are several means to make profitable use of other human beings, an endeavour that tends to turn others into tools by depriving them of their roots and self-respect. This happened in concentration - and work camps, where individuals were reduced to mere numbers.

The World Made Promises to Women and Girls, We Must Fulfil Them

By Monica Juma
In 1994 the International Conference and Population and Development (ICPD) was hosted in Cairo by the Government of Egypt. Twenty-five years later, Kenya is ready to convene the ICPD “Nairobi Summit” in November 2019.

Preventing Antibiotic Resistance: Look to the Livestock Industry

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Antimicrobial resistance is quickly becoming a global crisis and risks reversing a century of progress in health. Some organisations have already geared up and are tackling the issue from its roots.

Global Hunger Is Threatening Families Because of Climate Change

By Siddharth Chatterjee
There is barely a corner of human life that will not be affected by climate change, and some of its impacts are already being felt. Consider this, 821 million people are now hungry and over 150 million children stunted, putting the hunger eradication goal, SDG 2, at risk. Today 15 May, is the United Nations International Day of Families and the theme for this year is, ‘Families and Climate Action’.

Opting In: The Value of Vaccines

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Since the introduction of vaccines, diseases such as measles and polio were quickly becoming a thing of the past. However, the world’s progress on immunisation is now being threatened.

Terror and Religion

By Jan Lundius
Just before nine o´clock in the morning of April 21st, Christians in Sri Lanka were in their churches peacefully celebrating Easter Sunday, while tourists were waking up in their hotel rooms. Suddenly explosions blasted three churches and three hotels. Among the ruins lay hundreds of wounded people, as well as 253 corpses of men, women and children. They had been killed and maimed because some fellow human beings believed they acted in God´s name and out of promises of an unproven, heavenly bliss if they killed themselves after obliterating people they did not know; sowing death, lifelong suffering and sorrow.

Improving the Lives of Millions of Mothers and Children

By Friday Phiri
It is slightly after 3pm on a hot Wednesday afternoon in Chipata district, eastern Zambia, and a group of women are gathering for a meeting. It is Elizabeth Tembo’s turn to stand amongst the other mothers like herself and share key lessons on nutrition.

Egypt’s Food Challenge: a Good Effort but Not Enough

By Maged Srour
“Unfortunately the overall nutritional panorama of Egypt does not look well,” says Dr. Sara Diana Garduno Diaz, an expert concentrating on nutrition and biology at the American University of the Middle East. Diaz’s research focuses on dietary patterns and ethnic-associated risk factors for metabolic syndrome.

Revealed — A Roadmap to Defeat Tobacco Tax & Keep Indonesians Addicted

By Ulysses Dorotheo
The image of a smoking toddler from Indonesia horrified the world but did little to motivate local policy makers to enact measures to protect children and youth from the harms of tobacco use. Indonesia has one of the world’s highest smoking rates where two out of three men and about 40 percent of adolescent boys smoke.

Q&A: 607 Island Atolls Means it’s Hard to Distribute Leprosy Healthcare to All Micronesians

By Stella Paul
During his 22-year career in the health sector, Marcus Samo has seen the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) suffer from an increased burden of disease while at the same time the resources to address them have either remained the same or decreased.

Missing Data & Inefficient Drug Distribution Tops List of Micronesia’s Leprosy Challenges

By Stella Paul
It’s a good day for Dexter, a 25-year-old fisherman from Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia. He’s just been told that he is cured of leprosy.
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