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Young (and occasionally less young) researchers, mostly from LMICs, present their views on global health issues.
On 22nd and 23rd November 2017 at a special session of the Executive Board (EB) held in Geneva, WHO’s new Director-General (Dr. Tedros) presented and received comments from the Executive Board and other Member States on the organization’s draft strategy document – the 13th General Programme of Work (GPW). The GPW is meant to be a roadmap f...
2017: A year with multiple hurricanes of category 4-5 devastating Texas, Florida and the Caribbean islands; monsoon floods displacing millions and killing thousands in South Asia; record wildfires burning ~8.5 mn acres of land in the western US, leaving people around Oregon, Washington and California choking on dangerous levels of smoke; and Del...
Loss of freedom of mobility makes me uncomfortable and claustrophobic. A few years ago, on my first day as a student in Europe, I took a walk at 0100hrs. Not because I had to be someplace. But because I could. Of course. No place, and no one is immune from sexual abuse. As the Harvey Weinstein saga of sexual harassment unfolded over a month ago ...
On a cold Monday (November 13th), I had the opportunity to attend the 2017 Academy of Medical Sciences and The Lancet International Health Lecture, by Dr. Samuel Myers, who is Director of the Planetary Health Alliance and affiliated to the Harvard School of Public Health. The lecture took place in London, one of my favourite cities. In the very ...
On a rainy, misty day I found myself travelling early in the morning to Bonn, Germany. The former capital of West Germany (for the younger readers of this blog ) hosts this year’s annual global climate change negotiations, the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP 23) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). My des...
Just like management gurus, we in the health sector can produce our own checklists. What do successful health programmes have in common? Inspired by a visit to Ethiopia’s health extension worker programme, here are my top-ten habits of a successful health programme. What are yours? Committed leadership It is a cliché, but the mobilisation...
The global health community recently witnessed the first major test of the new WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus’s nascent tenure. On October 22 2017, following several days of intense outrage and scrutiny, particularly in the news and on social media, the Director-General rescinded the appointment of Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s longtim...
Brussels, 7:00. My alarm rings and I slowly doze off into self-imbued life contemplation before my phone’s News alert forces me to connect with the real world, this big blue room outside my small warm bedroom. I look at my screen, eyes half closed to accommodate to the contrast between the shimmery engine and the comfy twilight of a wintery mo...
On behalf of the Latin American Network for Multidisciplinary Research on Chronic Diseases A 46-year-old woman affected by a heart attack in Zimbabwe, a (male) heavy smoker aged 68 and recently diagnosed with lung cancer in Australia, a 52-year-old Indonesian man with neurological stroke sequelae due to long-term undiagnosed hypertension, … ...