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Young (and occasionally less young) researchers, mostly from LMICs, present their views on global health issues.
Back in 2014, The Lancet’s Richard Horton was asked to debate against global health at the annual conference held by the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in Washington DC. He argued some valid points to support his case. First, authors of the Global South are underrepresented on international journals. Second, the scarcity of globa...
I’m just back from three days of intense but fruitful conversations on ‘Strengthening Space Cooperation for Global Health’ at the World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Geneva, Switzerland (August 23 – 25, 2017), with the crux hinged on resiliency and interoperability. The event which was a joint conference organized by WHO, the Unite...
About this time a month ago, I walked into the arrival lounge of Catania International Airport, looking bleary-eyed for the shuttle driver who was supposed to pick me up. I was grateful to see the placard that had the words ‘WHO Summer School’ inscribed on it, because I was suddenly overcome with fatigue and felt lightheaded. The flight seem...
West Africa is regularly faced with threats and socio-economic consequences of epidemics caused by infectious diseases, including zoonotic diseases. This is largely due to the fact that humans and animals share the same ecosystem with an increased risk of disease development and globalization trends due to rapid population growth and high mobili...
In these turbulent times, many people will agree that to the question recently asked by Fryatt et al. “Health sector governance: should we be investing more?”, the answer is definitely yes. The big issue then is: what kind of investments will make the difference? Back in 2007, the WHO proposed a six building blocks’ framework to categori...
Besides journalists being participants of the Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (HSR) can they also be empowered to report Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR)? They usually begin with “Dear Colleagues,” “Dear Worthy Friends,” “Top of the day to you, I trust you are doing well,” and other such catch phrases. Thes...
Another year, another epidemic. Now, don’t panic. There isn’t an outbreak—not at the moment, at least. But one could be lurking around the corner. They come in seasons, so much so the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) speaks of preparing for the “next epidemic season.” And they can be relentless and weird. Take Lassa fever, nam...
Every year, World Population Day (11 July) serves as a rallying point for strengthening the demand for access to contraceptives for women and girls, worldwide. Being able to control one’s fertility, is undoubtedly one of the most significant aspects of women’s control over their own destinies. Family planning and gender equality go hand in h...
Since the 1st of July, Dr. Tedros has been the new ‘captain’ of WHO and he’s certainly off to a flying start. Earlier this week, he set out his priorities at a ‘townhall meeting’ with WHO staff, and today and tomorrow he’ll be heading the WHO delegation at the G20 summit in Hamburg – a first ever for a WHO boss, at the request of A...