Scrub typhus (ST) remains a neglected vector-borne disease that affects millions of people globally every year. Despite being a vector-borne disease with wide geographical coverage, significant morbidity, and a high case fatality rate, it has surprisingly not yet made it to WHO’s vector-borne disease (VBD) list . In this article we argue why S...

During the final months of 2025, the global health community got to know about the America First Global Health Strategy. A complete analysis of all the problem areas of this policy would take us too far: allow me to focus here on the implications for the ongoing negotiations on a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) agreement. During the C...

Every year, around the holiday table, I ask the same question: “How would you describe the past year, and the year ahead, in one word?” The answers are usually hopeful. Change. Clarity. Growth. Stability. If I had to describe the past year in one word for the global health community, however, I would choose grief. It feels as though we have ...

My problem is that I have become a cynic. And not in the charming, world-weary way of a philosopher. I simply no longer believe that the world will get better in any fundamental way. Between climate change, antimicrobial resistance, deepening inequality, and whatever geopolitical crisis is trending this week, we seem to be running a full buffet ...

As a new UHC Knowledge Hub is launched in Japan ahead of international UHC Day, global health reform initiatives should align behind UHC as a country-led, sustainable global health model if they want to stay relevant. Momentum for global health reform is at a peak. The Accra Reset, the Lusaka Agenda, Wellcome Trust’s commissioned proposals, a...

Portuguese national healthcare system providers are not unfamiliar with a constant influx of new, temporary team members. These new members may be there for the whole day, the whole week, forever, or even for just a few hours, who knows? They are mostly junior, unspecialized doctors, earning plenty of money with very high hourly wages. These loc...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a  current crisis that is claiming lives worldwide, with sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries being disproportionately affected. Since Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in September 1928,  he warned that misuse could render antibiotics ineffective, leading to deaths from infections that were once treatable....

When I received confirmation to attend the Global Forum for Bioethics in Research in Ghana (18-19 Nov), I was thrilled, but also a bit anxious. At 26 weeks pregnant, traveling internationally and alone was not a decision everyone understood. “Can you travel during this time? Is it even allowed? How will you manage? Why now? Why alone? Take som...

Imagine some place on Colombia’s Pacific coast: an idyllic riverine community reachable only by boat, where the river is the main road, the rain sets the rhythm of the day, and the sound of the forest blends with the voices of the people. That’s where “María” lives. One day, during a hospital stay for a cardiovascular condition, she dev...