Men’s excess burden of cancer is clear. Globally, one in eight men and one in 11 women die from cancer by the age of 74. The age-standardised cancer incidence rate for males is 207 per 100,000 compared to 178 for females; the respective mortality rates are 120 and 84. Lung cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer and the leading cause of...

The 76th World Health Assembly (WHA76) was a treasure trove of public health insights – a public health wonderland for a first timer such as myself, attending the WHA as a delegate of Women in Global Health (WGH). The assembly hosted a multitude of discussions that offered an interesting intersection of geopolitics and health which concluded w...

Here’s a short tale, well known in my country. Growing up, a child would request to accompany an elder to the nearest shops. The elder would say yes. Time to depart, the child would gleefully trail the elder to the door. At the door, the elder would tell the child to go back in the house and take his shoes. Upon return, with the shoes in its h...

 “Care is an anathema to capitalism. Its virtues are capitalism’s vices. Its employment-rich foundation for wellbeing is capitalism’s productivity crisis. To a mainstream economist, employment intensity translates directly into low or stagnating productivity growth. The very thing, in that view, that is holding us back from the economic gr...

If you think about the ecological footprint of the health sector, which is the single most important factor regarding greenhouse gas emissions, material extraction, waste generation, and water and land use? The answer is: pharmaceuticals and other chemical products. Therefore, when we started working with lawyers at the Bucerius Law School in Ha...

As we advocate for health equity in global health settings in different parts of the world, one can see some of the inequities in full display and even amplified in Geneva at the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA76), which I’m currently attending. From restricted access to civil society, to representation among delegates – in terms of youth enga...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term ‘supply chain disruption’ rose to considerable prominence. Many private sector and for-profit development partners regularly use it to explain their underwhelming performance in fulfilling key global health contracts. However, a closer examination of these ‘humanitarian warriors’ annual reports reveals ...

Last week WHO declared, in a twist of irony, the end of the  COVID-19 global health emergency on European Tourism Day (5 May).  As you might recall, the region was the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic for quite some time. Moreover, Europe accounts for approximatively 1 in 2 international tourists in the world. While thankfully the emergency st...

I come from a tribal area in the northern part of India, but I grew up in a town that was about a hundred kilometres away. Throughout my life, I had heard and read about the difficulties people face in accessing healthcare services in  my tribal region which increased during the winter season due to heavy snowfall, which often results in it bei...