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Young (and occasionally less young) researchers, mostly from LMICs, present their views on global health issues.
A small fish swims up to an older fish and says: “I’m trying to find this thing they call “the ocean”.” The older fish says, “The ocean? That’s what you’re in right now.” “This?” says the young fish. “This is water. What I want is the ocean!” When looking for a catchy introduction, I remembered the previous dialogue fr...
As most of you will know, West Africa is no stranger to epidemics. In recent history, the subregion has seen several infectious disease outbreaks of epidemic proportions, with cholera, measles, and yellow fever among the most prevalent outbreaks. And in 2014, of course, there was the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra ...
Hassan (pseudonym) left Guinea in 2016, after saving the money necessary to make his way to Europe. His whole family contributed. He crossed the Sahara Desert on foot, but was arrested by the Algerian police at the Moroccan border and imprisoned. Again, his family contributed to pay for his release. From Algeria he crossed to Morocco, where afte...
Malaria remains a persistent global health crisis, with Africa bearing the greatest burden. With a staggering 95% of (global) malaria cases and 96% of deaths, the disease poses a disproportionate burden on the continent. Despite significant strides in prevention and treatment, malaria still claims countless lives, underscoring the urgent need fo...
This week’s Fifth Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Geneva concluded with a powerful message from Dr. Tedros, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), reminding us that health and care workers deserve more than just thanks. “They deserve quality education and training, they deserve safe working conditions, the...
Every country in the world is responsible for providing services, security and sustaining wellbeing for all its people. As a consequence, all nations have policies that focus on ensuring the provision of healthcare services for their population, even if in many countries that remains a work in progress. A well-functioning health care system is c...
Last year, on June 19, Colombia elected its first leftist president, committed to sustainable peace and tackling social and economic inequality and corruption, in a historic result. The stewardship of the country’s health system, headed by the Ministry of Health (MoH), was henceforth going to be presided over by civil and political forces root...
In emergencies, women and girls are often at particular risk. Response agencies have recorded this pattern during disasters such as the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine war, the 2022 floods in Pakistan, and now the Turkey-Syria earthquake. According to the UN Refugee agency, UNHCR’s latest data released in mid-2022, 10...
As Africa navigates the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it faces a growing number of health threats. Recently, during the opening plenary of the biannual Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) in Kigali, Rwanda, Dr. Githinji Gitahi, the Global Chief Executive Officer of Amref Health Africa outlined “the four C’s” facing t...