Countries Around the World Just Pledged to Provide Decent Primary Health Care to All Their Citizens Alanna Shaikh, MPH October 30, 2018Forty years ago, in the heart of Soviet Central Asia, the world made a groundbreaking commitment to health. The Alma Ata Declaration set the stage for global health as we know it today. It reaffirmed health as a state of being that means more than just not bei...
A New UN Report Finds that a Child Under the Age of 15 Dies Every 5 Seconds Joanne Lu September 21, 2018Globally, children have a greater chance of survival than ever before. Yet because of growing inequality, in 2017, a child under the age of 15 died every five seconds, a new UN report says, and most of those deaths were preventable. The report published Tuesd...
UN Releases Alarming Data on Lack of Breastfeeding Worldwide Joanne Lu July 31, 2018The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are continuing to push for legal restrictions on how infant formula and breast-milk substitutes are marketed, after they found that an estimated 78 million newborns are not bei...
PODCAST: What We Know About Air Pollution Around the World Mark Leon Goldberg July 2, 2018Air pollution is a major killer around the globe and one that disproportionately affects low and middle income countries. The World Health Organization estimates that around 7 million people die every year from the air they breathe.There are two kinds ...
WHO: Ebola Outbreak Response for the DRC is So Far Working Mark Leon Goldberg May 18, 2018An Ebola outbreak has gripped parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization there have been 45 reported cases, 14 of which have been confirmed as Ebola. Of these 45 cases, 25 have resulted in...
The World Health Organization Wants You To Worry About “Disease X” Alanna Shaikh, MPH February 25, 2018Every year, the World Health Organization commissions an expert committee identify the most threatening infectious diseases of the upcoming year. The idea is to prioritize research and development on diseases and pathogens that pose a major risk to global heal...
Why You Should Be Freaking Out that the US Centers for Disease Control Is Massively Cutting its Overseas Operations. (Hint: Diseases Like Ebola Don’t respect borders) Alanna Shaikh, MPH February 2, 2018About two weeks ago, an internal memo leaked from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It informed personnel that the center was anticipating a loss of approximately 80% of its funding for international outbreak prevention work. Yesterday, ...
Cases of a Deadly Fever Are Spiking in Brazil Right Before Carnival. How Worried Should We Be? Alanna Shaikh, MPH January 24, 2018The World Health Organization this week reported a three fold increase in the number of cases of Yellow Fever in Brazil. This could pose a public health risk: Carnival is next week, and Brazil is about to be swarmed by happy revelers, out all night -- precis...
Global Progress on Malaria Eradication “Stalled” According to a New WHO Report. Here’s Why Alanna Shaikh, MPH November 29, 2017It’s easy to think of malaria as an old-fashioned disease. We know malaria really, really well. It’s the kind of illness that gets mentioned in old books; a colonial sort of disease. It’s not new and terrifying like Zika, or deadly like Ebola. It’s just...mala...
