In The News

Ebola Treatments Show Promise: Popular Science

Nicole Wetsman August 14, 2019
Preliminary data suggest two experimental treatments for Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo are improving survival rates. The fatality rate for Ebola is 67 percent, and with the antibody treatments, risk of death fell to 10 percent, reports Nicole Wetsman. She explains how the World Health Organization developed a plan for ethical testing of treatments during such emergencies after the...

Drinking Habits Change Worldwide: Financial Times

Michael Skapinker August 13, 2019
Businesses and societies depend on economic growth for jobs, investment and savings. Globalization – including the flow of images of personal behavior, cultural diversity and emphasis on healthy lifestyles – may be pushing the alcohol industry into decline with as much as half the world reporting not drinking at all for religious, cultural or economic reasons in 2018. Drinking alcohol starts...

Ebola Outbreak as Global Emergency: STAT

Helen Branswell July 19, 2019
Public health providers have battled Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a year, with cases also reported in Uganda and near Rwanda, and the World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency, the fifth such declaration in its history. A strategic plan to stem the outbreak could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. “The declaration, which critics have contended is...

Vaping More Dangerous Than First Realized: Vox

Julia Belluz July 12, 2019
Using smokeless tobacco use is healthier than smoked tobacco, and marketing relies on that premise. But that does not mean smokeless tobacco carries no risk, and public health experts express concerns that the products include a range of additives and aerosol particles, with marketing that targets youth: “[R]esearchers around the world are now scrambling to figure out what impact this new habit...

Ebola Crisis: Council on Foreign Relations

Claire Felter June 20, 2019
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo officially started in August of 2018, in the northeastern regions of the country bordering Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan. Claiming more than 1,300 deaths, with cases doubling in the past three months, the Ebola crisis is escalating but remains second place to the 2014-2016 outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people. The World Health...

America’s Cruelty Playbook: Irish Times

Una Malally June 16, 2019
Political leaders in southern region of the United States are making strides to limit abortion rights with the ultimate goal of reversing the Roe v. Wade court decision that protects a woman’s right to end a pregnancy. The laws target poor and vulnerable women while the wealthy women can travel to obtain care. Citizens often ignore the slow chipping away at rights in a few places, though recent...

Depression in Poor Nations: Guardian

Tina Rosenberg June 8, 2019
Many experts once assumed that mental illness, especially, depression was concentrated in wealthy nations. In the 1990s, Vikram Patel, psychiatrist and researcher, set out to study if depression in Zimbabwe and other poor countries was actually a response to deprivation and injustice – conditions stemming from colonisation.” Traditional healers in Zimbabwe described “kufungisisa,” or excessive...