In The News

Conversation: Design Cities to Counter Loneliness

Tanzil Shafique December 24, 2018
Residents in the world’s wealthiest countries, including cosmopolitan centers complain about loneliness. The condition has health consequences, especially for the elderly. Community infrastructure and architecture can encourage or discourage human interactions, and Tanzil Shafique suggests that “architects and planners, albeit unwittingly, are complicit in producing an urban landscape that...

Harvard Business Review: Containing Ebola

Ranu S. Dhillon and Devabhaktuni Srikrishna November 20, 2018
Rebel attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo challenge the public health response to Ebola outbreaks in that country. Outbreaks can flare quickly, even without considering that conflict has contributed to displacement of more than 4.5 million people inside the country and hundreds of thousands fleeing to neighboring countries. “With over 10 major episodes of violence since the outbreak was...

The Atlantic: Abortion by Mail

Olga Khazan October 19, 2018
For many years, organizations like Women on Web assist women in challenging settings like war zones to obtain medications to induce abortions. Women on Web provides Skype consultations, prescriptions and pills that trigger miscarriages, but also was “inundated with requests from women in countries such as the United States, where abortion is technically legal but growing more difficult to access...

The Lancet: Mental Health for All – A Global Goal

Helen Franish, Niall Boyce and Richard Horton October 12, 2018
More than 1 billion people – one out of every seven worldwide – suffer from mental or substance-use disorders. The suffering has consequences for entire communities, and treatment varies worldwide. “Human rights violations remain common and people with mental disorders are often marginalised and even abused, with large numbers of people forcefully detained or locked away in institutions,”...

BBC: Fentanyl Crisis and Source of Illegal Drugs

September 24, 2018
The escalating trade quarrel between China and the United States prompts other worries and accusations. “The US believes factory-produced opioids - powerful painkillers increasingly abused by US citizens - are being made in China and sold from there too,” reports BBC News. ”One of the main ones is fentanyl - 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine - which is only approved in the US for severe pain...

New York Times: US Opposition to Breastfeeding at World Forum

Andrew Jacobs July 8, 2018
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization recommend breastfeeding for the first six months of life “to achieve optimal growth, development, and health.” US delegates defied longstanding research on infant nutrition at the UN-affiliated World Health Assembly in an attempt to weaken a breastfeeding resolution. “American officials sought to water down the resolution by...

New Scientist: People Across World Share Cancer Data

Andy Coghlan June 29, 2018
The Universal Cancer Databank allows people with cancer to donate their medical data to a global online database with the aim of finding treatments. “Unlike previous attempts to collect and share patient data, the UCD is a 100% philanthropic, 100% anonymised, and 100% global,” the database's site explains. “Its goal is to overcome rare and difficult cancers that have proven too difficult for...