In The News

The Smart Way of Healing

Nayan Chanda January 22, 2016
Hospitals face challenges in preventing one patient’s infection from spreading to other patients. Nayan Chanda, founding editor of YaleGlobal Online, writes about the troubling phenomenon of patients being successfully treated before succumbing to hospital-acquired infections. “This problem is not a uniquely Indian one,” he writes. “Modern hospitals in the developed West are also struggling to...

“Almost Too late”: Fears of Global Superbug Crisis in Wake of Antibiotic Misuse

January 7, 2016
Overuse of antibiotics, particularly in the agriculture industry, and a lack of new drugs to combat evolving superbugs could contribute to a global health crisis. An essay in the Guardian reports that “a gene was discovered which makes infectious bacteria resistant to the last line of antibiotic defence, colistin (polymyxins). The resistance to the colistin antibiotic is considered to be a ‘major...

Brazil Warns Against Pregnancy Due to Spreading Virus

Shasta Darlington January 4, 2016
Brazilian health officials have warned women to avoid pregnancy until more is known about the Zika virus. Researchers suggest the virus has led to “a surge in newborn microcephaly, a neurological disorder that can result in incomplete brain development,” reports Shasta Darlington for CNN. Zika symptoms include a mild fever, rash, aching joints and headaches. “More than 2,400 suspected cases of...

Despite Their Economic Strides, China and India Lag on Health Care

Zeena Johar and Xue Ying Hwang December 17, 2015
Adequate health care, providing security for a nation’s workforce, is among the key attributes of economic development. “India and China have adopted insurance as a tool to provide health-care access and mitigate catastrophic expenditures,” explain Zeena Johar and Xue Ying Hwang, adding that each nation has adopted an independent route towards achieving universal health coverage. “Despite good...

Fears Grow Over Increased Antibiotic Resistance

October 16, 2015
Many antibiotics kill bacteria indiscriminately, including those causing disease and those that aid with digestion or immunity. Overuse of the drugs in health care and farm animals has increased antibiotic resistance and could contribute to thousands of deaths each year among patients having colorectal surgery, chemotherapy or hip replacements. Researchers have found that “as many as half of all...

Thank You for Not Smoking

Heather Wipfli October 7, 2015
The passage of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, or FCTC, offers a critical case study of how international law can be harnessed to address public health issues. Heather Wipfli is author of “Global War on Tobacco: Mapping the World's First Public Health Treaty,” and an excerpt of her book was published in Foreign Affairs. With nearly 6 million tobacco-...

Stuffing Data Gaps With Dollars: What Will It Cost to Close the Data Deficit in Poor Countries?

Laurence Chandy and Christine Zhang September 18, 2015
Data collections, as simple as population counts, contribute to good planning on services that benefit a nation’s development, health and prosperity. Yet such collections are lacking in low-income countries. The International Monetary Fund has set standards on data dissemination and 66 countries don’t meet those standards for population surveys, more than 70 lack living standard surveys and 39...