In The News

Re-Imagining Kinship

Amrita Nandy May 13, 2014
Valuing biological parenthood over other forms and the shame over childlessness is worldwide and can be pernicious. “Defining human relatedness through genes and blood has been a predominant and often unquestioned notion across most cultures,” explains Amrita Nandy, a Fox International Fellow at Yale University and a doctoral candidate at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, India. As a...

Polio’s Return After Near Eradication Prompts a Global Health Warning

Donald G. McNeil Jr. May 7, 2014
The spread of polio in Pakistan, Syria, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Iraq and Equatorial Guinea has prompted the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency and impose travel restrictions on the first three countries. “Just two years ago – after a 25-year campaign that vaccinated billions of children – the paralyzing virus was near eradication; now health officials say that goal...

Antibiotic Resistance Threatens Everyone, WHO Warns

May 5, 2014
Bacteria adapt quickly and resist antibiotic treatments for common diseases like urinary tract and skin infections, pneumonia, tuberculosis, malaria and MRSA. The resistance is a global phenomenon, but the resistant diseases vary from nation to nation. “Some countries have been aggressive in terms of surveillance for antibiotic resistance, which the WHO says is important for early detection of...

In Global Health, Abortion Bears the Scarlet A

Jill Filipovic April 30, 2014
Abortion poses a moral dilemma – ending the life of a child, but sometimes saving lives of individual women. Illegal, unsafe abortions have been cited as a leading cause of maternal death globally and a driver of gender inequality. “U.S. foreign policy exacerbates this global public health crisis, perpetuating a culture of stigma, silence and inaction around a leading killer of women,” argues...

Ebola Virus Continues to Rage in West Africa

April 14, 2014
Ebola is a highly contagious virus without a preventive vaccine or cure. The disease emerged in Guinea in February, then spread to Liberia, with 200 cases in this first outbreak reported for West Africa. “So far, Ebola outbreaks have only been recorded in Central Africa, such as in Sudan, Congo or Uganda,” reports Deutsche Welle. “According to the World Health Organization, there have been 15...

US FDA Chief: If You Want Our Market, Meet Our Standards

March 4, 2014
US regulators seek cooperation on quality control from its supplier of foods and medicines. "If Indian pharmaceutical companies want to sell in the US, they need to comply with our standards, practices and expectations,” said Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, according to a report in the Times of India. She offered the comments during a trip to India and...

Sharing NHS Data Saves Lives

Jeremy Farrar January 15, 2014
Governments increasingly promote digital health records to ensure better tracking of individual patients and public health trends. A dilemma has emerged about who controls such data: Some argue that healthcare funded by taxpayers should be subject to review; others focus on patient privacy. Writing for the Telegraph, physician Jeremy Farrar explains how children are rarely used in randomized...