In The News

Desperate Americans Buy Kidneys From Peru Poor in Fatal Trade

Michael Smith May 17, 2011
With organ transplants, technological capability outpaces supply. Selling organs is illegal in virtually all nations, but the laws do not deter desperate parties. “In the illegal organ trade, brokers scour the world’s slums, preying on the poor with promises of easy money and little risk in exchange for a kidney,” writes Michael Smith for Bloomberg. Kidney donors sign documents that no payment is...

The War Over Lipitor

Katherine Eban May 16, 2011
A generic version of the world’s top-selling prescription drug – Lipitor – was anticipated this fall, and Katherine Eban, writing for Fortune, suggests that “Generic-drug companies are now feuding like greedy relatives at Lipitor's graveside.” Exclusive rights to sell drugs end 20 years after the patent application is filed. The first generic maker to file patent for a viable substitute – in...

A Pair of Clean Hands Can Save Lives

May 4, 2011
Accustomed to great advances in medicine, staff and patients often overlook simple life-saving rules. Unclean hands are a major source of hospital infections around the globe. Studies in the US have shown compliance rates of less than 50 percent. The global health problem has an easy fix, reports the Times of India, as the World Health Organization observes World Hand Hygiene Day on 5 May. About...

Seven Steps to Prevent Recurring Food Crises

Shenggen Fan April 30, 2011
Extreme weather events that disrupt harvests lead to rising food prices, hitting hard the world’s poor who spend the majority of their incomes on food. The poor often work in agriculture, but rising costs of inputs and consumer resistance against rising prices “can reduce farmers’ profit margins, distort long-term planning and dampen investment in improved productivity,” explains Shenggen Fan for...

Pacific Nations Battle Obesity Epidemic

Neil Sands April 25, 2011
As Pacific Island nations become more integrated into the global economy, an obesity epidemic has emerged. About 90 percent of Tongans, for instance, are classified as overweight or obese. Weight-related diseases are responsible for 75 percent of deaths in the Pacific Islands, notes one World Health Organization official, in an Agence France-Presse report by Neil Sands. By comparison, about 15...

The Indian Exception

April 12, 2011
Economic growth and malnutrition are often inversely correlated. India enjoys impressive economic growth, yet the malnutrition rate in many states remains stubbornly high, even among middle-income families. Government attempts to feed the hungry, including a “right to food,” have been unsuccessful. An essay in the Economist suggests that expansive handouts, like free meals for many schools,...

How Worried Should We Be About Radiation

Jeffrey Lewis April 11, 2011
Trace amounts of radiation from the damaged Fukushima reactors have been detected in some vegetables of Japan and milk in the US and Europe – spreading alarm about food safety among consumers. Thanks to the internet, information – and rumors – about radiation go global fast, which wasn’t the case with nuclear accidents or weapons testing only a few decades ago. The Fukushima disaster has led to...