We are once again on high alert over Ebola. True, this year the disease has killed only a very small number of persons – twenty-seven – but the potential for rapid, worldwide dissemination is a clear and present danger. Remember how in 2014-2016 Ebola Round One killed 11,310? We are better prepared for […]
What a profound difference fifteen years has made. I’m not referring to development of a new mobile app, but rather to the mobility we are witnessing in the causes of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. In the year 2000, in the world’s lowest income nations the leading threat were these: Then in the early
It’s a timeless position, one that Ebenezer Scrooge advanced way back in 1843: “If he (Tiny Tim) be likely to die, he had better do it,” said Scrooge, “and decrease the surplus population.” More recently, skeptics of efforts to improve worldwide health have similarly argued that with less death around the globe, populations would
In the United States and Europe, not so long ago the words TB were interpreted similarly to the way AIDS and cancer often are today. TB meant fear, suffering and death. And no wonder. This aggressive lung infection caused people to cough up blood, alienate their friends and family over fear of transmission, and
One of the most dramatic developments in international public health this decade in the emergence of trauma as a growing cause of life years lost. Some of this trend is due to better control of HIV, one of trauma’s chief competitors, and the growing availability of motor vehicles throughout developing economies. Of all
“An explosion so terrible, a flash so blindingly bright, I thought the world had ended,” expressed Shin’s father. “Then, just a quickly, everything went black.” 3-year-old Shin was missing. Father frantically searched for him among the wreckage and found Shin pinned under a house beam, badly hurt. “His face was bleeding and swollen… Everyone
Two decades ago I was in search of a special challenge: To offer a piece of my life providing healthcare in a nation at war. Simultaneously, a coalition of church in the southern African nation of Angola put out a call for assist in launching a clinic ministry. Thus began a partnership that’s endured
Positive News: Amid our world’s growing population, the portion of people living in extreme poverty has diminished nonetheless. Reliable data gathered from the World Bank, among other sources, indicates that over the last two hundred years the world population grew from about one billion to seven billion. Yet in 1820 the portion of people
The situation within the Syrian city of Aleppo, in a word, complicated. This major Syrian city has been a flash point in the heath political/military conflict that has incinerated this nation since 2011. In recent weeks, government forces have made gains against opposition forces within Aleppo. Amid increasing carnage, world leaders successfully pressured both
Seven-year old Ariya, photographed here with her mother and siblings, fled the outskirts of Mosul last week as Kurdish and Iraqi military forces advanced to retake that city from ISIS. Ariya joins the over 3.3 million Iraqis displaced by the conflict – not counting the innumerable Syrians. Where will Ariya find refuge? Anticipating mass