Unprecedented: Life expectancy in the US has declined for the third straight year. Infants born in 2017 are expected to live on average just 78.6 years. That’s down from 78.7 years in 2016/2015 and down from 78.9 years in 2014. An important context is to realize that life expectancy in the USA has not […]
At this moment, media reports are widely announcing the southern approach of migrants who are ill. Some migrants appear to suffer from chickenpox, tuberculosis, even HIV. Most all of them are afflicted by exhaustion and malnutrition following their weeks-long foot journey of at least 1,200 miles. How shall we respond? One’s reaction to
Infectious diseases – malaria, TB, typhoid, dysentery, measles – have been the leading cause of human morbidity and mortality throughout history. But today, the burden of infectious diseases has greatly diminished in wealthier countries. In developing nations, infectious diseases remain the leading causes of both death and of DALYs lost, especially among children and
Today I write from the 5th China National Congress on General Practice, in Shenyang, China, where I just presented Health is Wealth. Indeed, health is in ongoing crisis throughout the world. In every nation, cost is high and growing. Access is low for those separated by distance or insufficient finances. And, quality care is difficult to
One of the most daunting challenges in low-resource healthcare is the gathering of reliable data with which to guide interventions. Now comes new data from Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, a former INMED Training Site, in Malawi, Southern Africa, indicating that the number of newborns dying from sepsis is rapidly accelerating. Sepsis is a bacterial
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