Every year, the bacterium known as Streptococcus pneumonia, or pneumococcal disease, kills more than 500,000 children, most of them in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. This massive death toll makes it impossible to significantly improve child survival without introducing new tools to...
"Global health? You must find your work so rewarding!" said a flight attendant who chatted me up on my recent trip from Seattle to Washington. "Indeed I do," I replied, and especially right now. The truth is, the rewards of a career in public health are infrequent...
The maxim, 'The poor pay more', is a paradox which many do not readily comprehend. A likely question from the casual thinker is 'How does the poor pay more, when the poor, in fact, has no money?' Someone who explained the truism offered this example: "I...
"We know that the African Union summit is still very masculine but we are trying to bring in the voices of women," said Gertrude Mongella, former president of the Pan-African parliament, explaining the rationale behind the shadow summit organised by the Gender is my Agenda...
I am a touch obsessed with the future. And others are too. For a real "report from the future" you should read The Great Transition Today by Paul Raskin, dateline Mandela City, 2084. The stimulating report is a think piece looking back on how the...
As a polio survivor, I have long imagined a world free of the disease. Today we are incredibly close to eradicating polio for good. Critics questioned that goal in your article “In Battle Against Polio, a Call for a Final Salvo” (Feb. 1). I was 4...
So much has been said about Africa’s potential to feed itself, but unless we help the millions of smallholder farmers to actually grow more food, we will never go from potential to reality. And farmers cannot increase their yields without better inputs. It is for this...
A new vaccine against pneumonia is being introduced in Africa and some other countries across the world. Read more....
It's World Cancer Day today. Most people in the developed world will know someone who has suffered from or been affected by cancer. What fewer people know, however, is that people in the developing world are just as exposed: by 2020, there are likely to...
The World Economic Forum's annual Davos conference marks one of the world's more layered brands. For media leaders, it is an opportunity to take stock of sentiments among global business and policy elites. For business leaders it offers a chance to broker deals and, in...
We all have a role to play in ending pneumonia deaths by 2030
