Medical tourism is often associated with an image of sun, sand and surgery; patients travelling mostly from rich countries in the global North to exotic destinations for medical treatments at a lower cost…
The number of children developing tuberculosis (TB) worldwide is likely to be far higher than initial World Health Organization…
Indonesia’s status as a middle-income country has made it ineligible to receive funding even though it’s not ready or able to take over.
EPA/JURNASYANTO SUKARNO
The global HIV epidemic has been unprecedented, both in its extent and in the way it has changed the world’s approach to health funding. Over the last ten to 15 years, large sums of money have for the…
Fighting obesity is no kid’s play.
Emilio Labrador
The most comprehensive global study ever undertaken for obesity was just released and the need for serious population-wide action is no longer up for debate. The study’s key findings make for grim reading…
A child is vaccinated against polio during a three-day nationwide campaign to eradicate polio, in Karachi, Pakistan, May 2014.
EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
The US government has told a group of local health educators that it will no longer use immunisation programs as a cover for espionage. But the damage from previous such programs is difficult to undo…
Barriers to migrants’ healthcare access must be lowered.
US Navy
For many people in the UK, tuberculosis is a disease that’s been out of sight, out of mind for a number of years. Although it is low and middle-income countries that bear the burden of TB-related sickness…
Nearly 60% of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis’ global burden occurs in the Asia-Pacific region.
DFAT Photo Library/ Flickr
Tuberculosis, or consumption as it used to be known, sounds like a disease that we’ve managed to fight off for good. But a drug-resistant strain of the bacteria that causes it is making a comeback, and…
Many women and children in poor countries still die, or suffer serious ongoing disability, for reasons that are entirely preventable. What’s more, developing countries face an emerging “epidemic” of non-communicable…
Bangladesh: a melting pot of past, present and future.
Saud A Faisal
Despite low spending on health, a weak health system and widespread poverty, Bangladesh has achieved great strides in life expectancy, vaccination rates, TB control and a child’s chances of surviving past…
Volunteers take anti-TB medications to around 400 patients each month.
Image from shutterstock.com
Chinggis Khaan (or as he is known in many countries, Genghis Khan) is Mongolia’s national hero. The famous 12th and 13th century leader used considerable military and political savvy to build one of the…
Enter the dragon: China joins higher-income countries with similar health concerns.
PA/Fiona Hanson
China is now facing similar health issues to higher income countries including the UK and US, according to new global health figures. Poor diet and cancer are a growing concern in China compared to issues…
Bill Gates is in Australia as part of efforts to secure funds for global health initiatives, particularly polio and malaria eradication.
Gates Foundation
Global health campaigner Bill Gates is in Sydney today to lobby prime minister Julia Gillard to spend more money on global health, particularly the fight against malaria and polio. But while money may…
Prescriptions for pain relief are easy to get in the UK but not if you live in certain countries.
PA/Julien Behal
Ten percent of the world consumes 90% of the morphine. At first glance that’s just another statistic about haves and have nots. But it’s more stark than that - particularly if you have cancer in a country…
Banning the use of trans fats has proven to be the most effective way to prevent the spread of major world diseases. But…
The Nigerian commissioner for health of Bauchi state, Dr Sani Malam (L), administers a polio vaccine to a Nigerian child during the launch of the national immunization drive in Nigeria on February 5, 2013.
EPA/DEJI YAKE
The murder of nine female health workers involved in child immunisation on February 8 in Kano (the largest city in northern Nigeria) is a chilling reminder that saving children’s lives is not a goal shared…
Is our distaste for toilet talk halting sanitation improvements in the developing world?
Alan Porritt/AAP
Bodily waste can be an embarrassing subject, but one that most of us can avoid thanks to efficient toilets and sewers. Nevertheless, this embarrassment may be holding back improvements in sanitation where…
In 2012, few Australian women will die in childbirth and most infants will live beyond five years. While we recognise gender inequality still exists here, girls will go to school, will be literate and…
Protesters carry portraits of Osama bin Laden on his first death anniversary, during an anti-US rally in Quetta, Pakistan, 02 May 2012.
Musa Farman/AAP
We’ve been reminded this month of the United States’ success in finally finding Osama bin Laden. But one thing missing in the media coverage was the allegation that the CIA established a fake hepatitis…