Infectious diseases have plagued Africa for decades. Now, Africa faces the threat of a cancer pandemic – with a shortage of equipment, doctors and money to treat it.
Cases of AIDS are so few they are no longer recorded on public health registers.
welburnstuart/Shutterstock
William Isdale speaks with Lawrence Gostin about the lessons we can learn from the global response to last year's Ebola outbreak and the future of global health.
The oral vaccine is the most common polio vaccine used in the world.
S. Sabawoon/EPA/AAP
Recent polio outbreaks in Ukraine and Mali, caused by a vaccine-derived form of poliovirus, don’t mean the vaccine isn’t working. On the contrary, they are a reminder to keep up vaccination rates.
Jordan Jarvis, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine e Rob Moodie, The University of Melbourne
It is time to have an open and honest discussion about who is – and isn’t – being trained to secure the future of our world’s health at the World Health Organization headquarters.
Women make up 90% of the world’s nurses.
EPA/Ahmed Jallanzo
Bjorn Lomborg’s “consensus” approach involves ranking global development policies by their ratio of benefit to cost. But this hard-headed economic rationale can actually end up entrenching inequality.
Non-communicable diseases were responsible for 38 million (68%) of the world’s 56 million deaths in 2012.
Dave/Flickr
The World Health Organization (WHO) has just released its Global Status Report on Noncommunicable Diseases, the second in a series tracking worldwide progress in the prevention and control of cancers…
A$1.8 billion is no longer available to help populations in our neighbouring countries achieve a decent standard of health.
Gates Foundation/Flickr
The federal government’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook announcement this week to cut the foreign aid budget by a further A$3.7 billion over three years is unprecedented. The current government has…
By sharing their insights and knowledge, African leaders can improve health throughout the world.
The Aspen Institute/Flickr
Ebola has focused the world’s attention on the challenges of health care in Africa. The continent has 11% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s disease burden. It also has just 1.3% of the global…
The country’s capacity to treat infected patients and prevent further spread is very limited.
UN Women Asia & the Pacific/Flickr
Contemplating how Papua New Guinea (PNG) would deal with Ebola may not be that different from asking the same of Liberia 12 months ago. While PNG’s per capita gross national income (US$2,540 in 2013) is…
Lower targets are easier to meet.
Gates Foundation/Flickr
During the United Nations General Assembly meetings this week, Ban Ki-Moon has convened a high-level side event on the Zero Hunger Challenge. This initiative by the UN Secretary-General bears the tag line…
West African health-care workers are overworked and under-equipped to deal with the outbreak.
European Commission DG ECHO/Flickr
Too slow. Too little, too late. Unprecedented. Out of control. These are just some of the descriptors for the biggest recorded epidemic of human infection by an ebolavirus. The question by some is how…
Major pharmaceutical companies have shown little interest in developing effective treatments for illnesses such as Ebola virus disease.
AAP Image/David Crosling
Ebola virus disease typically only occurs in rural and remote areas among resource-poor populations. Until the large, recent outbreak in West Africa, cases of the illness were a rarity. So the fact that…
Liberia’s lack of infrastructure.
Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
Our understanding of Ebola has increased considerably since outbreaks of a mysterious haemorrhagic fever caused by an unknown virus first occurred in Southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo…
Authorities are rapidly trying to stop the spread of Ebola.
Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
It is 6am on a warm West African morning. Two men, Ahmed and Milton, are up early, getting ready for long journeys. Apart from that they have little in common. Ahmed is a high-ranking official in the Ministry…