A Kenyan nurse participates in a march during their strike following failed negotiations between health unions and the government.
Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
Health workers in Kenya have reached an impasse with the government over working conditions. This has lead to a nationwide strike, leaving thousands without critical care.
A client receives HIV/AIDS counseling at a women and children’s hospital in Nigeria. These facilities are not always available in rural areas.
Flickr/ Karen Kasmauski/MCSP
Effectively decentralising HIV and AIDS treatment services helps to improve universal health care. But in Nigeria this approach comes with many challenges.
Two characters who feature in the film PILI about rural women living with HIV in Tanzania.
Screen shot
When people migrate they can end up worse off when it comes to getting access to health care. Analysing migration trends can help drive local public health policy towards the correct targets.
People with disabilities living in Madwaleni in the Eastern Cape have difficulty accessing healthcare.
Richard Vergunst
Rural workplaces often tacitly encourage excessive drinking and even drugtaking.
While politicians like Malcolm Turnbull and Barnaby Joyce do the traditional photo-ops, fewer people than ever are taking on farming, which can no longer support vibrant rural and regional communities on its own.
AAP/Tracey Nearmy
What are the issues facing rural and regional Australia? The challenges are many and varied – and only some have made the national political agenda – but these areas deserve better than neglect.
A woman extension worker employed by the Afar Pastoralist Development Association. Some health extension workers are separated from their families and some are unable to move.
Kate Holt/Anglican Overseas Aid
Not only are women in regional and rural areas more likely to experience partner violence than their city counterparts, it’s more difficult to leave and re-establish a new life.
New data shows many Australians aren’t seeing their doctors because it costs too much.
from shutterstock.com
In some parts of Australia, patients are twice to three times more likely to avoid seeing their GP because they can’t afford it, according to figures released today.
Rwanda requires the use of renewable energy to power up healthcare clinics in rural parts of the country.
Student doctor Livhuwani Mashanzhe (R) from the University of Johannesburg takes a blood test from a patient at Kimberley train station in South Africa in this file picture.
Juda Ngwenya/Reuters
Skilled mid level health care workers can relieve the workload of other health care workers and can help make universal health care a reality for South Africans.
If you need doctors to work in the country, you need a selection system that picks people with those values and commitments.
University of Exeter/Flickr
Three features of a medical school help predict where medical students will eventually work as doctors: selection, the curriculum, and the professionalism of the newly-qualified doctors.
Physician assistants provide high-quality care and can help fill Australia’s rural doctor shortage.
Dr.Farouk/Flickr
At a ceremony in Townsville today, four people will graduate from James Cook University’s physician assistant program. They will be Australia’s first bachelor’s graduates in that field. This is an important…
Good teeth often correlates with good health. But one in five over-65s have lost all their teeth.
m01229/Flickr
An Aussie smile is an instant indicator of socioeconomic status, employability and self-esteem. It’s also a predictor of physical health. So it’s shocking that Australians’ dental health has not improved…
There is a higher density of gun ownership in country areas in Australia relative to cities. Does this explain recent homicides on farms?
shutterstock
The recent multiple homicide in a small Victorian township, coming barely a month after a mass shooting in rural New South Wales, may give the impression that firearm-related murders in rural Australia…
A lack of local professionals means rural health is already under pressure and the budget will only make things worse.
Len Matthews/Flickr
People living in remote and rural Australia already have a shorter life expectancies and higher rates of premature deaths. Last week’s federal budget will not only make that worse, it will introduce even…
The cost of fresh fruit and vegetables soars in rural areas.
Flickr/ Family O'Abé
Would you pay A$9 for six mushrooms in inner-city Melbourne? Or A$4.50 for one small piece of broccoli or cauliflower in Sydney? Probably not – but this is what rural Australians are being asked to fork…
Reader in Population and Public Health, MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne