#health

One fact that is often presented in the classroom of fresh MBA students is that out of all the markets for carbonated beverages in the world, Mexicans stand as the number one consumers of sodas. So much is the love of those sugary drinks that it placed the former head of Coca-Cola in Mexico, the […]

Communities around the globe united over the weekend to spread awareness for World AIDS Day, which was held on Saturday, December 1st.  In 1988, the U.N. General Assembly expressed deep concern over the pandemic proportions of the AIDS virus. Following the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of 1 December 1988 as World AIDS Day, the General Assembly […]

When I used to report on the United Nations I would saunter down to the department of public information every few days and accumulate unnecessarily thick stacks of documents — there was, in fact, already the internet. Among my reams of paper would be tucked a monthly calendar of “observances,” days the U.N. dedicates to […]

According to the United Nations for the first time the number of annual child deaths have fallen below seven million.  “The new child mortality estimates show that concerted efforts to get proven lifesaving care to children work and that, in the 21stcentury, children no longer need to die from preventable causes,” said Carolyn Miles, President and […]

As mentioned in the post, “UN Campaign Seeks to Give all Children a Shot at Life,” one in five children does not have access to vaccines that prevent deadly diseases, like measles, pneumonia, or diarrhea.  Nonetheless, some 2.5 million children under the age of 5 die every year as the result of preventable infectious disease, mostly due […]

The word immunizations is just a simple vocabulary word to most of us in developed nations, however for those in developing countries the word means a ‘shot at life’ for their child.  One in five children does not have access to vaccines that prevent deadly diseases, like measles, pneumonia or diarrhea.  Nonetheless some 2.5 million […]

A series published in The Lancet last Wednesday found that adolescents today face greater risks to their physical and mental health than in the past.  The success of childhood survival programs and a greater focus on children’s health means that more youths are entering adolescence.  Although this is clearly outstanding news, it means that the programmatic […]

I’ve made a recent move to San Francisco, California, and a few days ago, I found myself wandering around The Mission, a neighborhood that is undergoing rapid gentrification.  Apart from the somewhat small but popular Dolores Park (pictured left), there isn’t a lot of green space in the area, in contrast with many other (generally […]

Low-resource countries often carry the heaviest disease burden and maintain the smallest health workforce. The deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti is only the most recent example of how the time for ‘task shifting’ has arrived. By Allyn Gaestel for ISN Insights http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Current-Affairs/ISN-Insights/Detail?lng=en&ots627=fce62fe0-528d-4884-9cdf-283c282cf0b2&id=124470&contextid734=124470&contextid735=124469&tabid=124469

I recently published a piece for PlusNews about the Tuberculosis epidemic that has long been endemic in Haiti and could worsen with the living situations of over a million Haitians still living in tents ten months after the January 12 earthquake.  As with most issues in post-quake Haiti, the earthquake merely brought to light and […]

Sex workers internationally face incredible stigma, dehumanization and criminalization from politicians, health workers, police officers, the media and the general population. In fact most people seem uncomfortable with the idea of sex work, and struggle to understand how anyone could “do such a thing”. The language regularly used to describe sex work manifests this disregard […]

Earlier this week I reported on the devastating cholera epidemic currently racing through the Haitian countryside for The Atlantic. The numbers have now climbed to 442 registered deaths and 6,742 hospitalizations, but my reporting from the Artibonite and Central plateau regions is still timely. “Cholera arrived in Haiti this month with a vengeance. Since the […]