Sex Education is a Human Right
BY SOOAH PARK Fans of the classic chick flick Mean Girls will be familiar with the sex education scene: “Don’t have sex, because you will get pregnant and die!”1 Though exaggerated for comedic effect, the global state of sex education is not far off. Less than one-third of adolescents from 155 countries surveyed by UNESCO…
Counterfeit Cures and Poisoned Promises: The Growing Burden of Substandard and Falsified Medicines
BY LILIA POTTER-SCHWARTZ Envision a child who has contracted pneumonia and is prescribed amoxicillin. After the child finishes their treatment, the ‘antibiotic’ is discovered to contain limited active amoxicillin, preventing full recovery while potentially increasing community rates of amoxicillin-resistant bacteria. Instances such as these represent a growing public health burden affecting individuals in every country:…
A Silent Cry: Medical Negligence in ICE Detention
BY NIRAJ SRIVASTAVA Impassioned immigration rhetoric echoes and booms across social media and national news. In the lexicon disseminated directly from the White House, immigrants are reduced to “killers, rapists, gangbangers, drug traffickers, and . . . violent criminals.”1 A swirl of outrage, protest, and demonization of immigrants has settled into the foreground of American…
Bridging the Stroke Divide: Reimagining Rural Stroke Education as a Right to Health
BY MRIDULA BHARATHI Every year, 12 million people experience an interruption in blood flow to their brain, with little warning, stealing them of their speech, mobility, and even life within minutes. Yet, while the biological mechanisms of stroke are universal, the chances of surviving one are not. In the United States, those living in rural…
“It Feeds My Soul”: Mutual Aid as a Radical Model for Food Sovereignty
BY ANDREA CHOW Certain names, identifying details, and organizational affiliations in this article have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals involved. All interviews were originally conducted in Spanish and have been translated into English for clarity and readability. There’s a saying widely known across Latin America: Panza llena, corazón contento, or “Full stomach,…
The Right To Be Silenced
Exploring how epistemic injustice marginalizes local expertise in authorship, policy, and research, shaping whose knowledge counts in global health BY OYINKANSOLA ADEBOMOJO It was late December 2013 in Guéckédou, Guinea, a time that should have been festive and filled with celebration. Instead, local clinicians felt a growing sense of dread. Patients were arriving with severe…
The Human Rights Crisis of CECOT
BY RISHABH GARG El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) is the largest prison in the Western Hemisphere with a capacity of 40,000 inmates.1 Construction of the massive 57-acre prison began in March 2022 as part of President Nayib Bukele’s anti-gang crackdown. The facility was built specifically to imprison “Maras,” gang members described as…
Climate Change and Chronic Conditions: Disability and Inequality in a Warming World
BY NIDA KHAN It only took two weeks to forget what a lifetime of health felt like. Three years ago, I developed nerve pain in my hands and feet—one of the most challenging symptoms of having hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Once my baseline for pain changed, so did my ability to conceive of having ever felt…
From the Operating Room to the Atmosphere: The Climate Impact of Inhaled Anesthetics
BY JOSHUA CHEN A 2022 study found that over 300 million people worldwide were administered anesthesia for surgery procedures every year1. With life-saving surgical procedures on the rise and the ever-present desire to keep them as painless as possible, the number of patients administered anesthesia every year is also rising2. While anesthetics can be administered…
Settler Colonialism Conspiring as Climate Change
BY MIIGIS CURLEY Recognizing that colonial activity is not limited to the past but rather a consistent factor dictating Indigenous life is critical to understanding how climate change creates communal displacement from homelands and cultural genocide. Various Indigenous communities in America and Oceania experience attest to the contemporary navigation of colonial violence. Who are leading…
Doctors Given Borders: The Causes and Costs of US IMG Concentration in Primary Care
BY GRACE UDOH The United States is facing a healthcare workforce shortage projected to reach a crippling 3.2 million by the year 2026¹. These numbers are not expected to decrease anytime soon, with an average of 1.8 million job openings in various areas of the US healthcare system every year². International Medical Graduates have been…
Microplastics and Infertility: An Invisible Crisis
BY SAM OBIOMA According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), over 430 million tons of plastic are produced every year. Via ultraviolet (UV) radiation, fragmentation, and even bacteria, plastic is broken down from everyday products into smaller fragments which, over time, have been found in our air, food, and water. Microplastics have…
Plague and the Little Ice Age: A Harbinger of What is to Come?
BY PAIGE MAHONEY For Europeans, the middle of the 1300s was marked by cold and death. What scientists and historians have now deemed the Little Ice Age started at the beginning of the century, bringing with it famine as crops failed due to poor growing conditions. At the same time, the plague was devastating the…
The Future of Construction: Living, Self-Healing Concrete
BY SHARNA SAHA Concrete is everywhere—our roads, bridges, buildings, and even sewage systems depend on it. But do we ever stop to consider its true impact? The construction industry uses 30 billion metric tons of concrete annually—equivalent to six Pyramids of Giza—yet its production is one of the largest contributors to global carbon emissions. Cement,…
From Closet to Catastrophe: The Climate-Driven Spread of Textile Contaminants
BY DAVID WOODS The textile industry is commonly criticized for its excessive water consumption and landfill waste, but it is often underestimated as a contributing factor to adverse public health impacts and negative environmental consequences. Textiles have become embedded in the human identity in a way that cannot be undone. Textiles are what make up…
The Invisible Scars of Wildfires
BY ESSEY AFEWERKI 57,000 acres of land in Los Angeles were razed in the span of 3 weeks from January 7th to 27th at the start of this year. The scorched earth across the Palisades and Eaton regions swallowed more land than exists in the whole of Manhattan or Washington DC 1. The immediate destruction…
The Climate Crisis in Your Mind: How Air Pollution and Heat are Rewiring our Brains
BY CONSTANZA BINEY What if the greatest threat to your brain wasn’t genetics or aging, but rather the changing climate? Climate change has long been recognized for its impacts on physical health, heightening respiratory conditions and the spread of infectious disease. However, its effects on the brain remain an underrecognized crisis. Emerging research reveals that…
Microplastics, Climate Change, and Women’s Hormonal Health: Unraveling the Impact of Climate Change on Women’s Health
BY NARDEEN GEBRAEEL AND ASHLEY RAFFELI Microplastics and climate change represent two environmental crises that significantly impact women’s hormonal health. These disruptions occur through multiple pathways, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in plastics and climate-induced physiological stressors. Exposure to these environmental hazards can contribute to hormonal imbalances, infertility, pregnancy complications, and long-term metabolic and reproductive disorders.1…
The Invisible Health Crisis
BY YASMIN MOHAMMED The new year began with the outbreak of some of the deadliest fires in California’s history. What started as a small blaze quickly spread across nearly 40,000 acres of southern California’s dry terrain, destroying thousands of structures, claiming lives, and displacing entire communities [8]. Strong winds and prolonged drought conditions, followed by…
The Impact of Wildfire Smoke on Pregnancy Outcomes
BY MICHELLE CHEON Rising global temperatures and their contribution to prolonged droughts have led to an increase in both the frequency and intensity of wildfires. This escalation has profound consequences on air quality, exposing millions of individuals to hazardous smoke. Among the most vulnerable populations to decreasing air quality are pregnant individuals, for whom wildfire…
The Impact of Microplastic Ingestion on Gut Microbiota and Digestive Health
BY DAYA BAUM Microplastics (MPs), defined as plastic particles measuring less than 5 mm, have emerged as a pervasive environmental contaminant, raising significant concerns about their impact on human health. These particles originate from industrial processes that produce microplastics by the unintentional release of by-products, deterioration of everyday consumer products, and degradation of larger plastic…
Losing Sleep Over Climate Change: The Hidden Impact of Rising Temperatures
BY LIZZIE FISHER Polluters might claim they don’t “lose sleep” over their actions, but in reality, they—along with millions of others around the world—do. A study published in One Earth, examined sleep patterns of more than 47,000 individuals across 68 countries over six months. Using wristband data, researchers found that rising ambient temperatures significantly disrupt…
Financing Climate Change Adaptation in the Healthcare Sector
BY SEBASTIAN CORDERO MUNIZ Hurricanes, wildfires, blizzards. These are the destructive forces of nature associated with climate change. When considering the impacts of these disasters, public discourse is often confined to the damage on infrastructure and the economy. This leaves out another important and particularly devastating victim of climate change: health. Climate change and its…
Climate-Driven Barriers to Polio Eradication: A Case Study in Pakistan
BY LANXI LIN As the world edges closer to eradicating infectious diseases, the Middle East remains a battleground, where rising temperatures and extreme weather events fueled by climate change are threatening to undo decades of progress in public health vaccine efforts. Pakistan, a Middle Eastern country nestled between India and Afghanistan, is one of the…
Cristina Arnés Sanz: A Rising Global Health Leader
BY MICHELLE SO Fueled by a desire to help others and fascinated by the potential of medications to enhance human health, Cristina Arnés Sanz studied to become a pharmacist. Majoring in pharmacy at the Complutense University of Madrid, in her home country of Spain, Arnés Sanz became increasingly concerned and passionate about the environment and…
The Microscopic Burden of Climate Change: Increasing Risks of Dengue Virus in a Hotter World
BY CRISTINA GARCIA Dengue, a viral illness transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, remains one of the world’s most neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), despite its growing burden. The global incidence of dengue has spiked during the past few decades, with the World Health Organization documenting a tenfold rise in cases from 2000 to 2019.1 In 2023 alone,…
Prioritizing Both People and Planet: How the NGO Health in Harmony Has Changed the Way Global Health and Climate Conservation Are Done
BY TOMEKA FRIESON What if I told you that there was an organization that not only cared for the planet but also for the people who call it home? More than just a conservation institution that focuses on regenerating Earth’s rainforests or maintaining species diversity, this organization buys back chainsaws, encourages local entrepreneurship, and provides…
Paula Kavathas: A Profile
BY BLAKE MAULSBY Paula Kavathas has led an illustrious career that has charted new ground in both immunobiology and diversity in science. Since a young age, Kavathas was always fascinated by science and medicine and thus aspired to shape her career around these interests. While at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a friend of Kavathas was…
A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles
BY VIOLET AFFLECK I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room. She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised myself and my siblings. I was surprised at her surprise: as a lifelong Angelena and climate-literate member of generation Z, my…
Health, Climate, and Herring in Sitka
BY WILL SALAVERRY How does the way salmon dig their redds (nests) into the riverbed affect the flow of water downstream toward the sea? How does this, in turn, affect the health of the forest, laced by the rushing water that the salmon have guided through the underbrush? How does that ancient engineering influence the…
The Price Isn’t Right: The Cost of Colonialism and Climate Change in Pakistan
BY F. KHAN The boy is caught mid-jump, his toothy smile and extended limbs in kinetic motion, a striking contrast to the still waters corralled by the Norris Reservoir1 in Rocky Top, TN. Its construction began in 1933, making it the first dam to be built by the landmark Tennessee Valley Authority legislation, an agency…
Climate Change, Warfare, and Food Insecurity: When Agricultural Innovation Isn’t Enough
BY MYLA TOLIVER As Beth Bechdol, Deputy Director of the Food and Agriculture Association, once argued, “there is no food security without peace, and no peace without food security,” especially not with climate change.1 Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the cost of human commercial activities on the environment has been so extreme that…
Fields, Fires, and Fungi: Valley Fever in the Changing Environment
BY LOLYN TEJEDA LEMUS A cough can mean anything: a cold, a sore throat, a reflex after a perhaps over-eager sip of water. But as winds pick up earthy remnants of recent harvests, how certain can you be that a cough is benign and not a sign of something treacherous beneath your feet. Therein lies…
The Danger of American Isolationism
BY NIRAJ SRIVASTAVA On his first day back in presidential office, Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization (WHO) in 12 months.1 His signature marks an alarming descent into American isolationism regarding health, throwing the future of global health in peril. Since the WHO’s inception in 1948, the…
The True Cost of Mining in a Changing Climate: The Global Health Crisis in South America’s Yanomami Territory
BY DEBBIE MOJEKWU “We want to live, we want our peace back and our territory,” says Júnior Hekurari, health leader of the Yanomami people in Roraima state, Brazil.1 Mining has been a culturally accepted practice since prehistoric times, with people seeking invaluable resources, such as gold, in the deepest cores of the earth. However, what…
Cooked: How Extreme Heat Became America’s Deadliest Natural Disaster
BY RISHI SHAH In 2024, Earth experienced its hottest year on record, with global temperatures soaring 1.47°C (2.65°F) above pre-industrial revolution levels—an alarming milestone in a trajectory that shows no sign of slowing.1 Extreme heat is now the deadliest weather-related hazard in the United States, killing more people annually than hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes combined.2…
Trapped in the Fire: How the Sonoma County Ag Pass Risks Farmworkers’ Lives
BY ANDREA CHOW Joan Didion, a writer and essayist of California notoriety, once wrote that the Santa Ana winds make mechanistic creatures out of all of us. In late fall and early winter, Californians know what it is like to lick our cracked lips, scratch at our wrinkled knuckles, and grip the edges of our…
As Levees Collapse, Hospitals Shutter: How Climate Change is Fanning the Flames in Rural Healthcare
BY SEIN LEE On a scorching June afternoon in Oregon in 2021, farmer Sebastian Francisco Perez collapsed while moving irrigation pipes at a plant nursery.1 His coworkers tried desperately to resuscitate him, but it was too late—Perez had died from overheating and dehydration. The nearest hospital was a 30-minute drive away, far too distant to…
Climate Change and Cardiovascular Disease: Uncovering the Growing Threat to Public Health
BY KAI ELLIS What if the air you breathe, the heat you feel, and the storms you endure were silently increasing your risk of heart disease? Climate change is no longer just an environmental issue—it’s a direct threat to human health, particularly cardiovascular health. Rising global temperatures, worsening air pollution, and more frequent extreme weather…
The Hidden Climate Crisis of Lima’s Hillside Communities: A Journey into Peru’s Climate Vulnerability
BY TARA KIM On the outskirts of Lima, Peru’s sprawling capital, thousands of homes cling to desert cliffs. They shouldn’t be there—these precarious dwellings built hastily with concrete blocks, wood, and even scrap materials, defy both gravity and common sense. Yet, there they are in these “pueblos jóvenes” (young towns), standing as a testament to…
An Inspiration for Young Scientists: Celebrating Dr. Rita Colwell’s 90th Birthday
BY LILIA POTTER-SCHWARTZ November 23 marked the 90th birthday celebration of leading environmental microbiologist, Dr. Rita Colwell. As we honor Dr. Colwell’s groundbreaking career, we are inspired by and in awe of her public health contributions. Dr. Colwell’s career has spanned scientific leadership, discovery, and advocacy. Throughout her career, Dr. Colwell has connected these three…
Invisible War: The Obliteration of Health in Gaza
BY NIRAJ SRIVASTAVA “The smell of death is everywhere,” describes one doctor in Gaza [1]. Children die of malnutrition [2]. Epidemics resurge [3]. Gunshots and missiles barrage hospitals [4]. People undergo amputations without painkillers. Fathers, mothers, and children die silently in blood-stained hospital hallways with no surviving family to comfort them [1]. These are not…
Beyond the Storm: Building Climate Resilient Healthcare in Post-Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico
BY SEBASTIAN A. CORDERO MUNIZ In the Caribbean Sea Southwest of Miami, the island of Puerto Rico lies at the convergence of Latin America and the United States. Despite its uniquely hybrid culture and heritage, beautiful beaches, and close connection to the United States, Puerto Rico faces many long standing challenges. With a bankrupt government,…
Wandering Wombs, Wayward Women: Endometriosis and the Afterlife of the Hysteria Diagnosis
BY SAMANTHA LIU Hysteria has always been a markedly female condition. Plato in Timaeus was first to suggest the female uterus would be “sad” when it is not joined by its male counterpart; Hippocrates later coined hysteria in his Hippocratic Corpus as “the wandering uterus,” from hysteron meaning “uterus” [1]. Such characterizations trace back to…
The Fault in Our Algorithms: Tackling Bias in Medical AI
BY RISHI SHAH Artificial intelligence (AI) is heralded as a transformative force in medicine, with the potential to revolutionize diagnostics, personalize treatments, and optimize healthcare delivery [1]. Yet, AI is not an inherently neutral tool. Instead, it reflects and magnifies the values, biases, and inequities embedded in the systems that create it. In healthcare, this…
Laboring for Change: Adrienne Strong on Maternal Mortality in Tanzania
BY LIZZIE FISHER During medical anthropologist Adrienne Strong’s second visit to Tanzania, she witnessed a harrowing scene: a doctor at Singida Regional Referral Hospital performing an autopsy on a woman who had died with her full-term baby still inside of her. In an interview with me, reflecting on her experience, Strong remarked, “It is truly…
Death and Distrust: How Failing to Proactively Embrace Traditional Medicine During the HIV/AIDS Pandemic Has Limited the Acceptance of Western Medicine
BY LISHORE KUMAR For Onaeshegun, a tender-faced Nigerian native, medicine is more than a system of treating ailments—it’s a story. As a proud practitioner of traditional medicine, she uses recipes passed down from her grandmother to treat her aches, pains, and worries [1]. While she acknowledges that her remedies aren’t cure-alls, in times of struggle,…
“The Placebo Effect”: Rethinking Pain Relief
BY JOSHUA CHEN Treating pain is a complex issue. Its subjective nature and dependence on physiological and psychological factors make treatment complex. Opium—extracted from poppy plants—was first officially recorded for medicinal purposes in the 3rd century BC. The prescription of opium as primarily a painkiller, or analgesic, wasn’t documented until the late 18th century [1].…
A New Kind of Resilience
BY GRACE UDOH America is failing its Black mothers. A study by the American Journal of Managed Care identified the United States as the worst country for Black women to give birth in the developed world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women are three times more likely to die from…
One Year Later: The Lingering Health Crisis Caused by the Turkey/Syria Earthquakes
BY EDIS MESIC Individuals living on both sides of the border between Turkey and Syria were abruptly awakened by a terrifying rumble on Monday, February 6, 2023, at 4:17 am. Streets quickly filled with hordes of civilians rushing out of collapsing homes and buildings as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake tore through cities. With many roads…
“Covid This, Covid That”: The Importance of Communication and Preparation in Yale New Haven Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit Administration during the COVID-19 Pandemic
BY DAYA BAUM COVID-19 emerged in late 2019 and quickly escalated into a global pandemic, fundamentally transforming daily life and public health systems around the world. The virus has led to widespread illness and significant mortality, yet the complexities of its impact extend beyond immediate health concerns. Governmental responses, including lockdowns, social distancing, and mask…
Inside IMAHelps
BY TRIPP ROSENFELT Cristobal Barrios, Jr., M.D., FACS / President, CEO & Chief Medical Officer Cristobal Barrios Jr., M.D., FACS, is a longtime IMAHelps volunteer who was appointed president and CEO in January 2023. Dr. Barrios is IMAHelps’ chief representative with hospitals and government officials. Dr. Barrios is a board certified General Surgeon with added…
Diagnose Me! How Crowdsourcing is Revolutionizing Disease Diagnosis
BY RISHI SHAH Strength in numbers is a cliché for a reason. It’s no wonder that harnessing the potent power of crowds has become so popular, from raising quick cash through crowdfunding websites such as GoFundMe and Kickstarter to expediting travel through rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft. Now, crowdsourcing has entered the healthcare arena,…
The Proximity of People & Pathogens: Understanding the Impacts of Climate Change on Infectious Disease
BY LILIA POTTER-SCHWARTZ Introduction: Widespread impacts of climate change on infectious disease A 2009 Lancet Commissions report declared climate change as the biggest global health threat of the 21st century, estimated to affect the wellbeing of billions of people worldwide.1 Since the Industrial Revolution, climate change has caused significant shifts in the social and environmental…
Pandemics: The Space Between History & Novelty
BY MOREEN NG When the emergence of a novel SARS-Cov-2 viral strain was first reported in January 2020, the virus had already spread to four countries. Two months later, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared Covid-19 a global pandemic and global public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on March 11, 2020.1 Acknowledgment of…
Incidental Findings from Low-Value Screening and Resulting Cascades of Care in the United States
BY FRANK HORRIGAN Introduction Before undergoing surgery for a painful hernia, Mr. X, prompted by his medical history, underwent a preoperative chest CT scan – an imaging practice of uncertain value. That scan revealed a small nodule on his left lung, prompting a delay in surgery to follow up on the potential cancer. His follow-up…
Possession Pioneered American Gynecology
BY BERNADETTE NWOKEJI When Serena Williams delivered her first child in 2017, she almost died due to her concerns not being taken seriously by the team of medical professionals assigned to her.1 This alarming childbirth story rose to national news because of William’s status as a high-achieving athlete, but the story resonated with a specific…
Uighur Cultural and Ethnic Genocide in 2021: Understanding Humanitarian Crises Through the Lens of a Continuing Pandemic
BY SHERRY CHEN What happens when a humanitarian crisis overlaps with a global pandemic? Uighurs living in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) are met face-to-face with this issue on a daily basis. The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) was an American counterterrorism effort, initiated by President George W. Bush in response to the September…
The Doctor with a Gavel: Keeping the Gates to the Constitutional Right to Health in Brazil
BY MURILO DORION João da Silva is a 61-year-old Brazilian man with a severe hernia that causes constant pain and nausea. He was diagnosed in March but, because of the pandemic, the local government relocated his doctor to a field hospital, pushed non-emergent surgeries, and left João waiting for his urgent procedure at least up…
The Rise of an Unlikely Public Health Ally: Brazilian Drug Cartels
BY SOPHIA DE OLIVERA As I peered outside the window of a bus shuttling me to my grandmother’s house from the Rio International Airport, I found myself exceedingly curious about the towering multicolored slums decorating the outskirts of the Brazilian city. These vast stretches of impoverished housing, known as Favelas, were unlike anything I’d ever…
Why is Our Genome Data So White? A Discussion on the Lack of Representation in Genome-Wide Association Studies
BY ANN-MARIE ABUNYEWA The public health research consensus is that predominantly social and economic factors contribute to the health disparities observed in the United States. The determinants that contribute the least to health disparities are biology and genetics, which is understandable, as all humans share roughly 99.9% of DNA, and modern access to quality healthcare…
COVID-19 and Mental Health: Sleep, Anxiety, and Suicide
BY MIKA YOKOTA Introduction The Spring Festival on January 25, 2020 has become an unexpected and unforgettable memory for the people of China. On December 31, 2019, Wuhan Municipal Health Commission authorities reported multiple pneumonia cases of unknown etiology in Wuhan, Hubei Province. A series of events that followed disallowed the country to celebrate the…
Mass Incarceration & COVID-19
BY AMMA OTCHERE Faced with the looming coronavirus threat, governments around the globe have employed a number of strategies to curb the spread of COVID-19. As prisons have emerged as a hotbed for coronavirus, one of the strategies has included attempts to reduce prison populations through methods such as early release and reduced admissions.1 By…
On Average, What People Think About Covid-19 Responses, and the New Vaccine
BY RYAN BOSE-ROY With 317,800 Covid-19 deaths in the United States and 1.7 million deaths worldwide, the recent emergence of suitable Covid-19 vaccine candidates is a refreshing sight. However, vaccine availability is just a stepping-stone to the end goal; public opinion of the pandemic response and trust in the vaccine are crucial for adequate coverage…
A COVID-19 Vaccine: What’s Been Done and What’s to Come
BY MAIYA HOSSAIN The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has completely taken the world aback, forcing individuals to alter their usual ways of life. From abruptly transitioning to Zoom classes in March to requiring masks in virtually all public spaces, COVID-19 has affected all facets of society, which has paved the way for what some dub the…
The COVID-19 Pandemic isn’t the Only Outbreak We Need to Face
BY VANESSA BLAS The first case of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, was reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and has spread to 185 countries in just three months.1,2 However, the virus is not the only outbreak that is spreading rapidly–the pandemic has become racialized, targeting millions of Asians and Asian Americans. COVID-19 is…
Palliative Care: An Analgesic in an Impossible Time
BY SHAAN BHANDARKAR The coronavirus pandemic has forced healthcare providers into a difficult ethical gridlock. How do physicians choose which patients to treat with a serious deficit in essential supplies like ventilators? What consolations can physicians offer families who cannot meet their loved ones in their final moments? In many horrific ways, the pandemic has…
Modelling Equity in Global Health: Using Participatory Action Research to Bridge the Gap Between International Agencies and People in Southern Africa
BY SAM BRAKARSH Introduction Global health is a paradigm aimed at increasing equity through access to health. However, it is riddled with contradictions. It operates within a hierarchy of power where decisions are frequently made at a great distance from those upon which the interventions are enacted and so the voices of communities are lost.…
How Climate Change May Fuel the EEE Outbreaks in the United States
BY VANESSA BLAS Between August and October 2019, the Center for Disease Control received word of over thirty cases of patients infected with the eastern encephalitis virus, including twelve deaths, confirming a series of unprecedented outbreaks occurring in the United States.1 Three of those deaths occurred in Connecticut. A press release by Connecticut Governor Ned…
The Hypocrisy of Hippocrates: Ethics from Medical Oaths
BY SHAAN BHANDARKAR Long before the horrors of Tuskegee and Mengele, medical ethics claimed a center stage in the world of healing dating back to the times of Ancient Greece. Throughout the Classical era, patients reserved a comparable trust in both faith healers and the more traditional practitioners, who received training from other established practitioners…
Expanding Emergency Contraceptive Access: An Exploration of the Pros, Cons and Current Conversation on a U.S. and Global Scale
BY RYAN SUTHERLAND, FRANCESCA MAVIGLIA, ALEJANDRA MONCAYO, JULIA SPINNENWEBER Emergency contraception (EC) is a key tool for women to avert unintended pregnancy in a safe and effective manner shortly after having unprotected sex. EC is designed to be used in cases of non-use or inconsistent use of other contraception, and there are two categories of…
The State of the Field: Legislation Addressing Disparities in Birth Outcomes and Maternal Mortality among Black Mothers and Infants
BY RYAN SUTHERLAND Introduction A recent study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that among the top economically developed nations, the United States ranks first for child mortality and 47th in the world among all nations for maternal mortality.1 More than 50,000 American mothers each year will experience life-threatening, pregnancy-related complications and…
The Power of Human Touch
BY NINA UZOIGWE Caregiving across continental borders is a multifaceted experience within global healthcare. Arthur Kleinman, a professor of medical anthropology and cross-cultural psychiatry at Harvard University, stated in his publication in the Lancet that caregiving is “a deeply interpersonal, relational practice that resonates with the most troubling preoccupations of both carer and sufferer”.¹ In…
Tuberculosis: Returning to the Disease that Never Disappeared
BY KELLY FARLEY One third of the world’s population is infected with a latent form of it.1 Without treatment, 50% of those with the active form will die.2 We have a cure. And yet every day 5,000 people die of tuberculosis (TB).2 Background TB is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis.3 A…
The American Response to the AIDS Epidemic Among African Americans and Continental Africans
BY DEBBIE DADA “How we think about disease determines who lives and dies.”1 This is a quote from 1986 by Evelynn Hammonds, a scholar of the History of Science and African-American Studies. How does the manner in which disease is perceived affect the level of governmental and community mobilization to help afflicted populations? How might…
Humanitarian Challenges in the Congo’s Ebola Epidemic
BY BEN GROBMAN In December 2013, an unidentified disease began to spread in the small Guinean village of Meliandou. On March 22nd, more than 3 months after the initial transmission of the disease, the World Health Organization, confirmed the identity of the disease as Ebola virus disease.1 By the time Guinea was declared Ebola-free in…
Trump Must Embrace Global Health
BY JUDE ALAWA In his 2018 budget, President Donald Trump called for a 24 percent reduction in spending on foreign assistance for global health. Though some of the greatest achievements in U.S. foreign policy history proceeded from global health investments- namely the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. response to the…
The Silent Killer in Northern Nigeria: Implications and Challenges in Addressing Malnutrition
BY AASTHA KC Imagine a child whose survival is challenged even before it is born. Imagine a child whose mother was shot in the chest while escaping a terrorizer from Boko Haram and has ended up at the hospital not because of her gunshot wounds but because her child is malnourished. Such is the story…
Global Health Security: Cracking the Code to a More Health-Secure World
BY TOMEKA FRIESON Breaking news flashes across your phone screen. A new drug-resistant superbug, with symptoms such as fever, extreme fatigue, diarrhea, and searing muscle pain, has taken hold in a small Ethiopian town. So far, only one individual has died, but scientists are working as fast as they can to respond to the sudden…
Starvation and Sickness in the Wake of Venezuela’s Economic Collapse
BY BEN GROBMAN On Wednesday, January 24, 2018, Marcos Carvajal, a former pitcher for the Colorado Rockies and Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball, died in Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela. The cause of death was pneumonia, a common disease which is easily curable by simple antibiotics. However, due to dire shortages of medicine in Venezuela, the…
Gendercide: Sex-Selection in India
BY DEBBIE DADA INTRODUCTION An estimated 40 million females are missing from classrooms, boardrooms, and political offices due to actions stemming from son-preference in India alone.1 Within the past thirty years, the frequency of sex-selective abortions against females has increased rapidly. This practice is most often cited in Asian countries, and India has one of…
A Conversation with Dr. Bandy Lee: The Mental Health of President Trump
BY MATTHEW PETTUS Dr. Lee is a distinguished psychiatrist and expert on violence who has written books and held conferences on the mental health and stability of President Trump. Her actions throughout 2017 have subsequently created opposition from political and psychiatric professionals regarding the proper interpretation of the Goldwater Rule (a section of the APA’s…
A Necessity: The Healthcare Systems Abroad and at Home
BY INDIRA FLORES On January 30, 2018, Trump delivered his first State of the Union address. Prior to the speech, 82% of registered voters in one poll stated that improving the healthcare system was important for the president to discuss, making it their most highly prioritized topic.1 To the disappointment of these many Americans, one…
The Opioid Crisis: An Epidemic Without a Vaccine
BY KRISTI WHARTON Tommy Hill played many different roles in his life: a son, a boyfriend, a brother, a mentor. All of this ended July 10th, when he was found dead in his apartment after overdosing on heroin. For about a year, Tommy managed to stay clean, going to meetings and even mentoring others struggling…
Young Mind, Global Health: A Conversation with Dr. Sten Vermund on Ways Today’s Youth Can Address Top Global Health Issues
BY TOMEKA FRIESON Currently serving as the Dean of the Yale School of Public Health, Sten H. Vermund (MD, PhD) is a pediatrician and infectious disease epidemiologist focused on diseases of low and middle income countries. His work on HIV-HPV interactions among women in Bronx methadone programs motivated a change in the 1993 CDC AIDS…
Global Health Efforts Poised to Take Off with Novel Drone Technology
BY ROHAN GARG Drones have long been associated with violence and destruction. Used frequently as a tool for surveillance and bombings in military conflicts, drones have inadvertently killed countless civilians and deteriorated mental health in warzone populations. Recent technological developments in healthcare, however, suggest that drones may soon serve the polar opposite purpose: saving lives.…
The Yemen Civil War and its Effects on Civilians
BY KRISTI WHARTON In a country plagued by civilian casualties, potential famine, and a cholera outbreak, the Yemeni civil war rages on between the Houthi rebels and government forces, with the citizens of Yemen stuck in the middle. The Houthis goal is to end government corruption, and to end Western influence, while ultimately creating a…
Cultural Interpretation of Somatic Symptoms: The Mexican American Explanatory Model of Type II Diabetes
BY DEBBIE DADA INTRODUCTION Type II diabetes is a leading health concern that is often viewed as a “disease of modernization” because of its prevalence in developed countries, most notably, the United States of America.1 This illness is particularly prevalent among Mexican immigrants living in America: over one in every ten Mexican-Americans is diagnosed with…
A Malnutrition Crisis: Its Past, Present, and Future
BY HANNAH VERMA In early 2010, a massive earthquake decimated the Republic of Haiti. As one of the most poverty stricken nations in the world, it lacks the resources both to prepare for natural disasters and deal with the aftermath. The result? 1 in 5 children are malnourished. Approximately 50% of the population lives on…
Latin America: Understanding Teenage Pregnancy
BY ELANOR COOK Currently, over one tenth of births worldwide are to girls aged 15 to 19 years old.1 Although this number has been decreasing globally for the past few decades, there is one region in which fertility, meaning the number of births per women, has remained stagnant or even increased among teenage girls. In…
Women’s Health: The Basis for Global Health
BY RACHEL JABER CHEHAYEB The diversity of biological, environmental, social and governmental factors that contribute to shaping overall population health, and the extent of interconnectedness of these factors make trade-offs between interventions and decisions of resource and fund allocation exceedingly difficult. Nevertheless, women’s health perseveres as an accurate indicator of and contributor to overall health…
Relief: Is there a Difference in How We Rise?: A comparison of the medical relief efforts among areas recently affected by natural disasters
BY TOMEKA FRIESON August 25, 2017, was a day of unanticipated shock and grief for many Americans. Texas had been struck by Category Four Hurricane Harvey and, during those next four days, would experience extensive damage to its people, places, and infrastructure all across its southern region.1 On August 29, 2017, when the torrential rains…
Turing Pharmaceuticals: A Price Raise, a Name Change, and an Outrage
BY INDIRA FLORES As of September 2017, notorious ‘pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli has taken up residence in a federal prison in Brooklyn, New York.12 After bragging that he would only ever be sent to a luxurious, low-security ‘Club-Fed’ for his earlier convictions of fraud, he was sent to a federal prison for a completely separate…
Stigma and the Opioid Epidemic
BY YASHEEN GAO When Victoria, a young woman from San Antonio, went to her doctor, she thought back pain was the extent of her medical problems. Her doctor prescribed Vicodin® to cope with the pain1. Victoria realized Vicodin could be addictive, but she never imagined that fact would impact her. That was something that happened…
Water Security: Novel Techniques in Increasing Access to Clean Water Around the World
BY JENESIS DURAN The necessity of water cannot be denied. Consisting of over 60% of the human body by mass, it is the sustainer of life and vitality. As ubiquitous as water seems, in today’s world over 40% of the global population suffers from water scarcity, with around 783 million individuals worldwide lacking access to…
70th World Health Assembly Recap
BY MATTHEW PETTUS This past May, leaders of health from across the globe met in Geneva, Switzerland to participate in the 70th World Health Assembly. Serving as the highest level decision-making body in health policy, the World Health Assembly assembles health ambassadors from 194 member states to oversee how the World Health Organization (WHO) is…
Q&A With Gregg Gonsalves: Global Health Justice Now
BY KARINA XIE Gregg Gonsalves (PhD) is a longtime HIV/AIDS activist who started working with ACT UP in 1990 and founded the Treatment Action Group. He now teaches at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale Law School, where he is the Co-Director of the Global Health Justice Partnership. The Yale Global Health Review…
Indigenous Responses to Violence against Women
BY EMMA PHELPS Every February 14th, indigenous women call attention to missing and murdered Native American and Alaska Native women. This year, Yale Sisters of All Nations, a group of indigenous women at Yale, held an art exhibition in the Ezra Stiles Art Gallery in collaboration with Yale Native American Arts Coalition. The show commemorated…
Coinfections: Managing a dynamic network of diseases
BY COLIN HEMEZ When it comes to infectious diseases, the presence of one usually means the presence of many. Differences in environment, socioeconomics, and even genetics all conspire to leave some populations with high burdens of many diseases and other populations with low burdens of few diseases. This inconsistent distribution unfortunately results in many cases…
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