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. The novel … Continue reading The COVID-19 Pandemic isn’t the Only Outbreak We Need to Face
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 … Continue reading Palliative Care: An Analgesic in an Impossible Time
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. … Continue reading Modelling Equity in Global Health: Using Participatory Action Research to Bridge the Gap Between International Agencies and People in Southern Africa
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 … Continue reading How Climate Change May Fuel the EEE Outbreaks in the United States
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 … Continue reading The Hypocrisy of Hippocrates: Ethics from Medical Oaths
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 … Continue reading Expanding Emergency Contraceptive Access: An Exploration of the Pros, Cons and Current Conversation on a U.S. and Global Scale
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 … Continue reading The State of the Field: Legislation Addressing Disparities in Birth Outcomes and Maternal Mortality among Black Mothers and Infants
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 … Continue reading The Power of Human Touch
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 … Continue reading Tuberculosis: Returning to the Disease that Never Disappeared
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 … Continue reading The American Response to the AIDS Epidemic Among African Americans and Continental Africans
