Senegal: Key Insights Coming from the Smallest Places
BY TALIA KATZ.Photography by Talia Katz. “i te foosi long.” You don’t know anything. Did I correctly understand my host mother’s succinct Malinke phrase? Did I really know nothing? Her remark, though valid, struck me hard. Intelligence had always been the one character trait I clung too. And as if to crystallize the meaning of…
Hong Kong: The Effects of Science, Politics, and Race on the Public Health Responses to the 1894 Bubonic Plague
BY CANDICE HWANG.Photography courtesy of Harvard University Library. ** This essay by Candice Hwang won the third place prize in the Yale Global Health Review 2014 Class Essay Contest** In the 18th and 19th century, there was an influx of Westerners in China, bringing with them their concepts of how state medicine and public health…
Health as a Human Right
BY ANNA BLAZEJOWSKYJ.Photography by David Sachs and Anna Blazejowskyj. ** This essay by Anna Blazejowskyj won the second place prize in the Yale Global Health Review 2014 Class Essay Contest** The idea of health as a human right presents a very complex, multi-dimensional dilemma. One of the greatest problems that arises in the health debate…
Yemen: Health Inequality Between the Genders
BY TERESA LOGUE.Photography by Dana Smillie and Martin Chico. ** This essay by Teresa Logue won the first place prize in the Yale Global Health Review 2014 Class Essay Contest** Though it is the second largest country in the Arabian peninsula, Yemen has the second lowest Human Development Index (HDI) in the entire Asia region.[i]…
Your Future In Public Health: What You Need to Know and What You Don’t
BY PROFESSOR RICHARD SKOLNIK. Richard Skolnik, BA Yale College 1972, is a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health who has been deeply involved in health and development work for almost 40 years. From 1976-2001, he worked at the World Bank where his focus was on health systems development, family planning and reproductive health,…
How Global Health Helps Us
BY ALICIA DING. In “Towards a common definition of global health,” written in a 2009 edition of the Lancet, members of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Executive Board defined it as “an area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all…
Q&A with Professor Alice Miller
BY LORRAINE JAMES. Professor Alice Miller is an Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Law at Yale Law School and co-director of the new Global Health Justice Partnership. As an expert in health, human rights, and gender, Professor Miller also holds positions at the Yale School of Public Health and the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. Her extensive…
Ghana: Redefining Ability – Lessons Learned from Survivors of Disabilities
BY ELLIE DUPLER.Photography by Ellie Dupler. Yefreme Ellie. Mefiri America. My introduction in broken Twi echoed over the buzz of mosquitos and the cries of babies suffering from conjunctivitis worse than most western health workers could ever imagine. Despite the pain and blindness the 450 people sitting before me in the sweltering church were enduring,…
New Orleans: Laissez le Bons Temps Rouler!
BY JUAN DIAZ.Photography by Marcello Casil. Commonly associated with the debauchery and decadence of Mardi Gras, New Orleans is a city occupying a unique place in American history. Its racial and cultural makeup speaks to African, French, and Spanish influences during its colonization, and its socioeconomic disparities reflect a legacy of slavery and racism. Recovering…
Syria: At the Brink of a War Zone
BY SARAH YAZJI.Photography by Suleyman Tapsiz and Sarah Yazji. It was July 2012 and the second time I visited the Turkish-Syrian border to volunteer at the refugee rehabilitation clinic. A young Syrian boy lay nearly unconscious and whimpering on the operating table. His light hair, torn clothes, and small body were blackened by dust. His…
China: Atrocities Overlooked as Individuals Prioritize their Best Interests in Drug Addiction “Rehabilitation”
BY SOPHIA KECSKES.Photography by Stringer Shanghai/Reuters and Jacksoncam. In the past few decades, China has developed significantly; this is most notably demonstrated in its strengthening middle class and the associated improvements in their quality of life, such as the electrification of rural areas and a vastly improved education system. Yet, when one more deeply investigates…
Nigeria: Female Genital Cutting – The 20th Century Attempt to Ban a Harmful Traditional Practice
BY SARAH ECKINGER.Photography by Anthony MacMillan. When examining the history of health in Nigeria, many of the diseases and illnesses that have plagued the country are of natural origin, sprouting from bacteria or parasites that thrive in warm countries, or growing from viruses that jumped from animals to humans. Others are chronic and affect people…
Ecuador: Listening to a Community and Building Partnerships
BY ADAM BECKMAN AND NORA MORGA-LEWY.Photography by Adam Beckman and Nora Morga-Lewy. “Why are you working on HIV in Ecuador? This question has challenged Yale undergraduates, MPH candidates, and Global Health Fellows who comprise the former Yale-Ecuador HIV Clinic Initiative. Each of us has lived for up to twelve weeks in a small Ecuadorian town,…
The Secret Theft of Human Rights
BY LINDSEY HIEBERT.Photography by Lindsey Hiebert. Birth and human rights are closely related; rights are principles and standards that protect individuals, and they are earned at birth, when individuals can begin to fruitfully take advantage of them. Many obstacles prevent human rights from being fulfilled, including oppressive regimes and discrimination. Birth, the same event that…
Haiti: Improving the Maternal Health Situation through Increased Contraceptive Use
BY RACHEL ARNESEN.Photography by Jose Jose and Jean Francoise Leblanc. Each day, about 800 women die from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth.[1] While 800 deaths per day is an alarming statistic, what is even more shocking is that almost all of these deaths—over 99% of which occur in developing countries—are preventable.[2] In the past…
Cuba: Medicine and Medical Internationalism
BY ADAM WILLEMS.Photography by Franklin Reyes and the Wikimedia Foundation. Cuban medicine is unique in its international focus. Even while its people faced a severe shortage of physicians, the revolutionary government sent its first medical team abroad in 1960 to respond to an earthquake in Chile. With a significantly larger medical workforce today compared to…
Arab World: Changing Public Health
BY CHAYMA BOUSSAYOUD.Photography by Jill Gramdnerg. From Morocco to Syria, the Arab World has made significant progress in the health of its population in the last 20 years, most notably in reducing the prevalence of infectious disease and prenatal and maternal mortality. As seen in the Global Burden of Disease Study of 2010, the prevalence…
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