Category Archives: Global health

Covid-19 presents people in the crosshairs of conflict with a terrifying new threat

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As the Red Cross launches an emergency appeal, its president calls for the world to pull together

If the first casualty of war is truth, the second may very well be something the entire world values highly right now: healthcare.

Families fleeing conflict, or currently in its crosshairs, know that medical assistance is a rare and precious privilege in war zones. Amid the terror of bombs and bullets, a functioning medical facility is a life-saving oasis, but it’s a near certainty medical staff will be overworked and short on supplies.

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Coronavirus threatens to turn aid crises into ‘humanitarian catastrophes’

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Restrictions on movement prevent food and medicine from reaching people in adversity, experts warn

Stringent new international restrictions on movement introduced because of the coronavirus pandemic are threatening the lives of millions of people across the world already caught up in humanitarian emergencies.

UN agencies, aid groups and international experts have warned that the new restrictions, which have closed borders and ports, and severely limited the movement of key staff from Africa to South America and Asia, threaten a “dramatic” knock-on effect in countries suffering from conflict, extreme climate events and other crises.

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Mogadishu’s refugees ‘waiting for death’ as Covid-19 reaches Somalia

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Fears are growing about the spread of coronavirus in camps where few can afford soap, water is rare and social distancing impossible

In the Nabadoon camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Asho Abdullahi Hassan, a 40-year-old mother of seven, has heard about the coronavirus on the radio.

“I am very scared about this deadly virus. I only heard about it from the news. It is like we are waiting for death to come,” she says.

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The isolated tribes at risk of illness from Amazon missionaries

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As evangelical Christians use their influence with Brazil’s government to cast their net ever wider, indigenous people vulnerable to common diseases face a growing threat

A radical group of evangelical Christian missionaries set on converting every last tribe on Earth has raised fears that deadly diseases – and even the coronavirus – will spread in the Brazilian Amazon. The group has based its newly bought helicopter right beside a reserve with the world’s highest concentration of isolated indigenous groups, who have little resistance to common illnesses.

There are more than 100 isolated indigenous groups in Brazil, all highly vulnerable to common diseases such as measles and flu, and 16 of them live in the same reserve in the Javari Valley, a vast, remote area the size of Austria. Covid-19 could wipe out any of them.

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World’s most vulnerable in ‘third wave’ for Covid-19 support, experts warn

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Fears that lack of coronavirus testing and supplies could mean refugees and those caught in crises are left behind

The world’s most vulnerable people could be last in line for support to deal with the coronavirus outbreak, experts have warned.

Countries already dealing with humanitarian and refugee crises face a struggle to find the resources to deal with the pandemic by the time it reaches them, specialists said in a webinar hosted by the New Humanitarian news agency on Thursday.

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‘Community infections could happen any time’: Kenya prepares for Covid-19

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One of the last places to be hit by coronavirus, experts in Kenya are worried it doesn’t have the resources to cope

Callers to BK radio, a station broadcasting to the remote region around Mount Elgon in western Kenya, were worried on Wednesday evening.

“Will the government help us if we stay indoors and we need food?” one asked. “What if we have small houses, where we can’t stay too far apart?” asked another.

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Nepal tourism hit hard as global coronavirus fears close Everest

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The mountain’s closure is devastating for many in a Himalayan nation that relies heavily on trekkers and climbers

The tiny airport at Lukla, perched on the edge of a mountain high in Nepal’s Himalayas, usually echoes with the roar of propeller planes flying a constant stream of adventure-seekers into the small town, known as the gateway to Mount Everest.

During the peak spring tourist season, tens of thousands of trekkers and mountaineers arrive to test themselves on the popular trek to Everest base camp, and perhaps go on to climb the world’s highest peak.

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True numbers of FGM victims could be far higher as countries fail to record cases

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New report calls for national surveys by governments to underline scale of worldwide abuse

The number of women and girls who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) could be much higher than previously estimated, as a new report shows the practice is carried out in more than 90 countries around the world.

The UN estimates that 200 million women and girls have undergone FGM. But this figure is drawn from only 31 countries – 27 in Africa – where national data has been collected.

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African nations impose stricter measures as coronavirus spreads

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Governments warn disease will cause huge challenges for continent’s health services

Countries across Africa have imposed wide-ranging and stringent new measures as the coronavirus begins to spread more rapidly across the continent.

Though the continent is still far behind Europe and Asia in the total numbers of Covid-19 cases, the disease has now reached about half of its countries. Algeria has 48 confirmed cases, Egypt 110, while South Africa has 62, according to the World Health Organization and national governments on Monday. Other countries have fewer cases, mostly in single figures.

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‘It became part of life’: how Haiti curbed cholera

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When cholera broke out just months after a devastating earthquake, Haiti’s health system was pushed to the brink. The extraordinary rearguard action that followed offers an object lesson in dealing with a public health crisis

Marie Millande Tulmé was at work in a prison when she received a call confirming her fears: the gruesome sickness spreading rapidly across her nation was indeed cholera.

The head nurse for Haiti’s Central Plateau region at the time, Tulmé was investigating rumours that prisoners were getting violently ill and that two had died. “I thought: ‘Haiti will perish,’” she says, recalling her reaction when Haiti’s national laboratory phoned with the news. “Because I knew that cholera was grave. That it spreads easily.”

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Seven out of 10 global health leaders are men – and change is half a century away

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‘Stagnant’ global health system is dominated by rich states, rooted in colonialism and undervalues women, says study

A small group of privileged men based in Europe and the US preside over a global health system which is 70% male, according to new research.

The Global Health 50/50 report, published on Monday by University College London’s Institute of Global Health, warns it could take 54 years until the world’s major health organisations have equality in their leadership.

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Inside the cruise ship that became a coronavirus breeding ground

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As contagion swept through the Diamond Princess, its crew had to carry on working. Here, they recall the climate of chaos and fear that prevailed during the ship’s two-week quarantine

Christian Santos* remembers staying awake at night, anxiously listening to the sound of his colleague coughing. They were sleeping below deck, in one of the small rooms shared by workers on board the stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship.

He had spent the previous two weeks serving guests who were confined to their rooms, and watching the miserable failure of disease-control measures on the vessel. Now he knew the coronavirus, which had already transmitted to hundreds of people onboard, had almost certainly entered his own cabin.

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Faulty condoms leave charity facing court case in Uganda

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Two men sue over alleged HIV and gonorrhoea infections that they claim were caused by defective contraceptives

Two Ugandan men have taken court action against an international charity for distributing faulty condoms which, they claim, led to one of them contracting HIV and the other gonorrhoea.

In a lawsuit, Joseph Kintu and Sulaiman Balinya say they bought Life Guard condoms from stores supplied by the Marie Stopes organisation in Uganda in October last year.

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World Bank’s $500m pandemic scheme accused of ‘waiting for people to die’

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Bonds designed to provide fast funding for poor countries branded ‘obscene’ because of complex payout criteria

A flagship $500m World Bank scheme to help the poorest countries deal with a health emergency is “too little too late” for the coronavirus outbreak, say health experts.

The first pandemic emergency financing (PEF) bonds were launched in 2017 by Jim Yong Kim, the bank’s president at the time, after the Ebola outbreak in west Africa. Designed to potentially “save millions of lives and entire economies” by speedily funnelling money to nations facing pandemics.

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Coronavirus in a war zone: Afghanistan braces for outbreak after first case

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Lone Kabul laboratory preparing to treat patients in the midst of political turmoil and tentative peace talks, as border with Iran closed

Preparations for an outbreak of coronavirus were underway in Afghanistan as the country confirmed its first case in the western province of Herat, which borders Iran.

Seven more suspected cases have been identified in Herat, and three cases in the nearby provinces of Farah and Ghor.

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Women can be protected from cervical cancer – so why aren’t we doing it?

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Amid a global shortage of HPV vaccine, more must be done to steer supplies towards those most at risk: girls in poor countries

For too many women, cervical cancer is a death sentence. But it doesn’t have to be. A life-saving preventative vaccine can dramatically cut cases and put the world on track to eliminate this deadly disease.

The UK first began offering a vaccine against HPV – the primary cause of cervical cancer – in 2008. According to a 2018 study by Public Health England, infections of certain cancer-causing types of HPV have since fallen by 86% among 16- to 21-year-old women. A study conducted in Scotland last year found that the vaccine reduced pre-cancerous cervical lesions by up to 90%.

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The mystery sickness bringing death and dismay to eastern Ethiopia

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As villagers in Somali region fall ill in unexplained circumstances, some locals fear gas exploration has tainted the local water supply

At first, 23-year-old Khadar Abdi Abdullahi’s eyes began turning yellow. Then the palms of his hands did the same. Soon he was bleeding from his nose, and from his mouth, and his body was swelling all over. Eventually he collapsed with fever. He later died.

A deadly sickness is spreading through villages near a Chinese natural gas project in Ethiopia’s Somali region, according to locals and officials who spoke to the Guardian. Many of Khadar’s neighbours have suffered the same symptoms. Like him, some died.

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The world is failing to ensure children have a ‘liveable planet’, report finds

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Children in biggest carbon-emitting nations are healthiest, while those with tiny environmental footprints suffer twofold from poor health and living at the sharp end of the climate crisis

Every country in the world is failing to shield children’s health and their futures from intensifying ecological degradation, climate change and exploitative marketing practices, says a new report.

The report says that despite dramatic improvements in survival, nutrition, and education over the past 20 years, “today’s children face an uncertain future”, with every child facing “existential threats”.

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Reform urged in Malaysia after disabled man is jailed for attempted suicide

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Campaign groups unite in condemnation of ‘grossly inhumane and incompassionate’ verdict

Human rights groups in Malaysia are calling for the repeal of a law that criminalises attempted suicide after a man with a physical disability was sentenced to six months in prison for trying to take his own life.

Malaysia is one of the few countries where attempting suicide is illegal. Under existing legislation, people found guilty can be punished by up to a year in prison, a fine, or both. But the Malaysian government is now considering a change to the law, which advocates say cannot come soon enough.

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