global health

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Here’s How Researchers In Boston Spotted The Ebola Outbreak Before The World Health Organization

Timothy McGrath | Los Angeles Daily News | August 13, 2014

On March 23 the World Health Organization announced there was an Ebola outbreak in Guinea. But a team of researchers four thousand miles away in Boston already knew that...

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How Does The Gates Foundation Spend Its Money To Feed The World?

Staff Writer | Grain | November 4, 2014

At some point in June this year, the total amount given as grants to food and agriculture projects by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation surpassed the US$3 billion mark. It marked quite a milestone. From nowhere on the agricultural scene less than a decade ago, the Gates Foundation has emerged as one of the world's major donors to agricultural research and development...

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Is The Pharmaceutical Industry Doing Enough To Increase Access To Essential Medicines?

Charles Moore | Bio News Texas | April 8, 2014

A report in The Lancet Global Health journal, citing the World Health Organization’s World Medicines Situation, notes that despite progress in many countries, about a third of the world’s population still has no regular access to essential medicines, and says responsibility to resolve this problem lies with many, including the pharmaceutical industry.

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Is U.S. Health Care Unprepared For Ebola?

Garance Burke | Top Tech News | October 30, 2014

The U.S. health care apparatus is so unprepared and short on resources to deal with the deadly Ebola virus that even small clusters of cases could overwhelm parts of the system, according to an Associated Press review of readiness at hospitals and other components of the emergency medical network...

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Knowledge is Power: Sharing Information Can Accelerate Global Health Impact

Trevor Mundel | Impatient Optimists | November 20, 2014

...Given the Gates Foundation’s focus on improving health for the world’s poorest people, we put a high priority not only on the research necessary to deliver the next important drug or vaccine, but also on the collection and sharing of data so other scientists and health experts can benefit from this knowledge...

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Lancet/Oslo Commission: The Political Origins Of Health Inequity

Ole Petter Ottersen, et al. | Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) | February 11, 2014

Despite large gains in health over the past few decades, the distribution of health risks worldwide remains extremely and unacceptably uneven. Although the health sector has a crucial role in addressing health inequalities, its efforts often come into conflict with powerful global actors in pursuit of other interests such as protection of national security, safeguarding of sovereignty, or economic goals. Read More »

Liberia Closes Its Borders To Stop Ebola

Jen Christensen | CNN.com | July 28, 2014

The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history continues to plague West Africa as leaders scramble to stop the virus from spreading.  Over the weekend, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf closed most of the country's borders...

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Maternal Deaths On The Rise In The United States

Press Release | Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation | May 2, 2014

The United States is among just eight countries in the world to experience an increase in maternal mortality since 2003 – joining Afghanistan and countries in Africa and Central America, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

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MERS Cases Revealed In Saudi Arabia Raise Questions

Staff Writer | CBC News | June 4, 2014

The World Health Organization and other experts are looking for answers to explain how Saudi Arabia missed or failed to report a substantial number of MERS cases and deaths over the past year...

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Mosquitoes and Malaria: Taking a Big Step Against a Small but Deadly Foe

Shaun Donovan | White House Blog | February 22, 2016

If you’ve ever swatted away a mosquito on a muggy summer night, then you know how annoying these winged pests can be. But in many parts of the world, mosquitos are not just irritating—they’re deadly. Malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitos, took the lives of 438,000 people worldwide last year. More than 3 billion people remain at risk of contracting this horrific disease, which is especially dangerous for pregnant mothers and young people...

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Mosquitoes Carry Painful Chikungunya Virus To Americas

Karen Weintraub | National Geographic | July 1, 2014

The patient showed up at the University of Miami Hospital feverish and hobbled by joint pain, a rash spreading across her face, and was presumed to be suffering from lupus or severe rheumatoid arthritis.  But in talking to the middle-aged woman last week, doctors realized that her symptoms and recent history of travel to the Dominican Republic added up to a different diagnosis: chikungunya...

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Nigeria Government Confirms Ebola Case In Megacity Of Lagos

Felix Onuah and Tom Miles | Reuters | July 25, 2014

A Liberian man who died in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos on Friday tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.  Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberian finance ministry in his 40s, collapsed on Sunday after flying into Lagos, a city of 21 million people, and was taken from the airport and put in isolation in a local hospital...

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Obama Finally Gets Serious On Ebola

Staff Writer | SFGate | September 17, 2014

To use a current California comparison, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is like a runaway wildfire: quick-moving, all-consuming and deadly. Until now, outside nations, including this country, have brought barely a garden hose to the fight...

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ONC Tech Forum 2020—An Attendee's Perspective

I attended the ONC summer Tech Forum in August 2020 which brought together over 1,500 industry experts and Federal partners to discuss technical innovations in health information technology and their potential impacts on the healthcare ecosystem...One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was focused on the efforts made by Honk Kong to develop an open source digital health platform. Over the past 20+ years, Hong Kong has been pursuing a "one system, one record" policy primarily built on open source components. Though they had little money to invest at the beginning, for them open source is more about retaining control than about controlling cost (though the lower price tag certainly got them started down this path)...

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Online-only Pharmacies That Don't Require Prescriptions Could Fuel Antibiotic Resistance

Press Release | Imperial College London | February 16, 2017

The researchers from Imperial College London analysed 20 pharmacies that were available for UK citizens to access online. This is one of the few studies to have examined the online availability of antibiotics and to have explored the potential effects on public health. The research is published in Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. Antibiotics are classed as prescription only medicines in the UK, meaning they cannot legally be sold to consumers without a valid prescription...

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