Mama Afya: Student Blog
The Indirect Costs of Development
A significant portion of global health today focuses on less developed regions. A great deal of effort, time and resources are put into alleviating the hardship’s that come with a lack of resources sand enabling growth and development. The push for development and progress often tops government agendas, as it rightly should. Economic strides forward will lead to an improved quality of life, greater equality and better access to healthcare all of which leads to improved health outcomes. History provides us with countless examples and case studies to prove that this is true and economics gives us more than enough... More
International Journals: The Amazon of the Scientific Community?
There has been a tremendous push to build scientific capacity in developing countries. Overall, scientific researchers around the world are beginning to discuss local issues, and great ideas are being formed to solve various challenges. However, one key metric of scientific capacity, Scientific Journals, are losing their influence in these countries. From a pure number perspective, there is an overall increase in the number of scientific publications every year. However, on closer look a majority of these writings are being published in international journals vs. local scientific journals. Large international journals are pushing out more local journals in the same... More
The War on Malaria: A New Arsenal
In 2011, the then WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, proclaimed, “The usefulness of our most potent weapon in treating malaria is now under threat.” Chan called out to researchers, funders, and policy leaders to recognize the urgency of artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasites, a formidable threat that jeopardizes the goal of malaria eradication. Flash forward to 2018, it seems that a new discovery made by scientists at Radboud University Medical Center will counteract the wave of artemisinin resistance. Research shows that dye methylene blue safely eliminates malaria parasites at an unprecedented rate. Typically, when a person is bitten by a malaria-transmitting mosquito, single-celled... More
Interconnection and Infectious Disease
Progress has had many benefits for global health. As areas become less isolated, it becomes easier for people to reach hospitals and get essential medical supplies and a more interconnected world means we can spread information faster and further than ever before. Unfortunately, it also means diseases can spread faster and further if left unchecked. In Acre, Brazil, progress brought dengue fever. Before 2000, Acre never had any cases of dengue and by 2010 Acre had 35,000 recorded cases among its relatively small population of fewer than 1 million people. Acre was surrounded by states that suffered from dengue fever but... More
Vaccination and Eradication: The Importance of Novel Approaches
Early this year, India launched one of the world’s largest vaccination campaigns targeted at eradicating measles and congenital rubella. Through the country’s continued efforts, almost 118 million children benefited from mass vaccination campaigns decreasing measles deaths by 51% between 2000 and 2015. Over the next two years, government officials hope to reach 410 million children through a free vaccination programme which will eventually be replaced with a routine immunisation system. There is every reason to have an optimistic outlook regarding the possibility of this programme to eradicate measles and rubella. As a nation, India has already overcome polio, smallpox, neonatal... More