Annie Sparrow

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Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing on Nov. 23.

MundoAsiaInternacionalSalud Pública,

In Beijing and other megacities in China, hospitals are overflowing with children suffering pneumonia or similar severe ailments. However, the Chinese government claims that no new pathogen has been found and that the surge in chest infections is due simply to the usual winter coughs and colds, aggravated by the lifting of stringent COVID-19 restrictions in December 2022. The World Health Organization (WHO) has dutifully repeated this reassurance, as if it learned nothing from Beijing’s disastrous cover-up of the COVID-19 outbreak.

There is an element of truth in Beijing’s assertion, but it is only part of the story. The general acceptance that China is not covering up a novel pathogen this time appears reassuring.…  Seguir leyendo »

People wait in line to receive the monkeypox vaccine before the opening of a new mass vaccination site in Brooklyn, New York, on July 17. KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images

InternacionalSalud Pública, ,

After World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus intervened to overrule a stymied committee, monkeypox has been declared a global public health emergency. It was an important intervention—but fighting the spread of a painful and distressing disease requires clear public health messaging about who is most at risk right now and why.

Smallpox, drove physician Edward Jenner to make the vaccine in 1796 by using cowpox, a less lethal member of the pox family. Smallpox eradication in 1980 is considered by many experts to be the greatest public health success of the 20th century.

For decades, vaccination against smallpox provided protection from monkeypox, smallpox’s little-known sibling, which had been discovered in 1958 among laboratory monkeys.…  Seguir leyendo »

Workers attach a banner with a photo of a pregnant woman being carried on a stretcher after the bombing of a maternity ward in Mariupol during Russia's war in Ukraine that is displayed as part of an exhibition at the railway station in Vilnius, Lithuania on March 25, 2022, where transit trains from Moscow to Kaliningrad make a stopover. PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP via Getty Images

Europa, , , ,

War is synonymous with suffering, but for civilians, the severity of the consequences depends on how a war is waged.

One war crime stands out for its singular capacity to amplify the suffering of civilians, multiply the effect of mass atrocities, and drive forced displacement: Russia’s deliberate assault on health care. Because of its cruelty and devastating effect, this strategy deserves special attention and should be prioritized for prosecution.

On March 9, the Russian assault on a Mariupol maternity hospital in Ukraine sparked international condemnation. The Russian foreign minister confirmed that the attack was intentional but justified it by the specious claim, backed by fake images, that the hospital was a military base.…  Seguir leyendo »