Should my bacteria worry about genetically modified mosquitoes?
I hate to admit it, but I kind of like the idea of genetically altering mosquitoes — or the bacteria they carry around — to fight disease. I’m enough of a geek to think this is cool stuff and, frankly,...
View ArticleQ&A with an architect of the Gates-funded ‘green revolution’ for Africa
While Bill Gates was in New York City to stump for polio eradication at last week’s ‘high-level’ side meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, Melinda Gates was attending another fairly...
View ArticleNathan Myhrvold: Patent Troll, Inventor and now Global Do-Gooder
When folks talk about Nathan Myhrvold, they seldom use muted terms. The former chief technologist for Microsoft is a close associate of Bill Gates and now CEO of a business, Intellectual Ventures,...
View ArticleA visual (and disturbing) look at how little potable water on Earth
From Reuters: Just how scarce is potable water on Earth? We learn in school that more than two-thirds of the planet is covered in water. But that figure is deceptive because it refers to just surface...
View ArticleSeattle AIDS vaccine scientists celebrate new clues – and uncertainty
Seattle is home to the world’s largest HIV vaccine research network and, as a scientitic meeting here this week indicated, they’re quite comfortable with not knowing where they’re heading. “We actually...
View ArticleGates-funded ‘breakthrough’ malaria vaccine now disappoints
The world’s largest clinical trial of an experimental malaria vaccine, largely funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with the vaccine maker GlaxoSmithKline, has produced...
View ArticleBig Pharma claims to be doing better on pricing drugs for poor people
The Guardian’s Sarah Boseley reports on the latest Access to Medicines Index, a ranking put out by a Netherlands-based organization that was created by the pharmaceutical industry in partnership with a...
View ArticleGlobal Burden of Disease regional comparison of Years of Life Lost between...
The Global Burden of Disease, a comparison by region of Years of Life Lost (YLLs) by cause between 1990 and 2010. Disparities apparent at a quick glance: 1. The dark black bar for the Caribbean in 2010...
View ArticleGlobal Burden of Disease cause of death and disability from 1990 to 2010
The Global Burden of Disease’s comparison of 25 leading causes of death and disability between 1990 and 2010 Continue reading →
View ArticleThe burden of a new global health agenda
A massive study of death, disability and disease on Earth, coordinated out of Seattle and to be officially published in The Lancet on Friday, could do for global health something like what Galileo did...
View ArticleScience highlights for 2012 in aid and development
SciDev looks back at some of the contributions science and technology made last year to the fight against poverty, disease and inequity. Source: Scidev Scientists struggled to get science into Rio+20...
View ArticleSciDev’s top ten tech humanitarian breakthroughs for 2012
Starting with potato batteries. Source: Scidev The year saw several technological discoveries with applications in development Flickr/ArtbyRetta Potato batteries, wind-powered mine detectors, smart...
View ArticleHeresy post: Why you might legitimately decide not to get a flu vaccine
Okay, I expect to get a few angry responses here. But my elderly mother asked me flat-out if I thought it was important for her to get a flu shot and I had to say I didn’t know if it was … important,...
View ArticleNature: HIV trial under scrutiny for being too costly for poor country
A dilemma: Arthur Ammann, president of Global Strategies for HIV Prevention in Albany, California, says that the trial would be testing a treatment on infants “that would never be available to them or...
View ArticleTrees for global health
Scientists determine that forest health and human health are linked. The researchers have to add that: “Although the study shows the association between loss of trees and human mortality from...
View ArticleAid under the microscope
Nature magazine looks at how some of the methods of clinical and biomedical research are being applied to evaluate projects in aid and development. It’s a good overview but perhaps glosses over the...
View ArticleGates Foundation backs Indian vaccine maker as challenge to mega-drug firms
This BusinessWeek story has a confusing headline that disguises something fairly interesting. For those who suspect the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation of only pursuing strategies in global health...
View ArticleHow the world gets sick and dies
The Atlantic’s take – a month later — on the release of the Global Burden of Disease report. Source: Theatlantic “Caveman Chuck” Coker/Flickr The Manhattan Project created the atomic bomb through an...
View ArticleDeveloping world using eyeballs instead of ID cards
I’ve mentioned this before, the move by some poor or middle-income countries to move toward using eyeball identification schemes rather than paper or ID cards. Here’s a great overview of this trend by...
View ArticleScientists show malnourished children’s lives saved with antibiotics
Interesting finding, but making sure they aren’t malnourished in the first place may be a better course of action. Source: Nytimes The studies, in Malawi, led by scientists from Washington University...
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