It is time to reaffirm our commitment to strengthening the AIDS response: Global health newsletter – 7

By Megha Kaveri  

World AIDS day

The world has a lot to learn from earlier health emergencies such as HIV. As another World AIDS day passes by, it is time to reaffirm our global health community’s commitment to strengthening the AIDS response and ridding the world of patriarchy and inequality. This article from the British Medical Journal gives useful insight on how to implement the takeaways from our responses to the first wave of HIV, and now Covid-19, to bolster our response to HIV in the future. 

Decolonising global health

What does decolonisation mean for global health scholars and how will it improve lived experiences in the global south? This fantastic post gives a small, yet powerful glimpse into the idea. This zine on Issuu is also a good place to start reading and thinking about decolonisation in the sector. 

Chinese “zero-Covid” protests

In recent days China has seen nationwide protests, triggered by a deadly fire in a Xinjiang tower block, against the CCP’s “zero-Covid” policies. Citizens have been prevented from leaving their homes for several days and some journalists have been arrested. In some regions, protests have been effective in forcing the authorities to lift draconian Covid-19 restrictions Read more here.   

Renaming “monkeypox” 

The World Health Organization, WHO, has recommended replacing “monkeypox” with the term “mpox” after complaints of stigma and racism around the former term’s usage reached the agency. The WHO will henceforth prefer to use “mpox” and has recommended gradual phasing out of the previous name within a year. Read more here. 

WHO

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, also announced five new appointees to his senior team in an internal email. These appointments have, however, been marked as “interim” raising questions on whether another set of new names would be announced as permanent appointees. 

WHO’s first chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan bid adieu to the organisation on Wednesday. A voice of reason while the world battled. and continues to do so, against the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Swaminathan was known for her fact-based approach to dealing with coronavirus. For her successor, she has one message, “ Speak truth to power”. Read her freewheeling chat with Devex here. 

Vaccinations 

Malawi rolled out the world’s first large-scale vaccination drive against Malaria. Though the vaccine has less than 40% efficacy, Malawi’s National Malaria Control programme manager has said that malaria needs a mix of several interventions and not just the vaccines. Read more about the landmark move here. 

ICYMI reads: 

Vaccines are in short supply amid global cholera surge – Science

Roche’s failed Alzheimer’s studies lend weight to an emerging idea about potential treatments – STAT news

Despite India’s Recent Expansion of Abortion Rights There Are Many Obstacles – Especially for Young Unmarried Women – Health Policy Watch

A new pandemic playbook: Draft treaty sets out far-reaching new rules for countries – Politico

Bonus reads for global health students – A Twitter thread

Podcasts: 

This week, we have two new podcasts to introduce to our list: 

The “Uncared for” podcast by the Commonwealth Fund and Lemonada Media has this nice episode on postpartum care in the Netherlands. 

The University of Sydney has a podcast called “SHE Research Podcast” with conversations coming out of the Sydney Health Ethics centre at the university. Already into its third season, the latest episode features Dr Kelly Lee, a professor at Simon Fraser University, who speaks about controlling borders during Covid-19. Listen to the episode here.

The latest episode on BBC Health Check is about the world’s first drug for Alzheimer’s disease, diving into what makes this drug historic. Listen to the episode here.  

Events: 

Pandemic shock and health financing: Old scars, new wounds – 5 December 2022, 3 pm CET – World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Geneva (and hybrid). Register here for the event.