In August 2025, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali removed all taxes and customs duties on feminine hygiene products. Now, Guyana’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva calls on other countries to follow suit.    In most developing countries male condoms are distributed freely. Free access to condoms is a globally recognized harm reduction strategy in public health.  […] Continue reading ->
The United States government is moving rapidly to secure Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with African countries that offer limited health aid for five years in exchange for 25 years’ access to countries’ data about “pathogens with epidemic potential”. Some commentators have described the terms of the bilateral MOUs as “extractive” as they fail to offer […] Continue reading ->
Noma Bolani has a clear memory of her abusive father stopping the car in the middle of the highway in Durban, South Africa and asking her mother to get out.  She was just six years old, but Bolani followed her mother out of the car, and together they sought help from a passing motorist.  Bolani […] Continue reading ->
Season 5 of the Global Health Matters podcast opens with a blunt diagnosis of the field’s future from two leading voices, and a roadmap for reform. In a conversation with host Garry Aslanyan, Paola Abril Campos Rivera of Tecnológico de Monterrey and Catherine Kyobutungi, head of Kenya’s African Population and Health Research Centre, argue that […] Continue reading ->
At around midnight on the last night in August, a powerful earthquake destroyed homes and villages in Afghanistan – and the Taliban-controlled government’s restrictive policies exacerbated the suffering of women and girls caught in the disaster. Women and girls living in eastern Afghanistan are bearing the heaviest burden after the 6.0-magnitude earthquake killed and injured […] Continue reading ->
At least $7 billion is needed to rebuild Gaza’s health system, which has no fully functioning hospitals, and critical shortages of essential medicines, equipment and health workers, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing on Thursday. While Tedros welcomed the ceasefire negotiated by US President Donald Trump on […] Continue reading ->