This article is part of the following series: Chronic living
On the 12th of January 2020, the World Health Organization confirmed that the “mystery virus” which, according to reports from China, had infected some 50 people in the city of Wuhan, was not SARS following the genetic sequencing of a “novel coronavirus”. Within two weeks, Wuhan’s hospitals were overwhelmed, and the city was sent into lockdown as health authorities …
This article is part of the following series: Dispatches from the pandemic
While the United States is often celebrated as a global leader in health expertise, it currently leads the world in COVID-19 infections and deaths. African countries, often considered under-resourced and underprepared, have proven far more successful in responding to the global pandemic. The Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the Nuclear Threat Initiative created …
This article is part of the following series: Dispatches from the pandemic
As I write, there are more than 660,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 30,000 deaths across almost every country in the world, with infection rates accelerating everywhere except China (Centers for Disease Control, 2020). This acceleration is made very real to me simply because every time I return to this paper, these statistics must be updated by an ever-increasing number. …
In early September we hosted a workshop on Africa and the Epidemiological Imagination at University College London’s Institute of Advanced Studies’ Common Ground. The workshop was sponsored by the Wellcome Trust as part of a Senior Investigator award held by Professor Megan Vaughan on Critical Histories of Chronic Disease in Africa. We wanted to explore how the concept “transition” articulates …
Results were published this month from The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010 Study (GBD 2010). The most widely reporting findings are that the leading causes of death and disability worldwide are heart disease, stroke and respiratory diseases (see this table comparing 1990 and 2010). The authors of the study also stressed the importance …