People's Health Dispatch

This fortnight  On International Nurses’ Day 2022, an Israeli military tribunal sentenced Palestinian nurse and health activist Shatha Odeh to 16 months of prison and a $9000 USD fine, with a 5-years suspended sentence on condition that she does not engage in provision of health services. The sentence comes 10

This fortnight  As Sri Lanka continues to face an unprecedented social and economic crisis, the public health system on the island is brought to the brink of disaster. After weeks of food and medicine shortages and power reductions, the government recently turned to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank

This fortnight  A general rollback of policies introduced to provide support and security for people during the pandemic is well underway. In South Africa, health workers employed during Covid-19 are predominately not seeing their contracts renewed. The austerity-based pandemic recovery that the government has in sight has already led to

This week  On 7 April we mark World Health Day, also referred to by health activists as People’s Health Day. The day marks the anniversary of the formation of the World Health Organization in 1948. Yet, as the People’s Health Movement’s Co-Chairs Fran Baum and Sulakshana Nandi

This fortnight  War and violence are among the most painful determinants shaping people’s health. Armed conflicts devastate both communities and human dignity. The worst consequences are suffered by those who have the least say when it comes to taking decisions about wars – women, children and other marginalized communities. This

This fortnight  News of a tentative TRIPS waiver compromise allegedly penned by a group of four countries - the US, the EU, South Africa and India - was published just around the time when the world was entering the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic. The text was hailed by

This fortnightAs we prepare for 8 March, International Women’s Day, women’s health around the world remains undermined by conservative policies in sexual and reproductive health and austerity measures alike. Trade unions and health movements in France have launched an international call to women health workers asking them to

This fortnight  Protests and strikes by health workers all over the world have marked the first couple of months of 2022. Reacting to long-standing issues in the health system and rampant inflation, health workers in Turkey continue to persevere in their struggle for fair working conditions in spite of being

This fortnight  Millions of people around the world have been thrown into poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic, yet big pharmaceutical companies have reported record levels of profit. Thanks to sales of the Comirnaty vaccine, in 2021 Pfizer has secured a 134% rise in revenue compared to the previous year. The

This fortnight  While the number of omicron-related cases continues to increase, health workers are taking action for better working conditions. Their strikes and protests are a result of years of unresolved issues, which, in the middle of the pandemic, became even more pressing. In Barbados, nurses are calling for better

This fortnight  The results of two recent elections - in Chile and in Honduras - have brought hope of a new life and freedom for health systems which have been burdened by a difficult history of neoliberalism and corruption. We explore what is expected from the governments of Gabriel Boric

This fortnight  Thanks to the hard work and dedication of scientists in South Africa, the world was alerted to the omicron variant at the end of November. For their respect of international public health guidance and transparency, most of southern Africa has been rewarded with travel bans by rich countries.

This fortnight  This 28 November marked three years since the passing of Amit Sengupta, one of the founders of the People’s Health Movement, whose contribution to the global health movement is difficult to express in words. Amit was thoroughly dedicated to the idea of health for all, and he

This fortnight  While Big Pharma companies have secured enormous profits through the sale of Covid-19 vaccines and rich countries proceed to administer booster shots, the whole African continent has only managed to vaccinate 10% of its population. Vaccine inequity is becoming vaccine racism, but attempts to fight it through boosting

This fortnight  The way health systems function has a lot to do with how they are financed. Although public investment in healthcare has long been recognized as the road to more equitable access, in practice, it is implemented by few countries. Instead, the most popular health financing models continue to

This fortnightBy mid-October, 60% of the population of Cuba had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The results of the vaccination campaign on this Caribbean island have surpassed those of the USA and of Australia, for example, although immunization in Cuba began later than in these high income countries. The current

This fortnight For the past year and a half, health workers in the Global South and the Global North have shouldered most of the burden of the pandemic response. They have done so in workplaces that were previously decimated by budget cuts and austerity measures, which reduced the number of

This fortnight Months of campaigns for a fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines seem to have made little impression on rich countries. Their governments still refuse to see how the hoarding of doses and dismissal of the needs of the Global South are prolonging the pandemic, in addition to endangering the

This fortnight  One hundred years ago, insulin was discovered. Scientists sold the patent for 1 USD, hoping that their discovery will ensure basic health care for millions of people around the world. Today, three pharmaceutical companies control the insulin market and are making use of patent privileges to keep the

This fortnightAs the US-led NATO forces started to retreat from Afghanistan, they are leaving behind a health system dependent on international NGOs and incapable of responding to local needs. As many organizations leave after August 15, access to care will become even more difficult, especially for the most vulnerable. We

This fortnightInequities persist in the global pandemic response as rich countries continue to prefer nationalism over solidarity. Testing for Covid-19 staggers in low and middle income countries, in great measure because of issues with procurement and distribution, coordinated by the ACT-A diagnostics pillar. Underfunded and perceived to be less interesting

This fortnightFor over two months, Bolivia has been waiting for the Canadian government to grant a compulsory license to the Canada-based drug manufacturer Biolyse for the production of Covid-19 vaccines. In May this year, Bolivia and Biolyse reached an agreement that would allow the import of 15 million doses of

This fortnight   Shatha Odeh, a nurse and health activist from the organization Health Work Committees (HWC), was detained along with 9 other Palestinian activists by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) on 7 July, 2021. Her arrest comes a month after raids on HWC headquarters by the IOF. HWC’s role

This fortnight   Near the end of June, we celebrated the 113th birth anniversary of Salvador Allende, whose efforts to build a strong public health system in Chile remain an important contribution in the global struggle for the right to health. Allende’s idea of a comprehensive health system included accessible

This fortnightOn 14 June, we marked the birth anniversary of Ernesto Che Guevara, whose vision guided the development of the Cuban healthcare system. Today, healthcare in Cuba remains rooted in the ideals of social and revolutionary medicine fought for by Che. They are an inspiration in the current times of