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Think Global Health

  • Environment
  • Poverty
  • Trade
  • Governance
  • Food
  • Urbanization
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Newsletter

Think Global Health

The Frontiers of Global Health

January 20, 2023

 

Editors' Note

This week, we're inviting readers on an adventure into the frontiers of global health: the frozen Arctic, space, the deepest realms of the sea, the mountains of Lesotho, and the Alaska tundra.

Virologist Jean-Michel Claverie discusses how microbes stored in the frozen earth—the permafrost of the Siberian Arctic—for nearly a million years could be released by accelerated thawing, and what that means for international public health. 

David P. Fidler explains why excitement about space activities is tempered by terrestrial politics that have slipped "the surly bonds of earth," and created risks for outer space as a frontier for global health.  

Mary Brophy Marcus speaks with marine experts who have spent their entire careers studying the deep sea and its scientific treasures, including how microbes culled from the murky depths are leading to new drug discoveries. 

Chen Chen shares the story of the shepherd population in Lesotho as an example of the particular obstacles to health-care access for semi-nomadic and nomadic populations, which include millions of people globally. 

Isabella Turilli delves into the fraught landscape of food governance in Alaska, where laws around subsistence hunting and fishing are not protecting the Indigenous peoples whose lives depend upon the practice. 

As always, thank you for reading.—Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors   

 

This Week's Highlights

ENVIRONMENT

Zombie Viruses From the Arctic    

by Jean-Michel Claverie

Thawing permafrost is releasing microbes from the Neanderthal era—posing a real risk for public health 

Read this story

ENVIRONMENT

Image

Outer Space and Global Health

by David P. Fidler

Space has become more important to global health, creating new challenges and exacerbating old problems 

Read this story

ENVIRONMENT

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Deep Sea Discoveries and Global Health

by Mary Brophy Marcus

Humans have only begun to explore the ocean's potential for healing diseases—but first, they should stop exploiting the seas

Read this story

 

Stat of the Week

191 per 1,000

Nomadic communities, such as those in Timbuktu, Mali, have some of the highest infant mortality rates in the world—upwards of 191 per 1,000 births

Read this story

 

Recommended Feature

MIGRATION

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How Shepherds Access Health Care in Lesotho 

by Chen Chen

Hurdles and innovations for nomadic and semi-nomadic people 

Read this story

 

More of the Latest

FOOD

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Survival, Subsistence, and Food Sovereignty in Alaska 

by Isabella Turilli

Laws around subsistence hunting and fishing in Alaska are not protecting the Indigenous peoples who rely on the practice

Read this story

 

What We're Reading

Pfizer Says it Will Widen Access to Hundreds of Off-Patent Medicines in Low-Income Countries (STAT) 

China's Population Shrinks for the First Time Since the 1960s in Seismic Shift (Bloomberg) 

Uganda's Worst Ebola Outbreak in Two Decades Is Over, WHO Declares (New York Times)

Global Push to Treat HIV Leaves Children Behind (New York Times)

 

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