Focused on international development, global health and health policy, Doctors with Africa CUAMM’s magazine Health and Development is published in Italian and English. It views health as critical to sustainable development, and features articles on our work in the field and good practices learned as well as commentary by international experts.
An online edition of the magazine is also available. It includes further pieces on these topics in addition to the articles offered in the print edition.
Standing side by side with the marginalized, those living on the fringes of society not only in economic and geographical terms, but also in terms of age: this is where CUAMM wants to be. On 28 October 2022 in Florence, alongside many of our partners, we look forward to telling you more about how we do our work.
“Finding solutions together is politics. Finding solutions alone is egotism.” (Father Lorenzo Milani)
A doctor and public health expert, Marco Geddes da Filicaia alternates research activities with his work as health director of the National Cancer Institute in Genoa, vice president of the Consiglio Superiore di Sanità (the Italian government’s Health Council), and health councillor for the city of Florence, practicing and envisioning medicine in a way that is once again aimed at creating a culture of global health.
Global health policies have too often proved unworkable, unable to meet the particularities and needs of individual countries. Finding a balance between global and local, adapting broad guidelines to specific realities, actively engaging all actors: these are just some of the possible starting points for putting the health of human beings at the center once again.
Training and guiding general practitioners so as to ensure effective primary care: this is the aim of a new handbook on general practice and primary health care. A sort of road map, we wrote it to simplify the complexity of general practice, underscore its impact on the health of people and communities, and prepare tomorrow’s doctors and health workers.
An innovative project launched more than 40 years ago remains an exemplary model of political, health and social action in support of the elderly, and a viable alternative to Italy’s residenze sanitarie assistenziali (RSAs)*: the residential cohousing center for self-sufficient seniors in the Tuscan town of Lastra a Signa offers an ideal mix of self-sufficiency, community living and interaction with the outside world to those in their “fragile years”.
In the Karamoja region, one of Uganda’s poorest, tuberculosis is tackled thanks not only to dedicated anti-TB interventions, but also to primary health care programs. Launched by Doctors with Africa CUAMM in partnership with local authorities, this care model includes medical intervention, health worker training and awareness-raising initiatives, and continues to prove effective.
Speaking out for the voiceless to ensure their access to health services, vaccines and protection: during the Covid-19 pandemic the Italian voluntary sector worked hard to bring these issues to the attention of decisionmakers in an effort to heal social rifts, create public/private bridges and launch participatory actions.
The impact of the war in Ukraine is bearing down on Africa, adding to the financial, health, food and debt crises already afflicting the continent. The true scope of new crisis cannot yet be assessed, but there is no doubt that it is making the situations of many African countries even more complex than they already were.
A reflection on Eugene Richardson’s new book, Epidemic Illusions, which offers far more questions than answers. Too often influenced by trends and ready-made models, public health risks losing its true meaning and – as has so often been the case – leaving behind the most vulnerable.