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.
In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic raged on, nearly every development indicator worsened – an unprecedented phenomenon. Indeed, it has been estimated that the first 25 weeks of this global health crisis set development back by 25 years.But what does this actually mean, and who is bearing the greatest burden? Here we take a closer look at the pandemic’s health and societal impact.
Covid-19 has underscored the importance of global health for the entire world, highlighting not only how such viruses spread through human movement and interactions, but also the links between health and other aspects of our lives such as the economy, jobs and the environment. It is clear that we are now all at risk, our lives made precarious by this daunting new disease.
The Covid-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of primary health care and its local availability and delivery in order to meet the needs of communities as effectively as possible. In their absence there are adverse consequences not only for those who are sick, but also for the doctors who care for them.
Like Ebola, Marburg and many other disease epidemics, Covid-19 is highlighting the close interconnections between the health of the environment, animals and humans, and its protection: a cultural paradigm known as "One Health". We talked with David Quammen, the author of Spillover, about what is going on in the world today and what role international organizations such as ours can play.
A world-famous economist, University Professor and Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, Jeffrey Sachs has always focused on economics and sustainable development, with special attention to the topic of global health. We spoke with him about the current pandemic, including its impact on sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa’s Covid-19 situation is complex: while most sub-Saharan countries seem to be coping overall, things are playing out quite differently in South Africa, which accounts for half of the continent’s Covid-19 cases and deaths. Yet despite unreliable data, a dearth of testing, and staffing shortages, Africans’ resilience and will to tackle the crisis provide at least some room for hope.
The current Covid-19 crisis in Africa is unfolding differently than it has in Europe, yet its secondary effects are just as dire. In order to handle this and other such crises – events that are nothing new for the continent – it will be vitally important to formulate an approach to emergencies that can be integrated into long-term health system development plans.
A three-pronged approach to the fight against Covid-19: working with institutions and decisionmakers; giving ongoing assistance to communities; raising awareness and providing information.
In South Sudan, whose human development index value positions it at 187 out of 189 countries and territories, the Covid-19 pandemic is “a crisis on top of a crisis”
Once again we are seeing one of the most critical secondary effects of health crises like the current pandemic: a drop in outpatient visits and hospitalizations. However, use of assisted deliveries and other emergency services continues more or less unabated. Here’s what the situation looks like in Wolisso, Ethiopia.