On the occasion of Universal Health Coverage Day, thought leaders on the front lines outline the challenges and opportunities of health systems in conflicts. The last decade of 12-year-old Zaynab’s life has been spent in an informal settlement in Lebanon, after her family fled from the Syrian conflict. She shares a three-room tent with her […] Continue reading ->
For five years, the NCD Alliance has been calling out that those directly affected by non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have mostly been absent from the decision-making that affects their health and lives directly and indirectly through several initiatives. One of them, “Our Views, Our Voices,” a series of multimedia diaries, recently celebrated five years since its […] Continue reading ->
Africa faces some of the world’s most severe health impacts from air pollution – with five countries on the continent ranking among the ten most polluted countries in the world, according to a new report by the US-based research organization Health Effects Institute.  Those countries include Niger, Nigeria, Egypt, Mauritania and Cameroon, where the report, […] Continue reading ->
A precedent-setting agreement to permit an expensive cancer drug to be produced more affordably by generic manufacturers has been signed between the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and pharmaceutical company Novartis, enabling much wider access to a medicine that treats a rare blood cancer. Nilotinib is a twice-daily oral medication used to treat chronic myeloid leukaemia […] Continue reading ->
Amber Huett-Garcia has struggled with obesity since she was in first grade. “Now in adulthood, despite reducing my BMI from 69 to 24 (245 lbs. lost), I still carry the expensive diagnosis of obesity,” she wrote in a recent blog for the Noncommunicable Disease Alliance (NCD Alliance). “I’ve used pharmacotherapy, surgical interventions, mental health care […] Continue reading ->