2017: a year in review

Abstract

2017 was not only a year marred by conflict-driven humanitarian crises and political quagmires but also a year for biomedical innovation and women's empowerment. Farhat Yaqub looks back. Our responsibility to protect the RohingyaMuch has been made of the Rohingya being stateless. But how they are being treated is utterly heartless. The almost 1 million Rohingya Muslims displaced from Myanmar's Rakhine State to Bangladesh are housed in squalid camps quickly becoming reservoirs of disease and despair. A new outbreak of diphtheria comes on the heels of cholera and measles outbreaks. Insufficient food, shelter, health care, and hope add to the almost unimaginable suffering of these most disenfranchised refugees. Full-Text PDF Cholera outbreak in the horn of AfricaCholera is spreading at an alarming rate in the horn of Africa, worsening dire situations in countries facing humanitarian crises. Andrew Green reports. Full-Text PDF The Green Helmets: providing care in Venezuela's protestsAmong increasing violence, doctors and medical students risk their safety to aid Venezuelans protesting against President Maduro's Government. Manuel Rueda reports from Caracas. Full-Text PDF Women in science, medicine, and global health: call for papersWomen are rising. Recent reports of sexual harassment and assault of women by men in powerful positions have regalvanised solidarity around women's rights, and remind us that disadvantage, discrimination, and sexism are a regular part of the lived experience of many women. These reflect broader and unjustified inequalities between men and women that have persisted across time, culture, and geography. That disadvantages exist for women in science, medicine, and global health is thus unsurprising—and yet wholly unacceptable. Full-Text PDF Dangerous wordsMedicine is underpinned by both art and science. Art that relies upon strong therapeutic relationships with patients and populations. And science that brings statistical rigour to clinical and public health practice. If allegations reported in The Washington Post on Dec 15 are credible, the Trump administration has seriously undermined both foundations by banning the words “vulnerable”, “entitlement”, “diversity”, “transgender”, “fetus”, “evidence-based”, and “science-based” from government documents for the US$7 billion budget discussions about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Full-Text PDF All roads lead to universal health coverageAll roads lead to universal health coverage—and this is our top priority at WHO. For me, the key question of universal health coverage is an ethical one. Do we want our fellow citizens to die because they are poor? Or millions of families impoverished by catastrophic health expenditures because they lack financial risk protection? Universal health coverage is a human right. Full-Text PDF Open AccessOffline: China's rejuvenation in healthLast week saw one of the most important gatherings in China's political calendar—the Two Sessions. China's system of governance, including its governance of health, is fiercely complex. But at the national level it can be reduced to three fundamental forces. The most significant is the Communist Party of China. The Party's General Secretary is Xi Jinping (who is also President of the People's Republic). He leads a 25-member Politburo, as well as China's elite decision-making body, the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee. Full-Text PDF 2017 Nobel Peace Prize supports treaty to ban nuclear weaponsAwarding the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons will help rally support for the new treaty to ban nuclear weapons. John Zarocostas reports. Full-Text PDF Millions in need of humanitarian assistance in YemenThe situation in Yemen—one of the world's worse humanitarian crises—risks deteriorating further. The death of Ali Abdullah Saleh might accelerate conflict. Sharmila Devi reports. Full-Text PDF CAR T-cells: an exciting frontier in cancer therapyOn Aug 30, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved tisagenlecleucel (marketed by Novartis as Kymriah) as the first ever treatment that genetically modifies patients' own T cells. The approval is for children and young adults (up to 25 years of age) with relapsed or refractory acute B-cell lymphoblastic leukaemia—a leading cause of childhood cancer deaths. This treatment option is currently limited to 20 specially certified centres in the USA because of the complexity of the procedure and potentially serious side-effects. Full-Text PDF