Global Health Conversations

Read the newsletter here: 
Are we living in an age of outbreaks?
This is the last holiday season newsletter podcast episode! If you listened to them, I hope you enjoyed them ! :)

If you enjoyed this, I invite you to subscribe to the fortnightly newsletter here: https://globalhealthconversations.substack.com/ The next edition will be Sunday 4th January 2025.

And if you enjoy the GHC podcast, please leave me a little 5 star rating wherever you listen. :) It means a lot.

Finally, I have been running a survey of listeners and readers preferences so I can better cater to you! I would appreciate if you could fill it out here before January 31st 2025. :) https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KMX2JC3


Thank you, Friend. Happy New Year! 

Support the show

Read the newsletter here: 

Topics in this newsletter's Fortnight in Resources :) 

1. New therapeutics for psoriasis 
2. AstraZeneca Investment in building capacity for Vaccine Manufacturing for Pandemic Preparedness in the UK
3. Pandemic Agreement updates and links 
4. Mental Health effects of Climate Change 

Support the show

This Newsletter: The real toll of weight-loss injections: Semaglutides, the economy & you
__

Past newsletter - Skinny at all costs? Unravelling the weight loss sensation causing supply chain mayhem for Diabetes Type II patients.

Click here to read: Alzheimer’s in the UK special essay with Loredana

Thanks for listening. :) If you like the podcast, please leave me a 5 star rating wherever you listen. I really appreciate it!

Support the show

(H5N1, MSF Access Campaign Controversy & New MPOX strain) - 7 July 2024

Merry Christmas :) 

Support the show

Newsletter: 

Support the show

In January of 2024, Loredana Marta of Vulvarina asked me to collaborate with her on a piece on Intersectional Feminism entitled: xxxiii: up in the mountains. And we happened to record it too.

Having just returned from a lovely weekend together in Vienna, and as the year draws to an end, I thought this might be a fitting time to publish our narrated writing here, as an ode to 2024.

Loredana and I did a previous podcast episode together on Women's Health that was particularly interesting and enlightening. More recently, we also wrote a joint piece on my Global Health Conversations newsletter about Alzheimer's treatment in the uk. 

I would tell you more about Vulvarina, but you should check her out for yourself, here. Her newsletter is engaging, thoughtful and well researched. So needless to say, it was a fun experience to work with her.

Every now and again I'll do something different as a podcast episode. But this might be the most different, and the most personal. As Loredana and I narrate the piece, you will learn more about me, Christiana. And something that is important to me: Women's rights. Particularly in healthcare.

If you are not yet subscribed to the Global Health Conversations newsletter, I think you might be pleased that you did, here. 

And if you enjoy this particular subject matter, check out Loredana's Vulvarina. 

Support the show

A Storytime:

The story of Cholera in London in the 1800s and how John Snow’s famous experiments revolutionised epidemiology and public health as we know it in modern, western history has always been a favourite for me.

I was reminded of this story strolling through Soho past the John Snow pub recently and past the famous Broad Street pump. This podcast episode is a public health bedtime story; one of science and pioneering innovation. It’s a story we know, but one that ignited something in me, and I like to listen to things.

I hope you enjoy the story. :)

Read the global health conversations newsletter here - where the magic happens: https://globalhealthconversations.substack.com/

Support the show

A walkthrough. The Pandemic Accord is a proposed global agreement aimed at strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. Emerging in the aftermath of COVID-19, the accord aims to address gaps in international coordination, surveillance, and equitable access to medical countermeasures, globally.

This episode takes a high level overview of the Pandemic Accord, it’s purpose and a walkthrough of some of its most pertinent Articles

GHC Newsletter: PANDEMIC ACCORD - Negotiations stall. Failure to reach agreement (focus on PABS) - May 2024

GHC Newsletter: Pandemic Agreement Round-up as INB 11 Concludes - September 2024

Current draft: Pandemic Accord 

Timestamps: 

Intro: 00:00 
Background: 01:15 
How it works & the role of WHO: 04:51
Articles 1 - 3: 07:50
Articles 4 & 5 - Prevention & One Health: 08:34
Articles 6 & 7: 11:05
Article 9 - Research & Development: 12:17
Article 10 - Local Manufacturing: 14:28
Article 11 - Tech Transfer & 'know-how': 14:50
Article 12 - Pathogen Access & Benefit Sharing - PABS: 17:36
Articles 13 & 13bis - Supply Chain & Logistics & Procurement & Distribution : 21:00
Alignment with other agreements: 23:18 
Article 14 - Regulation & Strengthening: 24:14
End: 24:54

Support the show

This fortnight's Newsletter

We need to talk about Mpox -  July 21st 2024 Newsletter

Timstamps:

Overview: 00:00
What happened? 03:47
What does it mean? 05:55
What’s next? 11:09

_______________

tl;dr 

On August 14, 2024, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the ongoing Mpox outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the second such declaration in two years. The Africa CDC had also declared Mpox a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security a day earlier. The current outbreak, driven by the more severe Mpox clade Ib, first identified in South Kivu, DRC, has rapidly spread across Central, East, and Southern Africa, reaching countries like Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Africa, with the first European case detected in Sweden.

WHO’s ACT-A and FIND convened a high-level meeting on August 15 to coordinate global efforts to address the outbreak. Key priorities include enhancing surveillance, developing a strategic research agenda, and coordinating global health responses. The WHO Global Preparedness Monitoring Board emphasized the importance of robust systems and medical countermeasures in the response, drawing on lessons from previous pandemics.

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is a zoonotic viral disease characterized by fever, rash, pustules, and swollen lymph nodes. The current clade Ib is more virulent and transmissible, though the exact case fatality rate remains uncertain. The 2022 Mpox PHEIC was declared after a global outbreak affecting over 95,000 people in 115 countries, largely through human-to-human transmission.

The PHEIC designation triggers a coordinated global response, including resource mobilization, increased surveillance, and public health measures. The response's success will depend on equitable distribution of medical resources and enhanced surveillance, particularly in underserved regions. WHO and Africa CDC emphasize the need for clear coordination, strategic implementation, and effective communication to manage the outbreak, with a focus on equity and access to diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics.

____

Other links:

GPMB resources:
August 12th 2024 Statement on Mpox
May 20224 Report on Equity in Pandemic Preparedness

WHO Mpox Outbreak tool
WHO case tracker

Support the show

Subscribe here  to the Global Health Conversations Newsletter

Read the full Project 2025 document here: Mandate for Leadership the Conservative Promise

In this fortnight's episode, we explore Project 2025's proposed policies, which could dramatically impact health, women’s health and safety. The plan includes lifetime caps on Medicaid, reducing coverage for millions, and increased out-of-pocket costs for Medicare recipients. It threatens reproductive rights and seeks to curtail the CDC's public health role, potentially weakening responses to health crises. Basically, an anti-epidemic preparedness vision and plan. The changes could result in higher healthcare costs and reduced access to essential services for women and vulnerable populations​

Timestamps: 

00:00 - Intro 

02:00 - Preamble 

02:56 - Project 2025 High Level Overview 

08:55 - Point 1: Changes to Medicaid, Medicare & Lower income patients

14:20 - Point 2: Impact on Public Health & the new role of the CDC 

17:06 - Point 3: Food and Drug regulation proposed changes 

22:05 - Point 4: Any comments on Safety, Guns and Ammunition?

24:09 - Point 5: Restrictions around Women’s health, access to birth control & more 

Support the show