Posts by Alanna Shaikh
Over and Out
Published August 31, 2009 @ 06:26PM PT
Today is my last day as global health editor at Change.org. I wanted to take this chance to thank everyone who made this blog happen with me.
First of all, I want to thank you - there is no blog without readers. Your questions and comments were a constant flow of new insight into global health ideas. I am a smarter person because of them.
Michael Keizer shared his rigorous analysis of health and human rights, served as a cheerleaders and a sounding board, and never let me forget why writing a blog like this matters.
Lillian Gu wrote our weekly highlights when I was too self-conscious to do it, and her constant feedback on what was working and what wasn't helped me improve our content across the board. She also put up with an awful lot of my google-chat ranting about kids these days.
Mara Gordon enriched the blog with her media connections and field perspective. She shared unique on-the-ground views, and provided useful insight on global health in the mainstream media.
Mariam Mostamandy, our community development intern, supported dialogue and debate on global health issues. She sought out and spotlighted the comment of the week, and made sure that every got their charity gifts.
Incia Zaffar sought out new ways for us to take action on global health, including protesting the travel ban on people with AIDS, supporting the Millennium Development goals, and pushing our elected leaders to do better.
It's been a real joy writing here, and I will miss it. I have some exciting new opportunities coming up, though, so it's a logical point of parting. If you want to keep up with my new ventures, you can track me through my home page at www.alannashaikh.com.
AIDS Advocacy- How to Do It, How Not To
Published August 28, 2009 @ 07:48PM PT
This week saw some really outstanding writing and thinking about global HIV advocacy, and some ugly stereotypes. This includes incredible videos, disturbing print graphics, and a blogger training manual for how to write about AIDS
IRIN , the United Nations news network, has produced four amazing videos about HIV. Each films profiles someone fighting AIDS, including an activist, an educator, a Catholic bishop, and a TV presenter. It’s hard to make a film about HIV that contains a sense of hope without being previous or overly romantic. These films manage to do it.
The Sociological Images blog features two print ads about HIV. Both of them seem to blame women for the spread of AIDS, and feature the naked female body. I know the ad featured about is supposed to tell us that HIV can happen to everyone, but I don’t think that is the message it sends. Both images just seem to tell me that women are dirty spreaders of disease, and I doubt I’m alone in that. (This blog post on how cool alone is not a marketing strategy might shed some light on what went wrong.)
Maybe the advertisers could have learned something from the Blogging Positively Guide, which is a resource for how to write about HIV. My favorite piece of advice is to remember that although in practice most blogs only have about twelve readers, anything you write could end up seen by a million people. I also really liked their examples of organizations and individuals who use blogging to fight AIDS.
Bonus related link: This isn’t about HIV, but it is about advocacy. The Aid Watch blog has a post criticizing a new cinema ad campaign from Doctors With Borders. Aid Watch hates the video, and thinks it’s way over the line, demonizing Africa and creating a sense of hopelessness. The Aid Watch commenters disagree.
Where are the US Based Global Health Jobs?
Published August 28, 2009 @ 04:39AM PT
(photo credit: Matthew Oliphant)
Stacy F wants to know more about where the US based global health jobs are located. Can we help her?
Reader Stacy F asks:
I'm currently looking for positions abroad however these are very difficult to get and I just recently broadened my search to the US. I'm currently in San Francisco and although the nonprofit sector is robust here I find that the global health sector is very small. Some ideas that the post could cover: What are the top regions for global health outside of developing countries (New York, DC, Seattle, etc.), what are some disadvantages/advantages for each region, and culture, etc.
My Answer:
Honestly, I think Stacy may be in trouble. As far as I know, you get global health jobs overseas, where the field work takes place, or in Washington DC or Seattle. There aren't really other US regions with global health work. I have based my own future plans on the assumption that I'll need to be in DC or abroad as long as I want to have salaried work. If I decide to go consultant forever, I'll base myself somewhere that expenses are lower, but as long as I want to work for one organization, it will be DC. Even Seattle doesn't have enough options to make me feel comfortable.
There are a few places with a concentration of global health jobs out outside DC and Seattle. Research Triangle Park, near Chapel Hill, North Carolina has a concentration of NGOs that do global health work, as well as the nearby University of North Carolina. Atlanta, Georgia has both Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But none of those really strike me as "regions." Readers, what do you think? Am I missing something? Can you advise Stacy F?
Global Health Lost a Hero Today
Published August 26, 2009 @ 01:59PM PT
Most of you probably know already that Ted Kennedy passed away today. You probably know that he was called "The lion of the senate," a powerful voice for progressive causes even when the US drifted further and further to the right. What you may not know is that he was a passionate champion of global health.
My very first job in global health was with the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics. We advocated for better US policy on the use of antibiotics, and on global precautions to preserve the power of antibiotics. When we despaired of getting congressional support for our cause, we always had one hope: Ted Kennedy would listen to us. Everyone knew that he would always stand up for health, whether health for Americans or health for the world.
Senator Kennedy spent his senate career fighting for better health. 1978, he became a champion of the Alma-Ata declaration, which called for health care for all. He was a powerful supporter of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Last December, Physicians for Human Rights presented Senator Kennedy with their Award for Outstanding Leadership on the Right to Health. In July, Foundation for AIDS Research gave him their courage award. Those are just the highlights of a career devoted to supporting human rights, human health, and human dignity.
It's easy to look at other people's achievements and feel lessened by them, to assume that they are somehow special and we're not. But that's not true. That's what we can learn from Senator Kennedy. He was an ordinary man made great by his passion for justice and the courage of his convictions.
We cannot all run for senator. We can't all be born with the advantages of a Kennedy. But every one of us can find what matters and spend our lives defending it.
Bitter Optimism and Confusing Questions in Global Health
Published August 25, 2009 @ 11:44AM PT
I had one of those moments today where I was struck by the impossibility of the work we do. We're all bitter, crazy optimists in global health. Because we have to be. But sometimes I am reminded of just how crazy that optimism is.
I was talking to a Tajik acquaintance today. She's a mother of three kids. Her youngest child is two, and suffering from a sore throat. The girl is also running a slight fever. My acquaintance has been getting penicillin shots for her daughter, injected into the throat. She was complaining today, about how her daughter cries and cries about the needles and about the cost of the shots.
Since I am a hopeless meddler, I suggested that she discontinue the shots. There is no earthly reason to give antibiotic injections for an ordinary sore throat. Especially since there has been no throat culture, so we don't even know this is a bacterial infection. I gave my usual pitch about why antibiotics can't cure all illnesses: they only work on a certain kind if microbe called bacteria, and not all illnesses are caused by bacteria.
This is what the young mother told me in return: "But, Gulia is sick! And how will she get better if we don't do anything?" Further conversation made it clear that she actually didn't believe it was possible for the human body to heal on its own. You only get better if you do something.
Every time I slam into a cultural gap like this, I am hit by the sheer challenge of global health work. Should we try to teach people that the body does heal on its own? Should we focus on things like eating healthy food as remedies for sickness? Is it ever our place to have this conversation? Maybe we should leave Tajiks alone to work out their own approach to health and healing. I honestly don't know.
What Can We Learn from Abortion Access?
Published August 24, 2009 @ 08:34AM PT
A few weeks ago, I talked about the multiple meanings of access to health care, focusing on the fact that access is always more complex than you expect. A recent report on abortion access in the US brought that home to me.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute reports that mifepristone for medication abortion was expected to widely expand abortion access in the United States. That promise has not come true. Instead, new research found that "most medication abortions were performed at or near facilities that also provided surgical abortions." In other words, ten years after the abortion pill became available, access to abortion is still linked to being near a medical facility that provides abortions.
What happened? The article doesn't speculate on why mifepristone hasn't improved access to abortion, but I have a theory. I think they misunderstood exactly what the barrier to abortion access was.
The barrier wasn't providers who were capable of providing abortions. Just about every obstetrician is capable of performing an abortion. A vacuum-aspiration abortion is a very easy procedure to perform - one of the easiest. A dilation and curettage isn't much more difficult, and it is called for in situations unrelated to abortion, such as when removing fibroids from the uterus.
The true barrier to abortion access is providers who are willing to perform an abortion. Some providers are morally opposed to abortion provision. Others are unwilling to risk the threats and violence that go along with being an abortion provider. And doctors who are unwilling to provide surgical abortions are also unwilling to prescribe an abortion pill.
So, ten years after the abortion pill was introduced, American women who have access to a health care provider who does abortions can choose between a surgical abortion and a medication abortion. And women who don't have access to that kind of provider are still screwed.
Stupid Homeopathic Treatments Are Spreading
Published August 21, 2009 @ 12:23PM PT
(Don't be fooled by the packaging - they're all water. Photo credit: Distillated.)
Homeopathy is dangerous nonsense, and it's going global. This is bad news for people with real illnesses. Distilled water is a fine treatment for acne or menstrual cramps, but homeopathic remedies for HIV and TB will lead to death.
It's based on two incredibly stupid premises. The first is that you can cure an illness by taking in a substance that causes similar symptoms. So if you are itchy, for example, you'd take some kind of poison ivy extract. The second, stupider premise is that water has a memory. Yes, water. So if you dilute your essence of poison ivy a million billion times, the water will still remember it and cure your itching. (I would like to point out here that if water had a memory it would all be urine.) Not only that, but since in this premise water is magic and not bound by the laws of science, the more you dilute your poison ivy extract, the more effective it is.
Sorry, that was actually three incredibly stupid premises.
Now taking a homeopathic pill for a headache or an embarrassing blemish never hurt anyone. The placebo effect is powerful, so it might even make your head feel better or your zit shrink. And if it doesn't, they'll both go away on their own.
However, when people turn to homeopathy to cure their AIDS or their child's diarrhea it's a whole new awful ballgame. Kids can die from diarrhea, fast. And you need ARVs and proper nutrition to fight the effects of AIDS. Homeopathic drugs delay people from getting treatment that actually works, and they cost money people could be spending on real drugs that aren't just water.
The WHO just issued an official statement about homeopathic idiocy. It makes me sad they even have to do that, but they were asked to do so by the Voice of Young Science network, which was concerned by the spread of homeopathic treatments in the developing world for serious illnesses. Just so you know, "WHO does not recommend the use of homeopathy for HIV, malaria, TB, influenza and infant diarrhea." Argh.
