Rebecca Wallersteiner takes a look at the 19th century’s greatest prison and nursing reformer Elizabeth Fry – the sober face on our fivers. Only three things frightened Elizabeth Fry, writes Averil Douglas Opperman in her timely and well-researched biography: ‘the sea, darkness and death.’ Drawing on Fry’s family archive, her diaries, personal letters and an […]
Read More… from While it is yet Day: The Story of Elizabeth Fry
If you visit Malawi, in south-east Africa, you will find a warm, sunny climate and a welcoming, friendly people who are largely based in rural town and communities north and south of Lilongwe, our capital. We love simple things in life like good nsima, which we get after farming the land and fishing in our […]
Read More… from Pioneering mobile health (mHealth) in Africa: a nurses perspective from Malawi
Is hepatitis B infection a problem that will gradually fizzle out over time? On initial reflection, it is easy to think it might be. We have a cheap, safe and effective vaccine, and a choice of antiviral drugs that can successfully suppress the virus. We can also intervene reliably to prevent transmission from mothers to […]
Four years ago working in Timor Leste, I experienced the devastating effects of dengue fever and malaria on families in a resource-poor environment. Waving mosquitos away from my face, I took blood tests and treated a cohort of sick children lying in their parents’ arms, lethargic and flat in the Emergency Department. I wondered what […]
As the G20 summit draws to an end, we hope that global leaders will push ahead with confronting the problems that mean that people across the world have limited access to medical tools and effective drugs. The MSF Access Campaign, which launched in 1999, winning the Nobel Prize, has had some success stories, but so […]
At One Young World this year, we are hosting a session on the role young people can play in helping to set the health policy agenda. As a young person, I think this session is so very important. Growing up, I often felt like I could not change the policies that affected my health. I […]
Our bodies are designed to keep out infection, using an armoury that includes a tough outer layer of skin, tiny hair-like structures in the respiratory tract that propel microbes away from the lungs and gut flora that repel unpleasant bugs. The micro-organisms attempting to penetrate these fortifications include bacteria, viruses, fungi – such as candida – and protozoa, like the […]
Hormones, which are produced in endocrine glands throughout the body, regulate our metabolism, our sex lives and even our moods. If hormone balance is disturbed for any reason, the result can health problems such as depression, weight gain and even infertility. ‘An imbalance of hormones is something which should be taken seriously. But seeking help as soon as you notice […]
Whether it’s a twinge in the small of your back or an eye-watering ache in your lumbar spine, back pain is a modern epidemic. Most people experience a brief, acute episode of mechanical back pain – muscle strain that will resolve itself within days if not weeks. But others can endure chronic pain for months or even years and […]
As millions of us return to work after the long summer break, health and wellbeing experts offer their tips how to ensure that you start as you mean to go on. Move the mirror. Michael Hanna, Feng Shui master practitioner. Chinese people swear by the power of Feng Shui, which is the art of putting things in their […]