By Hideki Kakeya. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health authorities failed to convey correct information on the newly emerging virus. On January 14, 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) posted on its official twitter (currently X) account “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission […]
Latest articles
Could a potential cure for morning sickness actually lead to more discrimination for pregnant women?
By Frances Hand. Scientific research has recently been published which explains why almost 80% of women experience morning sickness during pregnancy. This study revealed a causal link between foetal production of the hormone GDF15 and nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. It is therefore hoped that, given this new information, more precise mechanisms can now be […]
‘When the risk of harm is unavoidable…’
By Helen Lynne Turnham, Sarah-Jane Bowen, Sitara Ramdas, Andrew Smith, Dominic Wilkinson, Emily Harrop. Children with medical complexity and technology dependence are at constant risk of sudden death or catastrophic complication. In some cases, their diagnoses may mean that their lives are likely to be short regardless of treatments offered, and remaining in hospital, particularly […]
“Ethics first” reform for medical research in China: from reactive to proactive
By Jingyi Xu, Zhongxuan Liu, Jiayou Shi, Yue Wang. The 2018 CRISPR-babies incident, involving the controversial editing of human genomes, significantly impacted China’s approach to the ethics governance in medical research. The event underscored the need for a shift from a reactive, post hoc framework to a more proactive and anticipatory model. As a global […]
Martha’s Rule and trust in healthcare: Beyond the ‘right’ to a second opinion
By Isabel Hanson. After the tragic death of thirteen-year-old Martha Mills in the UK, Martha’s mother Merope Mills said that she was told to “’Trust the doctors’… It turned out to be the worst advice I will receive in my whole life”. Martha had developed sepsis from an abdominal injury. Her mother knew that something […]
Beyond the call of duty: NHS doctors and industrial action
By Darren Mann and Doug McConnell. The year-long industrial action by National Health Service (NHS) doctors in England has been divisive, with the unedifying spectacle of government using a strategy of undermining public trust in medical professionals as policy to avoid a negotiated settlement with the British Medical Association (BMA). While the headline demand of […]
Advance directives in dementia care: Moving from the philosophical debate to practical guidelines
By Wayne Shelton and Cynthia Geppert. The case of Margo, introduced by Ronald Dworkin in 1993, described an individual with advanced dementia who would spend hours happily gazing at the same magazines, interacting in discrete experiential moments with those around her, and eating heartily. By all accounts, Margo was a happy individual. However, years earlier […]
Should the public health response to Nipah virus disease be like that of COVID-19?
By Tara Hurst, Tess Johnson, Euzebiusz Jamrozik, Phaikyeong Cheah and Michael Parker. Nipah virus made the international news recently for an outbreak in Kerala, India. This bat-borne virus has occurred seasonally in Bangladesh since the first outbreaks were identified in Malaysia and Singapore in 1998-1999 (Figure 1). The course of Nipah virus disease may be […]
Terms of cervix: IUD trials as a condition of elective sterilisation
By Teresa Baron. Getting your tubes tied is no easy feat. Plenty has been said in recent years about barriers to elective sterilisation, and persuading a doctor to do the deed is a particularly difficult for young, child-free women. If a woman has a long-term partner, her practitioner will often encourage her to see if […]
Sustainable health care beyond the paradox of prevention
By Cristina Richie. High carbon health care has global environmental effects—population health is damaged by the carbon of health care industries. Many countries have medically underserved residents, and as such, it could be argued that there is an obligation on the part of health care systems to reduce carbon emissions through laws or policy. For […]