Vital

News & commentary about the global health workforce

Community Health Workers Make a Difference for Pediatric HIV Clients in South Sudan

Lawrence Monday links health facilities and communities to extend HIV care and treatment services.

Kangaroo Mother Care: Saving Babies’ Lives and Health

Every year, more than a million babies die because they were born preterm.

Child Marriage: What You Can Do Today to Prevent It

The issue of child marriage is pervasive throughout the developing world, and it undermines local and national efforts as well as those by the United States (US) Government to improve women's and girls' education, health, and economic and legal status worldwide.

From Polio to PEPFAR and Beyond: Can the GHI Reform the Way We Do Global Health?

For many in the blogopshere and the Twitter world Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Monday reenergized our commitment to the Global Health Initiative (GHI) and the promise of transforming the way we practice global health work. Like many, I was left with questions of how exactly this initiative will work, but Clinton’s passing reference to the polio outbreak in northern Nigeria also reminded me of the imperative that GHI succeed.

Talking Technology: It Matters to Health Systems

Building better health systems requires offering health workers—and those who support them—access to the latest technology.

Top Ten Ways to Encourage Breastfeeding

Last week the world celebrated World Breastfeeding Week with a focus on the ten steps every health facility should take to promote successful breastfeeding.

In Praise of Simplicity

In a world where some two billion people do not have access to basic health care, simple things can have an enormous impact.

Training Health Workers: We Need Practical and Long-Term Solutions

This month’s Health Affairs issue “Lessons from Around the World” highlights some of the most pressing issues in health systems strengthening and human resources for health.

Preventing AIDS Deaths Need Not Be a Fight: A Health Systems Approach

Whatever the disease or health sector of priority—be it HIV/AIDS, malaria, family planning, labor and delivery, or pneumonia—six components of the health system must be functioning and integrated in order for health impacts to be maximized.

Consider the Subject

Kevin Carter’s most famous photograph is almost impossible to witness without taking a moment to collect yourself afterwards.

Treatment 2.0: Aspirations for Invigorating the Global HIV/AIDS Response

Two weeks ago, the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) released Treatment 2.0, the latest global strategy for making HIV treatment more efficient, accessible, and effective.