Today saw the launch of a report, Outsourcing Abuse, by Birnberg Peirce & Partners, Medical Justice and the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns, documenting 300 cases of abuse allegedly resulting from the use of excessive force by private security companies during the detention and removal of asylum seekers in the UK.  You can read more about the report here. 

This week’s podcast includes Kai Yuen Wong talking about his week at the Lancet and the AMSA (Asian Medical Students’ Association) conference coming up in Tokyo on the 25th July.  The current interns mention a talk at St Bart’s hospital on north-south partnerships in mental health and ongoing changes to the website.

 

 Lancet Student Podcast July 11: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Last week, The Lancet Global Health Network launched a US Election blog, a weekly round-up of election news related to national and global health. This week, The Lancet Student will be starting our own series of blogs and editorials featuring health-related campaign and election news in the lead up to the vote in November. And we want you to get involved.

Historically, younger voter turnout in US elections has lagged substantially behind all other age groups. In the 2004 Presidential election, the voting rate amoung those aged 18-34 years was only 52%, compared with 72% for those over 55 years: a difference of more than 20%. A 20% gap is significant. If turnout amoung 18-34 year olds were to increase to levels on par with those over 55 years, this would mean approximately 14 million more young voters at the polls. As we’ve seen in the past, elections have been won and lost by numbers far less than that.

The huge gap in voter turnout may be due, in part, to logistical barriers faced by younger voters who tend to be more transient and therefore face greater challenges registering to vote. However, a more important factor is likely how candidates and campaigns do - and do not - effectively engage and address the issues of importance to this group of voters. Surprisingly, the issues which are important to younger voters are remarkably similar to the concerns weighing on all voters’ minds. A recent poll conducted by CBS News and MTV found that the economy is the biggest concern for voters aged 18-29, followed by the war in Iraq, education, the environment, and health care. The economy, Iraq, and healthcare also rank as the top issues for voters of all ages. So, the issues are the same — only slightly different. Young voters are wondering how they are going to pay for tuition, what their job prospects are in the face of current unemployment rates. They are also thinking about the future, their future, and say that education, the environment and, most importantly, the economy, will be the biggest challenges facing their generation.

But if the economy is the number one commonly held concern for voters of all age groups, healthcare isn’t far behind. Healthcare is an issue that is particularly important for young voters. A study released in May 2008, found that young adults are one of the fastest growing groups without health insurance, accounting for almost one third of the population under 65 without coverage. At the age of 19, young adults are dropped from their parents’ insurance plans, unless they are able to attend post-secondary full-time and retain these health benefits. More often, they will be forced to get insurance in the private-sector and the entry-level jobs that are generally available to them won’t have health benefits. By 2006, this has left more than 14 million young adults without health insurance. These numbers are staggering, and with economic pressures increasing, those who are even marginally insured will also face greater financial barriers to accessing healthcare.

Given the latent power younger voters hold, the candidates would be remiss to ignore their issues — your issues. Maybe we can help them out a bit. We want to know what issues are important to you, how the candidates’ are addressing them and what their policies propose to do about them, should they win the Presidency. We want to hear what you think. Of course, in keeping with the key focus of The Lancet Student, we want to emphasize health and global health related issues. We want you to be informed when you go to the polls, whoever your candidate of choice is; because a surge of 14 million - or more - young voters would be a powerful voice to be heard.

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to introduce myself as the new Lancet Student intern. I arrived on Monday and have been busy working on changes to The Lancet Student website, in particular the categorisation of articles. Today was the weekly editorial and manuscript meeting at The Lancet and it certainly was an eye opener. Writing is as much an art as a science and it was captivating to watch the process of reviewing first hand, from the sheer number of articles to how the decisions were made and the discussion that complemented it. I can certainly see why my other intern colleagues Christine and Sophie describe it as the highlight of the week! Indeed, there are so many opportunities to learn here and I would encourage everyone to come and spend some time with Rhona at The Lancet offices as an intern!

Something that I feel very passionate about is empowering youth to become actively involved in decision-making processes. With half the world’s population under the age of 25, it is vital that young people become involved!

As such, I want to draw your attention to the Junior 8 Summit, which this year was hosted by the Government of Japan and supported by UNICEF in Hokkaido, Japan, from 2-9 July. It is an annual forum for young people and runs in parallel to the G8 Summit of world leaders.

The delegates to the J8 include young people not only from the industrialised G8 nations, but also from the developing world. After days of discussion and debate, the 39 delegates to the J8 Summit drafted their Chitose Declaration and Young People Action Plan calling on the voices of young people to be heard and focusing on important issues that will have a significant impact on young people such as global health. They then had the opportunity to present their ideas and proposals to the G8 leaders. Although the G8 Summit has now ended with many good G8 intentions, there remains much to be desired. And while the J8 Summit is also over, there will certainly be much more to be heard from the young delegates as they seek to act on their own commitments.

Kai Yuen Wong

This week we’ve published three articles on the human epigenome, advice for those considering an intercalated BSc and an ethical dilemma.  Steve Cockburn, from End Water Poverty, has a blog on the different campaigns worldwide calling for improved water and sanitation to be a priority on the global agenda.  Many of the people who have the resources available to make it a priority in practice will be meeting in Japan early next week.  In spite of the fact that it seems that when it comes to the G8 agenda, the issue of oil floats on water, we’re still quietly hopeful that some gains for global health will be made at the summit.  Keep an eye on The Lancet for the response to the G8 and, in the meantime, have a look westwards at the first in a series of blogs -until November 4th- on the American election.  Lots of material for your forthcoming articles on Power, Politics and Global Health!  

For more information on what’s in this week’s issue of The Lancet please see here and have a great weekend. 

Steve Cockburn, International Campaign Coordinator for End Water Poverty calls for sanitation to be placed at the heart of the campaign to save the MDGs. 

(Image: End Water Poverty)- The ‘knitted river’ - 100,000 people across the UK knitted a blue square to show their support to the campaign, which was sewn together and taken on a march to parliament.

It is just 5 days to go until leaders of 8 of the world’s most powerful countries meet in Hokkaido, Japan, to discuss measures to meet the Millennium Development Goals and (in theory at least) how they will keep the promises on aid and international development made at the Gleneagles G8 Summit in July 2005.

Belatedly forcing its way onto the agenda for the first time in years is the global sanitation and water crisis, the effects of which are well highlighted in Rhona’s previous blog, and The Lancet’s recent editorial.

A staggering 2.6 billion people across the world lack access to safe sanitation,1.1 billion people lacking access to clean water and 5000 children dying of water-related diseases every day. It is both impossible to overestimate the scale of this public health crisis and astonishing that it has taken so long to get in the in-trays of world leaders.

There is no doubt that it has been a struggle. Despite the fact that the sanitation MDG target to halve the number of people lacking access to safe sanitation by 2015 will not be achieved in Africa until 2076, campaigners have had to elbow their way to the top-table. And despite the fact it will be impossible to achieve real progress in providing universal education or reducing infant mortality without real action on sanitation, the risk remains that G8 leaders will pay lip-service to an issue on which progress on global health and development so crucially pivots.

Sadly the sanitation crisis has been a silent killer, hidden away in open slum sewers and behind bushes in rural villages. It has been kept away from the attention of world leaders, leading to neglect in aid budgets, government priorities and international institutions.

Yet hopefully that is changing. 2008 was made the UN International Year of Sanitation and campaigners across the world - many of whom form part of the End Water Poverty campaign - have increased the noise and forced leaders to act.

(Image: End Water Poverty) The Nepal petition - 100,000 petitions were collected by End Water Poverty Nepal.

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Today, Sarah Shore and Clare Spolton Dean (both from Hull and York Medical School) examine the benefits of an intercalated BSc and the resources available to help decision making and funding.