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 in 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. 

Hello everyone!

We just wanted to draw your attention to Friday’s podcast which was posted today, where we have another brief chat on the concept of the Responsibility to Protect and other updates on the website.

Sophie and Christine

Hi there! Rhona here. I just want to draw your attention today to something that I feel very passionate about- water, sanitation, and hygiene. Anyone who has worked in a developing country knows the scale of the lack of access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene and how much illness and misery this lack causes. Yet the international community does not seem to be doing much, if anything, to address this situation. Well, a WHO report published yesterday showed that a staggering 9.1% of the total global burden of disease could be prevented by improving  access to clean water and improved sanitation and hygiene. Hopefully the international community will now wake up to this staggering fact and act accordingly. I have copied below The Lancet Editorial that discusses the report- and more-and you can also listen to the related Lancet Podcast here. I hope you have a great weekend. Rhona

Lancet Editorial: How to prevent a tenth of the global disease burden

In the 19th century, two public health engineers discovered that the reduction in child mortality brought about by improvements in water and sanitation exceeded the number of deaths that could be attributed to diarrhoea alone-the Mills-Reincke phenomenon. Unfortunately, until very recently, the world has ignored this phenomenon. Now several key reports emphasise the dramatic health (and economic) benefits that can be gained from improvements in water, sanitation, and hygiene and give plenty of incentive for the political will that we called for in our Editorial on March 29. (more…)

Hello everyone!

There has been a lot of interest in the ‘Power, Politics and Global Health’ magazine collaboration between Medsin-UK and The Lancet Student which was announced a few weeks ago, and we want to encourage you all to keep sending us your ideas and article submissions! To inspire potential article ideas, here is the list of general conference topics:

Plenary 1: Politics

A pressing question for those in global health is how political systems impact on health and health equity. How do different national political systems approach the question of health? And which is most effective?

This plenary will also address the means by which these vastly different national systems integrate into the international systems of governance affecting the global health agenda.

This plenary will focus on the following questions:

• How political systems affect population health and equity
• Is democracy good for health?
• Do we need a global democracy?

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This is just to draw your attention to the 6 most recent additions to the Reading Room, including sample chapters from each book.  For more information, please see here.

Crash Course: Paediatrics, Bhathalvalsa

Clinical Examination, Epstein

150 ECG Problems, Hampton

Surface Anatomy: The Anatomical Basis of Clinical Examination, Lumley

Crash Course: General Medicine, Parker

Crash Course: Physiology, Shahid

 Mary Carol Jennings continues her blog series on the pharmaceutical industry.

In the setting of the upcoming elections, my Senator, Jim DeMint, recently wrote a letter of opinion to the Washington Times opposing a global HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria bill that will provide life-saving medications and prevention against infectious disease in the developing world. Though the white house and a broad bipartisan coalition of legislators and community groups support this bill, his statements suggest that he considers this bill a superfluous, expensive government investment.When DeMint has called for our leaders to reduce the program’s funding beyond the scope, even, of his own countering bill, he also calls against extensive grassroots efforts based in South Carolina - his own constituents. Though every Senator has the right to block a bill, my Senator’s radical stance, out of touch with the desires of his base, threatens the democratic process to which the heart of America is so attuned.

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Last week Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) published a new report, Broken
Laws, Broken Lives, introduced by Major General Taguba who led the US Army’s official investigation into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and testified before congress in May 2004.  In his introduction to the report he commented that “there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes”.  Last week I  went hear Philip Gourevitch talk about his new book, Standard Operating Procedure, which considers the cases of those who were responsible for maintaining order at the ‘hard site’ in Abu Ghraib. His previous books include We Wish to Inform you That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families- Stories From Rwanda, for which he received the Guardian First Book award.

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Julio Bracero and Preeti Kaur Rajpal, Editors-in-Chief of the Global Pulse, wrote in to tell us about the latest issue of GP.  

The journal is available at: http://www.globalpulsejournal.com

All of us at Global Pulse (GP) are excited with this issue. We received incredible
submissions from medical students, literally around the world, and from
other disciplines as well.

Here is just a sample of what we feature in this issue:

An exclusive, in-depth interview with Dr. Joxel Garcia, the Assistant
Secretary for Health of the U.S., the Medical Director in the Regular
Corps of the Public Health Service, and official U.S. representative to
the World Health Organization (WHO)!

WHO’s Global Initiative for Emergency and Surgical Care

Telemedicine in Bhutan

Accounts from Kenya

A (fantastic) photo essay from Guatemala

Additionally, we have added a blog to the website.  We will update the blog, and the website, in the next couple of days.

GP is completely funded by AMSA (not sponsored by other third parties),
entirely run by medical students (that have to study for boards and work
the wards!), and like every AMSA project, we are passionate about what
we do! Click on the “about us” section to learn more.

Julio Bracero & Preeti Kaur Rajpal
Editors-in-Chief, Global Pulse

email contact: jbracero@globalpulsejournal.com