Tackling two pandemics: a plea on World Tuberculosis Day

World Glaucoma Day, 6 March 2008: tackling glaucoma internationally.

We have all heard many times that “Glaucoma is the second most common treatable cause of blindness worldwide”. Glaucoma is a significant public health concern, being the leading cause of irreversible blindness and consistently ranking among the leading causes of blindness in virtually every nation. In developing countries, cataract is the leading cause of blindness. In developed countries, the ...

A Plea for World System History

I plead for writing a world history that is as comprehensive and systematic as possible. It should offer a more humanocentric alternative to western Eurocentrism. This history should seek maximum “unity in the diversity” of human experience and development. Therefore, we should not only make comparisons over time and space, we should also seek more connections among distant and seemingly dispar...

Tackling Tuberculosis in Latvia

0380 With a forceful gesture, the delicate blond unlocks the heavy door of a cell in Riga’s Central Prison clinic (Figure 1). Her name is Dr. Inga Nagele. She is the head of the clinic’s tuberculosis (TB) unit. She opens the door to check on three female prisoners who have just been admitted. The conditions in the cell are bleak. Washing hangs on a line that stretches from one wall to the other...

World Cancer Day 2011: a world without cancer one day?

World TB Day 2018: The Challenge of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

On 24th March, the world commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). Over 130 years later, tuberculosis (TB) continues to affect individuals, communities, and entire health systems and economies. Koch unsuccessfully tried to 'cure' TB, and despite major advances in other areas of medicine, control of TB remains elusive- in 2016 T...