Medicine and public health

Ngala, Nigeria: Emergency aid to victims of violence and displacement Sylvain Cherkaoui/COSMOS Opinion

Mortality emergency threshold: A case for revision

06/25/2018 Fabrice Weissman

The crude mortality rate (CMR) is one of the most widely used indicators at MSF and the humanitarian sector to evaluate the severity of a health crisis within a given population. It is widely recognized that a CMR equal to or greater than one death per 10,000 persons a day signifies an emergency situation requiring an immediate response. However, the usage of the standard emergency threshold as “1/10,000/day” is very questionable: it goes against the official recommendations endorsed by humanitarian organizations and ignores the worldwide decline in mortality rates over the last 30 years.

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R. A. Hogarth, Medicalizing Blackness ; D. C. Owens, Medical Bondage ; D. R. Berry, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh News in brief

Race and health. A fascinating article on the history of medicine

05/07/2018 Rony Brauman

An article entitled "Médecines du corps noir" [Medicine and the black body], published on the La vie des idées website on 27 April, discusses three American history books on the origins of medicine in the United States in the context of slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. Between experimentation and resistance, the history of relationships between race and health illustrates the decisive role played by African slaves.    

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Doctors carry a patient infected by ebola Anna Surinyach Cahier

Médecins Sans Frontières and medical quality

01/01/2017 Rony Brauman Michèle Beck

The question of quality in the work of Médecins Sans Frontières has been asked from the very beginning of MSF's existence. On the one hand, the issue of improving the quality of practice is a part of ordinary professional activity; on the other hand, Médecins Sans Frontières' work involved working in distant lands and very specific environments, which demanded adjustments to medical practice as a result.

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Le prélèvement sanguin d'un enfant Gijs Van Gassen Opinion

Doctor WHO?

09/03/2012 Rony Brauman

In this chronicle "Alternatives Internationales", Rony Brauman discusses the return of using community health workers as primary access points for healthcare, in the recommendations of the WHO and practices of some governments.

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