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Applying the right to health to medical research: Opportunities for advocacy

“Within the tuberculosis (TB) and HIV epidemics, most activists working under a right-to-health framework have focused on extending and securing access to life-saving medical products (i.e. drugs, drug regimens, prevention methods, and diagnostic tools). This frame-work has provided fertile ground for building the social movements that spurred governments, pharmaceutical companies, and multilateral organizations to scale up access to antiretroviral therapy in response to HIV. Less often have these advocacy movements applied the right to health at the upstream point where medical technologies are conceived, designed and researched. As a starting point, human rights scholars and activists should recognize that upholding the right to health requires engagement with the design and conduct of health and medical research (traditionally a territory left to medical ethics).”

In Bioethica Forum, Vol. 8 No. 3 (2015) Recht auf Gesundheit / Droit à la santé / Right to health http://www.bioethica-forum.ch/content/e_CurEdition.php

#human rights #right to health #medicine #tuberculosis #hiv #global health #public health

What's new in the quest to develop a new vaccine against tuberculosis?

Source: Treatment Action Group 2015 Pipeline Report

#tuberculosis #global health #public health #vaccines #research #medicine

Cha is a Hong Kong-based online literary quarterly journal dedicated to publishing quality poetry, short stories, creative non-fiction, drama, and reviews written in English, as well as photography and art. It has a strong focus on Asian-themed creative work or work done by Asian writers and artists. It also publishes established and emerging writers/artists from around the world.

New poem in the latest issue of Cha: An Asian Literary Journal

Meeting the Christians in Gejiu

“Grandmother, can you hear me?”

#poetry #china #poem #christians #gejiu #yunnan

#SummerInGowanus

#gowanus #solstice #brookly #new york #summer

Increasingly, access to new compounds is a challenge not only for communities affected by tuberculosis, but also for researchers. New tuberculosis drugs such as bedaquiline and delamanid must be available for researchers to study in different combinations to arrive at optimum treatment options. We call on tuberculosis drug developers to work together in the best interests of patients and communities.

Informed use of bedaquiline for tuberculosis–Authors' reply. The Lancet. 2015. 385(9979). Laia Ruiz Mingote et al.

#global health #public health #tuberculosis #advocacy #research #medicine

Five minutes of light rain around 9:00am was a throat clearing for steady sun. Along the upper road to Sideng village, it was garlic harvest day. Farmers had flattened the green stalks the day before to better show the roots. Now they sat on burlap sacks in the field and pulled the garlic bulbs by hand. Just past an old earthen gate, a door opened and a shepherd stepped out, followed by a herd of goats. The last out of the gate turned to wait for the shepherd and sounded an impatient bleat, something akin to a human voice. White clouds passed through the pale blue sky on their way to Xiaguan. 4/29

Duanjiadeng, Shaxi, Yunnan, China

#sky report #weather #china #yunnan #shaxi

White clouds roiled the sky like foam on a pot preparing to boil over. On the ground, the turbulence of the sky dissipated into the clarity of a still morning, already wearing a signature of warmth. Art students sat on the riverbank and painted country scenes in even warmer colors. The fields inspired with a dozens shades of green. 4/28

Sideng Village, Shaxi, Yunnan, China

#sky report #china #weather #yunnan #shaxi

The overhead grey of the previous two days yielded to a blue and white sky by morning. The light first had to climb the hills and then angle into the valley, the slant of it catching particles in the air. Three women swept the courtyard. Three sticks of incense burned steady for Kuixing, the culture god. A woman stepped into her field carrying a hoe on her shoulder as three white birds flew east, into the light. 4/27

Duanjiadeng, Shaxi, Yunnan, China

#china #sky report #shaxi #yunnan

In the morning, clouds with dark underbellies scraped the top of the hills but held their rain until mid-day. It fell modestly on the road to Jianchuan and onto Shaxi. The new highway was under repair, so the driver took the old road through the hills, its switchbacks granting and taking views of the valley below. The afternoon stayed gray through dark so that the sun fell without fanfare. Arriving in Duanjiadeng village, I found myself the only guest for the night. The inn keeper brewed a pot of tea and asked that I take off my shoes. 4/26

Duanjiadeng, Shaxi, Yunnan, China

#china #sky report #yunnan #shaxi

Gray clouds skirted Lake Er but clung to the hills. Together they resembled a low fog and soon started to spit rain as late afternoon blurred into evening. In the old town, outside a bar owned by an American, a group of six men played hacky sack. The men wore long hair and loose pants. Several women watched from the side steps. One with deep creases on a young face carried a baby in a woven sling. Rain fell through dinner and into the night, but the men played well into dark. 4/25

Dali, Yunnan, China

#china #yunnan #dali #weather #sky report

TB Vaccine R&D’s ‘Shift to the Left’ | What’s equity got to do with it?

TB vaccine research is preparing to “shift to the left” to focus on basic science. Where do considerations of equity and access fit in?

“Focusing on early science also presents an opportunity to ensure equity in later stages of R&D, and there are specific steps scientists, sponsors, and funders can take to prepare for access on several fronts. Two important areas for action include anticipating intellectual property obstacles and enabling developing-country vaccine manufacturers to enter the market swiftly after vaccine licensing.”

Full article: http://bit.ly/1Ecd0rw

#tuberculosis #global health #vaccines #public health #research #medicine #equity #human rights

LUNG HEALTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA

Thinking about newer threats / AIR POLLUTION

Thinking about old threat made new again / TUBERCULOSIS

Thinking about the civil society response to each

#china #tuberculosis #air pollution #public health #global health #human rights #advocacy

It is no coincidence that the language used in tuberculosis–often called a disease of poverty–mirrors the stigmatizing language used to describe poor people in other domains of economic and social life.

End Stigmatizing Language in Tuberculosis Research and Practice

BMJ 2015;350;h1479 | http://bmj.co/1N2ToZc

M Frick, D von Delf, B Kumar

#tuberculosis #human rights #global health #public health #stigma