AMR: The gravest threat to global health
Antibiotic resistance—and the broader antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – is a silent but major killer. In fact it is emerging as the most serious threat to global health, with experts warning of a “post-antibiotics apocalypse”.
This special issue of South Bulletin focuses on the AMR crisis, especially on how it affects developing countries—and the great challenges on fighting this threat.
The IP Negotiations Monitor summarizes the latest developments in multilateral and regional fora where intellectual property negotiations are taking place, and informs on upcoming meetings and events.
(Covering period: January – March 2018)
What we can learn from the Facebook data scandal
By Nakshatra Pachauri
Recent news about the collusion of Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and the Trump election has brought forward one of the more covert and often insufficiently discussed problem of Social Media platforms to the fore. Instead of calling out Facebook alone, I prefer to use Social Media platforms as the problems related to big data enterprise and privacy are as much a Twitter/Whatsapp/Instagram/Snapchat issue as it is for Facebook.
Yet right now Facebook is being attacked from left, right and center by everyone including their own ilk. The question this merits is whether the data problems with the Social Media platforms are only limited to explicitly share data (which Facebook is being blamed for) or is it also about the (more often used) method of implicitly acquiring and utilizing user information? (more…)
Trump’s launch of a global trade war
By Martin Khor
Last week’s action by President Donald Trump has ended the United States’ leadership on liberal trade and may trigger a global trade war with major damaging consequences. On 8 March, Trump signed a proclamation to raise tariffs of steel by 25% and aluminium by 10%. It sent shockwaves across the world not only because of the losses to metal exporters, but due to what it could well signify: the start of a global trade war causing economic disruption in many countries, and that may also damage if not destroy the multilateral trade system. (more…)
Outcomes of the 142nd session of the WHO Executive Board
The 142nd session of the WHO Executive Board discussed several critical public health issues including a recommendation to the WHA to approve the General Program of Work (GPW), the adoption of important decisions relating to access to medicines and research and development and a draft resolution on the preparation of the UN High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis.
The new CPTPP trade pact is much like the old TPP
By Martin Khor
The new agreement that eleven countries are signing on 8 March in Chile in place of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is like old wine in a new bottle — without the United States but retaining most of its controversial elements. The TPP seemed to have died when President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of it early last year. But the remaining 11 members have rescued it almost intact, giving it a new name, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). (more…)
EL CASO DE LA HEPATITIS C Y EL PROBLEMA GLOBAL DE ACCESO A LOS MEDICAMENTOS
By Ernesto Samper Pizano
“Los Estados partes en el presente Pacto reconocen el derecho de toda persona al disfrute del más alto nivel de salud física y mental”
(Pacto Internacional de Derechos económicos, sociales y culturales).
El 3 de marzo de 1989, en el aeropuerto de El Dorado de Bogotá, fui víctima de un atentado que casi me cuesta la vida. Por fortuna, recibí una atención rápida y eficaz en la clínica a donde fui trasladado. Lamentablemente, allí mismo, en medio de los afanes por salvarme, recibí una transfusión de sangre infectada por lo que entonces no se conocía como el virus de Hepatitis C, cuyo poder mortífero vino a ser descubierto y estudiado con posterioridad a mi atentado, cuando ya había dejado de ser presidente de Colombia. La eficaz persistencia de mi médico personal, el doctor Alonso Gómez Duque, me llevó a someterme entonces al calvario de un tratamiento para curar la enfermedad. Indagué, en primera instancia, qué tanto daño podía haber ocasionado en mi hígado. Los primeros exámenes de fibro-test, que miden a través de la sangre los niveles de fibrosidad hepática realizados en Francia, arrojaron, en un rango de 0 a 6, una cifra baja pero preocupante, entre 3 y 4, que aconsejaba, según el hepatólogo Víctor Hidrobo, un tratamiento inmediato. Tomé la decisión de hacerlo. Durante seis meses (que a mí me parecieron una eternidad) me apliqué una inyección semanal de interferón –una sustancia utilizada originalmente para la cura del cáncer– que acompañaba con seis pastillas diarias de rivarbirina para “fijar” el interferón, lo que convertía el tratamiento en una especie de quimioterapia ligera con muy molestos efectos colaterales.
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How international investment agreements have made debt restructuring even more difficult and costly
International investment and trade agreements are legally binding international treaties which give investors an additional layer of legal protection on top of the host country law and contract law. However, little efforts have been made in ironing out the interface between these different laws and treaties. Inconsistencies and even contradictions have emerged in dispute settlement decisions, sometimes at the expense of public good, sovereignty and financial and economic stability. An asymmetry seems to exist in the allocation of risks and benefits between investors and recipients of investments. (more…)
Stock market turmoil may expose flaws in global finance
By Martin Khor
Was last week’s global stock market sell-off only a “correction” or does it signify a new period of financial instability, caused by major flaws in the world financial system? (more…)
Overview of outcomes of the November 2017 UNFCCC climate talks
The annual climate change talks under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol (KP) and the Paris Agreement (PA) took place in Bonn, Germany, on 6-18 November 2017, ending a day later than scheduled due to last-minute wrangling among Parties, mainly over issues related to finance.
Create “sponge cities” to tackle worsening floods
By Martin Khor
With floods now causing more damage more frequently around the world, it is time to counter their effects by turning our towns into “Sponge Cities”, a recent trend popularised by China to absorb rainwater through permeable roads and pavements, parks, rooftop gardens and other green spaces. (more…)
Menace of drug resistance growing
By Anthony D So
This week the Prince Mahidol Awards conference will bring a global spotlight to the threat of emerging infectious diseases. The growing challenge of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) will feature prominently in these discussions. The timing could not be better, but we urgently need to see more action on the part of the UN Interagency Coordination Group on AMR and key intergovernmental agencies gathering in Bangkok. (more…)
