Photo by Sonia Shah
My new story on the emergence of a dangerous new form of antibiotic resistant bacteria in India, and how commercial concerns may be complicating efforts to tame it, appears in this week’s Foreign Affairs. Check it out at Foreign Affairs.
Also out: a nifty audio slideshow from my trip to India, on the website of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, which kindly provided funding for my reporting. Listen and watch here.
Photo by Sonia Shah
This is the first of a series of reports on NDM-1 bacteria, bugs endowed with the ability to resist not only commonly used antibiotics but the last-resort IV antibiotics used only in hospitals. NDM-1 first emerged in New Delhi (and is, controversially, named after the city) and has since spread to over 35 countries, primarily in the bodies of medical tourists. I recently returned from a trip to New Delhi, and filed this report for The Atlantic and the Pulitizer Center on Crisis Reporting, which funded my trip. Photos, video, an audio slideshow, and more stories in Foreign Affairs and Le Monde Diplomatique are forthcoming. Stay tuned.
I’ll be talking about my article on private interests in global health on NPR’s “To The Point” today, live at 11 am PT, 2 pm ET. Economist Daniel Altman and Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Bill Jeffrey will be joining, too. Check here for a station list or to listen now.
Xavier Donat/flickr
In this piece, I look at how major private industry–oil and gas companies, the fast-food industry, and Big Pharma–are transforming the global health agenda. In sum: it’s not good. The story is the product of about 6 months of research, supported by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute. Check it out here.
“How Private Companies Are Transforming the Global Health Agenda: A New Era for the World Health Organization,” by Sonia Shah, Foreign Affairs.com, November 9, 2011
Alex Perry, of TIME magazine, shadowed millionaire investor-turned-malaria activist Ray Chambers, the UN Special Envoy for malaria, as he attempted to blanket the continent of Africa with treated bednets, and then wrote this short book about it, which I reviewed for The Wall Street Journal. It was a difficult review to write, because while I admire Perry as a reporter, I had many objections to the way he talks about malaria. I could only fit in a few in the review. Here’s the link.
In the end, I had to Skype in to this year’s World Conference of Science Journalists conference in Doha, Qatar, and deliver my presentation on the issue of drug trials in developing countries via YouTube video. (You can check it out here.) Here’s what the Guardian newspaper had to say about it. “Ethics left behind as drug trials soar in developing countries,” The Guardian, July 4, 2011.
My report on cholera’s deep links to the climate–and the ongoing controversy over the origins of the ongoing outbreak of cholera in Haiti–appears in this week’s Yale Environment 360. Check it out here.
Yes, another famous person has come down with malaria! It was British model Cheryl Cole most recently, and now the actor George Clooney, who has just recovered from a bout contracted in Sudan. He’s taking questions about the disease at NYTimes.com, via Nicholas Kristof’s blog.
It’ll be interesting to learn whether he took prophylaxis or not. I suspect he did not. Many Westerners who travel regularly to malaria-endemic regions don’t, including some top malariologists I’ve met. I suppose they feel immune, sleeping in air-conditioned rooms and enjoying easy access to prompt treatment. And mostly they are, compared to the 300,000+ people living in huts and slums who get infected every year. Personally, though, I’d never skip the preventive drugs. The history of malaria shows that that wily parasite and the mosquito that ferries it around are full of secrets and surprises.
On a separate note–I once appeared in a documentary about the film “Syriana,” talking about oil politics in connection with my book “Crude.” As George Clooney stars in “Syriana,” he appeared in the documentary too. Which means, of course, that I was in a movie with George Clooney!
“The Malaria Wars: Sonia Shah answers your malaria questions” is online today on NYTimes.com’s Freakonomics blog. Got some interesting questions about DDT, malaria in the United States, and malaria’s animal reservoirs. Enjoy!
Sonia on HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, February 15, 2021 episode, "The Next Pandemic"
"How Unhealthy Paradigms Become Contagious"
"Three Reasons We Still Haven't Got Rid of Malaria"
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