July Global Health Readings, #2

Article discussing a recent publication that recalculated the pivotal trial demonstrating wide-ranging benefits from deworming campaigns, and found that these benefits were largely overstated. This is a somewhat depressing bit of news – in part as I have been amongst those donating funds towards deworming initiatives – but a valuable reminder in the utility of revisiting the data on which present policy lies periodically. In this case (and in the commentaries I’ve read elsewhere), it sounds like deworming as a broader intervention has been rather definitively debunked.

Echoing some pieces from earlier this year, Lomborg points out the impossibility of prioritizing 169 Sustainable Development Goals concurrently, and lays out some data from his think tank on the projected benefits from various possible interventions as a potential step towards culling the crowd. Another important development point.

Finally, on a different note, this article discusses in brief a new Lancet series focused on the provision of healthcare by faith-based organizations, which cover a large amount of clinical care within low-resource settings. It’s an interesting issue, one that I’d not considered before.