Friday, May 16, 2008

Where are the Global Health Blogs?

Tara Smith updates us from Mongolia on the new outbreak of hand-foot-and-mouth disease that has just been reported there. Tara is both an honest-to-goodness scientist and a blogger--although she hasn't been blogging as much on Aetiology this month. Her specialty is pathogens that jump to humans from other animals.

Other public health blogs by academics that I particularly like to read include Effect Measure (always provocative) and The Pump Handle (with a focus on occupational health).

But for the most part, the number of global health professionals in the blogosphere are few and far between. I am keeping an eye on Global Health Delivery, a kind of blog aborning, to see what develops there. Otherwise, the slack is being taken up by the passionate (H5N1 and THDblog) and a few journalists here and there.

Post a comment if you there are others you know and trust.

7 comments:

Pochemuchka said...

Don't forget Global Health Policy!

Anonymous said...

and HIV Information for Myanmar [him] http://him.civiblog.org and the Lancet Global Health Network http://www.thelancetglobalhealthnetwork.com/

[him] moderator

Christine Gorman said...

Hi Jessica,

I hadn't forgotten Global Healthy Policy. It's under CGDev blogs on my blog rolls. I was just looking for those sorts of global health blogs from academics in the field. Sort of like realclimate.org but for global health.

Christine

Ryan said...

Christine,

I think your right. There is a strange absence of academia in global health blogs.

UNACCEPTABLE is a blog that originally started out to promote discussion and colloboration between NGOs in the Utah community. It has become one of the most visited blogs on global health. Search "global health blogs" if you don't believe me! I think this speaks to the thirst that exists on the internet for global health information from blog media.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ryan,
As you suggested, I searched for global health blogs (without quotes) on Google and found this order

1. Global Health Policy from the Center for Global Development
2. an entry from Time.com's late lamented global health blog (which I ran while I was at TIME)
3. another entry from the Time.com blog
4. Global Health Report, my current global health blog
5. A lapsed blog by Laurie Garrett of the Council on Foreign Relations
6. Brown for Global Health. Another lapsed blog, this time from a Brown University student.
7. THD blog, which I'm happy to see is still going strong.
8. Unacceptable, a group blog from folks in the Utah and Latter Day Saints global health communities
9. A one-month blog from the dean of the University of Pittsburgh School fo Public Health
10. Global Health and Foreign Policy, brought to you by CGD--the same folks who brought you the number one ranking global health blog.

Anonymous said...

I also have noticed the dearth of global health blogs. I would love to find additional resources such as the Global Health Report and Global Health Policy. I am a novice blogger, writing about the nexus of social change and public health. You can find me at http://vanessamason.wordpress.com.

Jenny Blair said...

As a way of getting ready to volunteer in a clinic in Indonesia (I'm an ER doc and writer), I started a blog called Low-Resource Medicine for clinicians who are working in developing countries. I aim to make it a helpful resource for people who need to figure out how to diagnose and treat patients but don't have the full array of Western medical expertise at their disposal. It includes interviews, literature reviews and other (I hope) useful content. In short, it's the kind of blog I wish I could read as I learn to wean myself off CT scans and 24-hour lab results. http://lowresourcemedicine.blogspot.com. Thanks!