Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face a critical shortage of basic surgical services. Adequate neurosurgical services can have a far-reaching positive impact on society's health care and, consequently, the economic development in LMICs. Yet surgery, and specifically neurosurgery has been a long neglected sector of global health. This article reviews the current efforts to enhance neuros...

INTRODUCTION Evidence on the relationship between cigarette prices and adult smoking in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is relatively limited. This study offers new descriptive evidence on this relationship using data from a set of 13 LMICs. METHODS We use Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) cross-country data from approximately 200,000 participants aged 15 and older. Estimates on the...

BACKGROUND The 2001 Declaration of Commitment (DoC) adopted by the General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) included a call to monitor national responses to the HIV epidemic. Since the DoC, efforts and investments have been made globally to strengthen countries' HIV monitoring and evaluation (M&E) capacity. This analysis aims to quantify HIV M&E investments, commitments, capacity, ...

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease with deadly, disabling, and costly consequences for individuals, families, communities, and countries. Although they are phenotypically distinct, diabetes subtypes (type 1, type 2, gestational, and other forms) are all defined by elevated blood glucose levels. Approximately 95 percent of diabetes cases worldwide are type 2 diabetes (previously kn...

BACKGROUND There are concerns about growing barriers to cancer research. We explored the characteristics of and barriers to global clinical cancer research. METHODS The American Society of Clinical Oncology International Affairs Committee invited 300 selected oncologists with research experience from 25 countries to complete a Web-based survey. Fisher's exact test was used to compare answers ...

There are limited published data on recent cancer incidence and mortality trends worldwide. We used the International Agency for Research on Cancer's CANCERMondial clearinghouse to present age-standardized cancer incidence and death rates for 2003-2007. We also present trends in incidence through 2007 and mortality through 2012 for select countries from five continents. High-income countries (H...

Globally, soda taxes are gaining momentum as powerful interventions to discourage sugar consumption and thereby reduce the growing burden of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Evidence from early adopters including Mexico and Berkeley, California, confirms that soda taxes can disincentivize consumption through price increases and raise revenue to support government programs. The Unit...

Between 13% and 49% of the world’s population develop neuropsychiatric disorders at some point in their life [1]. More and more evidence indicates that mental disorders and problems are common in all countries studied [2–4], and supports earlier projections that the burden of mental health problems is increasing in lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) as well [5]. Most people with these disab...

BACKGROUND Ninety-eight percent of children needing palliative care live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and almost half of them live in Africa. In contrast to the abundance of data on populations in high income countries, the current data on populations in LMICs is woefully inadequate. This study aims to identify and summarize the published literature on the need, accessibility, q...