Written by Mansi Tiwary and Afreen Akbany (AMSA Sexual and Reproductive Health) What was Roe v. Wade? Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision passed by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) regarding abortion laws in America on the 22nd of January, 1973. The SCOTUS ruled that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad…
By Kumaran Manivannan, AGH Reactive Advocacy Over the last few months, the South Asian island country of Sri Lanka has been in turmoil due to a complex politico-economic crisis. Due to a combination of factors including COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, political decisions and poor economic management, the country has been unable to pay its…
As we approach the 2022 Federal Election, our Reactive Advocacy team examine what foreign aid plans are being presented in government and opposition policy. Official Development Assistance is the term used to refer to foreign aid specifically for the purpose of promoting economic and social welfare in low income countries. In The 2021-22 Federal Budget,…
The civil-war in Tigray began on the 4th of November 2020, and has created a significant humanitarian crisis marked by indiscriminate killings, ethnic cleansing and mass sexual violence. The conflict is between forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (T.P.F.L), an ethinc left-wing paramilitary and former political group, and the current Ethiopian government. So far,…
By Shani Nguyen, Associate Editor at the AMSA Journal of Global Health 2021 Virginity testing is a gynaecological examination that is routinely conducted in at least twenty countries.1However, international organisations such as the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Office and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have emphasised that virginity testing should cease because it is…
By the Unemployment and Health Policy Task Force The Commonwealth government has outlined a clear goal of driving unemployment down in order to stimulate economic growth. However, maximising employment is not a simple question of labour market mechanics. Just as 2020 demonstrated that health and economic crises are intertwined, 2021 will also highlight that a healthy population…
By Alexandra Wilson The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) enacts International Humanitarian Law (IHL) which limits the consequences of armed conflicts between two or more states for individuals not contributing to the hostilities of war. IHL fails when the conflict is either not classified as armed or internally within one state, like the…
By Jasmin Somers The Sphere Handbook outlines the core humanitarian standards, as well as the minimum standards that should be attained in a humanitarian response. It includes both ethical considerations, as well as discusses issues surrounding healthcare quality, access and the social determinants of health. There are four overarching minimum standard themes:(1) Any good humanitarian…
By Alexandra Wilson, Jasmin Somers, and Zachary Horn A humanitarian crisis is defined as “widespread threats to human life, safety, health, and wellbeing resulting from any range of precipitating and perpetuating factors”.(1) When a humanitarian crisis becomes complicated by a significant or total breakdown of authority and governance due to conflict, it becomes considered a…
By Zachary Horn One Health recognises that human health, animal health and environmental health are interconnected to such a degree that successful management of one of these areas is dependent upon the others.(13) One Health therefore demand cooperation and collaboration between practitioners and experts across all three fields (i.e. human, animal/agricultural, and environmental health). One…
In the global fight to prevent and cure cancer, there are few cancers that inspire more hope of eradication than cervical cancer. It has a well understood and vaccine-preventable aetiology, screening tests with proven success, and numerous treatment options if detected early. Indeed, in a landmark commitment in November 2020, 194 countries agreed to adopt…
A Brief History Since September 2001 the US and its allies, including Australia, have been fighting a war in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 attacks led by Osama Bin Laden, who was being protected by the Taliban at the time. The Taliban was removed from power in Afghanistan by the end of 2001. However,…
With more than 198 million confirmed cases worldwide (at the time of writing), it is safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on all of us. [1] One of the determining factors on how well we combat this pandemic is how we deal with misinformation, as it can affect implementation…
By exploiting existing faults in the health system, the pandemic highlights structural flaws in the health system that disproportionately impact the most vulnerable communities in our society. As a result of the pandemic, global frailties have been exposed and marginalised communities entrenched in inequities engrained in social infrastructure. Those of a low socioeconomic background are…
Know how COVID-19 impacted women differently compared to men. Understand how to create social enterprise to sustainably address the issues you care about. Learn how we are tackling period poverty and toxic masculinity. Educate yourself on health issues for gender diverse people. And please, please, please – stop baking just to make people like you!…
Published by the AMSA Global Health Reactive Advocacy Team:Sally Boardman, Jacqueline Bredhauer and Guy Jeffery. 2021. The year following the unforgettable 2020. Never has there been a time in recent decades where all the world has so closely followed every news release, press conference and ‘groundbreaking’ scientific research. From the beginning of the pandemic, COVID-related…
Each year, AMSA Global Health develops an annual plan in conjunction with our strategic direction, and celebrates and evaluates our progress via an annual report. I am pleased to announce the publication of our 2020 Annual Report. 2020 was a tumultuous year, filled with masks, hand sanitiser and zoom. Whilst disheartened by the cancellation of…
After a year of confusion, chaos, and zoom, we welcome you… to another year, of confusion, chaos and zoom! COVID-19 is still kicking. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have grand plans in store for AMSA Global Health! Some of them are just, well, a little up in the air. 2020 was a difficult year,…
Welcome to Out of the Loop! The date is November 21st, 2016. A blustering thunderstorm has just passed through Melbourne, and all at once, thousands of Victorians are finding it difficult to breathe. In the 24 hours that followed, a wave of almost 500 asthma-related hospital admissions overwhelmed the city’s hospitals and ambulances. 72% had…
Welcome to Out of the Loop! The Amazon rainforest has been in the news recently because of the 40,000 wildfires currently raging through the region. But where have these fires come from, and what does the planet stand to lose if the Amazon were to disappear? It’s easy to underestimate the influence of the Amazon….
Welcome to Out of the Loop! The Medevac bill has been in the news ever since February, when its passage marked the Morrison government’s first major defeat in the House of Representatives.But to understand what it means for us as future medical professionals, it helps to understand how a person in offshore detention gets urgent…
Welcome to Out Of The Loop! This week, we want to try to answer an age old question: can I recycle disposable coffee cups? The intuitive answer is ‘yes’ – they’re made from paper, after all. However, most coffee cups are lined with a layer of waterproofing polyethylene – good for preventing your latté from…
It is the first day of the World Health Assembly, and all of the delegates are packed into the grand Assembly Hall at the Palais des Nations. I can’t believe I’m here. Looking down from high up in the galleries, we can see rows of tables below occupied by ministers of health. Words from the…
In preparation for the UN General Assembly high-level meeting on Universal Health Coverage, talking place on 23rd September 2019, an interactive multi-stakeholder hearing was convened at the United Nations in New York, on 29th April 2019. AMSA’s presence consisted of a delegation of five (from left): Natalie Ward, Vuong Phan, Zoe Byrne, Isabelle Nehme and…
With a lot of the election noise primarily concerning the Liberal and Labor parties, it’s easy to feel like there’s only two parties to choose from. But when you go to vote tomorrow, there will be up to 35 different parties listed on your form. With that many options, there’s a good chance one of…
Abortion access has recently been thrown centre stage in this federal election after Labor’s most recent announcement – mandating state-run hospitals to provide abortions for free. However, unless you’ve sought out an abortion yourself, you might not know much about what the current process is to get one. So in this edition of Out of…
Obesity is a national epidemic. Almost two thirds of adults in Australia are overweight or obese, with children being among those affected. While a past Prime Minister of Australia has described obesity as a failure of “individual self-discipline”, we now know better – there is a clear link between the marketing of junk foods and…
Climate change is squaring up as a big election issue in 2019, with Morrison, Shorten and Di Natale all spruiking their respective climate and environment policies. However, it can be a complex and confusing topic – so let’s break down why everyone is calling this election “the climate election”. In 2016, Australia committed to the…
We hear so much about ‘refugees’ in the news because there is currently an unprecedented number of people – over 68.5 million at the moment – fleeing their homes due to violence, abuse, and persecution. Inevitably these people flee to places which are safe and provide protection. When Australia signed the Refugee Convention in 1954,…
The inaugural AMSA Global Health Intensive (AGHI) has come and gone, and what a ride it’s been. Formerly known as Training New Trainers, AMSA’s flagship training program was entirely redesigned in 2018. We decided that we needed to reshape and refocus on providing capacity building for Australian medical students at the standard that they expect,…
In my first-ever wet lab, my tutor handed me a flaccid, disembodied lung and asked if I could identify the oblique fissure. I couldn’t. I was two weeks into medical school straight out of an Arts degree, and had absolutely no idea what was going on in any of my classes. So, I tried to…
While a lot has been said about the causes of obesity, there is a common thread to all – we reach too often for the packet of chips and not often enough for the gym gear. But, even this sentence alone makes it painfully clear that the individual is at fault. They are the ones who put…
As has been reflected in some of our previous blog posts, global health is tricky to define. It encompasses all manner of areas, from refugee health, to climate change, reproductive rights and prevention of non-communicable diseases – our AMSA project groups cover but a small portion of the vast terrain that global health traverses. Importantly,…
Medical students in Australia are showing an increased interest in participating in international medical training, and AMSA is meeting the need with the SCOPE exchange program – an international collaboration between AMSA and universities in the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA). AMSA students have a myriad of reasons for wanting to go on…
On Saturday April 7th, over 400 medical students, health professionals, representatives from local organisations and members of the public met at Hyde Park, Sydney. Together, dressed in lab coats and medical scrubs, we marched for the human right to health and safety for refugee and asylum seekers on offshore detention. We marched because Australia’s offshore…
