Global Health
Public Health Planning for Hearing Impairment (2022)
The World Report on Hearing, published in 2021 by the WHO reports that 430 million people in the world have moderate or worse hearing loss, all of whom require rehabilitation [1]. Over 1.5 billion have any degree of hearing loss....
Impact of medical NGOs and a new collaborative approach: the case of Guinea with Mercy Ships
Mercy Ships (MS) is a global Christian charity that follows the 2000-year-old model of Jesus to bring hope and healing to those suffering from disability, disfigurement, and disease. This article by Professor Diallo and Drs Ugai and Conde, details a...
AHNS Endocrine Section Developing World Female Travel Grant and its 2021 recipient Dr Oghogho Eloghosa Braimah
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of transnational cooperation. There is a need to improve the education of all healthcare professionals on a global setting.This is especially so, as it is universally acknowledged that low- and middle- income countries...
Cochlear implantation in Tanzania: the journey and the outcomes
It is estimated that over 400 million people worldwide live with disabling hearing loss, 39.9 million of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa [1]. This article by Dr Aveline Kahinga and Mr Ali Jaffer demonstrates the effort that has been made...
Advances in ear and hearing telehealth
Telehealth in ear (or tele-otology/tele-audiology) and hearing care has steadily increased as an area of both research and clinical interest over the past 15 years [1]. Driven by rapid advances in connected technologies and wide-ranging potential use cases, telehealth had...
Head and neck cancer deaths to cost $535 billion by 2030
More than 500,000 people across the globe will die this year from head and neck cancer, which is the sixth most common cancer in the world and comprises malignancies of the nose, mouth, throat, larynx, and neck. Assuming current trends...
Virtual educational outreach in the COVID-19 era
Existing surgical outreach programmes to developing countries have been severely curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This has impacted on opportunities for otolaryngologists from the USA and from other developed countries to contribute to education and training of otolaryngologists in developing...
Changing the face of global health: short-term surgical trips
With the growth of global health awareness, global surgery has emerged as a key focus area. This article examines short-term surgical trips (STSTs) as one of the ways used to address some of the gaps in global surgery. It demonstrates...
COVID-19: UCT-Africa Virtual ENT transcends academic silos
The COVID-19 pandemic has been a global catastrophe with far-reaching consequences felt across many fronts around the world. One such aspect is the training of the future generation of ENT surgeons. With routine elective activity curtailed, academic conferences cancelled, and...
#BecauseIhearIlive – an international message from Smiling Crocodile
There are 34 million children worldwide afflicted by disabling hearing loss, 60% of whom are suffering from hearing loss due to preventable causes [1]. This article is an account of the Smiling Crocodile Charity, founded in 2009 by Dagmar Herrmannová,...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ear health in the 2020s
The world is in the midst of a pandemic, and global health is severely threatened by this novel coronavirus which has caused over three million infections of COVID-19 and claimed more than 228,000 lives to date*. Societies and health systems...
Charitable hearing care in Pakistan: establishing the IMRA Cochlear Implant Programme and Middle Ear Project
IMRA, the International Medical Relief Agency, is a registered charity providing volunteer-delivered cochlear implant and major ear surgery to children and adults in Pakistan. Established in 2001 by UK-based ENT surgeons led by Mr Haroon Khan, its primary aim is...
