Gaza’s Polio Outbreak, EpiPens in Brazil, and Recycled Prosthetics in Sri Lanka

Editors' Note

A campaign to vaccinate 640,000 children against polio in the Gaza Strip continued this week even as bombs hit a humanitarian camp in Khan Younis. The World Peace Foundation's Alex de Waal and Refugees International's Jeremy Konyndyk comment on Gaza's polio outbreak, the first in 25 years, suggesting that the emergency is "a symptom of a health, food, and shelter catastrophe brought about by 11 months of relentless destruction of all that is necessary to sustain life."

Next, journalist Rachel Nuwer interviews Chikwe Ihekweazu, an assistant director general at the World Health Organization (WHO), about his new book An Imperfect Storm: A Pandemic and the Coming of Age of a Nigerian Institution. Their conversation explores Nigeria's experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the WHO plans to collaborate with the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to curb mpox transmission.

Moving to Latin America, physician Rômullo José Costa Ataídes stresses Brazil's need for greater access to epinephrine pens, the lifesaving medication for severe allergic reactions or anaphylaxis. He notes that despite their crucial role, only 27.8% of countries in South America can import those auto-injectors, and none manufacture them locally.

Journalist Tristan Bove then spotlights a collaboration between a U.S. nonprofit and a 200-year-old Sri Lankan charity that is giving second life to retired prostheses from the United States by reconfiguring their components to build functional limbs for amputees in the South Asian country.

To wrap up the issue, journalist Susan K. Barnett sits down with Kelly Parsons, CEO of WaterAid America, to discuss water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) inside health-care facilities; the link between clean water and antibiotics; and what WASH-related conversations to expect at the UN General Assembly this month.

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor