Next week marks the 20th anniversary of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, and a special three-day symposium will celebrate this landmark.

By Steve Hanley

Most of us learned about photosynthesis when we were in high school. Plants use carbon dioxide and sunlight to make the food they need to grow. That means higher carbon dioxide levels should be good for plants, right? Absolutely, says Republican Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas. He is a firmly committed climate change denier who is the chairman of the House Committee on Science.

Seattle, Washington—September 15, 2017—The Washington Global Health Alliance (WGHA) is pleased to announce the 2017 Pioneers of Global Health Award winners. This year’s winners, selected by a panel of global health experts, are noted for their significant achievements in improving global health equity, advancing access to HIV testing and treatment, and forming new partnerships and innovation to end malaria in Zambia. Winners will be honored at WGHA’s annual event, the Pioneers of Global Health Awards Dinner & Auction, November 9, 2017, at The Triple Door in Seattle.

By Sarah Boseley

Poor diet is a factor in one in five deaths around the world, according to the most comprehensive study ever carried out on the subject.

Millions of people are eating the wrong sorts of food for good health. Eating a diet that is low in whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds and fish oils and high in salt raises the risk of an early death, according to the huge and ongoing study Global Burden of Disease.

By Joanne Silberner

Later this month, global health luminaries will gather in Seattle to celebrate the anniversary of a relationship that had a rocky start back in 1986, when a brash young Rhodes scholar marched into the World Health Organization office of an epidemiologist who had published research papers on mortality in Africa.

“Are you Alan Lopez?” the visitor asked. “Yes,” Lopez remembers answering. “Well, I’m Chris Murray, and everything you’ve written about Africa is wrong.”

 By Sandi Doughton

With more than $40 billion in assets and the world’s richest man at the helm, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation might seem well-positioned to ride out any political storm.

But the Trump administration’s proposal to slash funding for the global health and development causes the Seattle foundation holds dear sent shivers through even the country’s most powerful philanthropy.