What's Killing Us: A Practical Guide to Understanding Our Biggest Global Health Problems [Kindle Edition]

The focus of global health, of course, is really global sickness. Alanna Shaikh's new TED book, "What's Killing Us?," an overview / guide to 10 of the most major challenges, shows why the bugs are gaining competitive advantage (sometimes literally, i.e., antibiotic resistance) and how quickly even small local outbreaks can become international catastrophes. Shaikh's fast-paced no-nonsense approach neatly crosses the "specialties" divide that often dominates the discussion. The focus isn't Malaria, or Maternal Health, or Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), but all the above. The issues dovetail, which is why many of the answers in Shaikh's "What we can do" sections are similar: more funding to bolster public health infrastructure, more effective delivery of preventive health care, particularly for pregnant women and young children, and more investment in research for new / better / cheaper drugs and vaccines.

The good news among the litany of stacked odds is that there *can* be good news. But it will take a much broader general awareness of the issues and sustained international political will to make any long-term meaningful difference.

Shocking statistics and heart-wrenching details are seeded throughout:

* If you are a 5-year old in rural Mali, you've probably got worms
* One out of every three people on this planet is infected with TB bacteria
* More than one-third of all child deaths are linked to malnutrition
* 2 million children are left without mothers every year
* Only women routinely die to become a parent
* Based on current projections, antibiotics will stop working in 10 years. Completely.

And everything (really *everything*) is worse with climate change...

To those who work in the field or cover the issues, much of this may be familiar territory, but seeing the issues in aggregate is powerful. For those considering careers in health care public policy, Shaikh's book is a must-read primer.

With her characteristic intelligence for making the complex understandable to lay audiences while not dumbing down the content and making it a worthy read for those with expertise in the subject matter, Alanna Shaikh has written an excellent, succinct TED book that addresses 10 of the most pressing issues in global health. As a well known blogger on global health and humanitarian aid issues, a Senior TED Fellow, and Maternal Child Health expert with years of experience working in the Mid East and Central Asia, Shaikh is well poised to see the big picture in health and communicate its core concerns with clarity and practical action steps. AS a physician with a specialty in women's health and global health, I found Shaikh's book to be an excellent reminder of what most ails us and what solutions are within reach; I also learned a few new things. Shaikh is a broad and diverse thinker and a witty, chiseled writer, mentioning not only obviously deadly viruses, but health systems and environmental threats. The logical structure of her book allows you to read it from start to finish in an hour or two or skip to the chapters that most interest you. I highly recommend this book to students of public health, political science, global development, economics, and international relations; aid workers; diplomats; journalists; and readers of nonfiction interested in global affairs.

Alanna Shaikh's debut book is an engaging and accessible introduction to the global health landscape. Despite all of the new money and media attention devoted to international health during the past decade, the existing entree points for newcomers to the field have historically been few and far between. In this book, Shaikh finally fills the important gap between "human interest" news features on the one hand and textbooks, technical reports and journal articles on the other. Brief chapters are devoted to the most pressing health challenges facing the world today, using concrete examples to explain why each of these problems is more (or in some cases, less) urgent than we might think - and to posit possible solutions.

For those of us enmeshed in global health policy on a day-to-day basis, it's easy to get lost in the nuance and lose sight of the big picture. Here, though, Shaikh skillfully and concisely distills the broad contours of the current discourse into one sitting. As such, I would strongly recommend this primer to three different types of readers: 1) undergraduate students interested in international development, to better understand how health fits into the bigger picture; 2) diplomats and foreign affairs professionals whose portfolios tangentially relate to some of these health isssues; and 3) wealthy individuals or small family foundations with an interest in giving globally but who need guidance about the areas where their contributions could have the biggest impact.