Pieternella Pieterse

Toxic men and their war mongering will make sure that there is always money for bombs, but not enough for healthcare

Gambiaans babymeisje overleden na een besnijdenis In Gambia is een babymeisje van een maand oud overleden nadat zij bij een illegale besnijdenis te veel bloed verloor. De dood van het meisje leverde in het West-Afrikaanse land grote verontwaardiging ...

In Gambia is een babymeisje van een maand oud overleden nadat zij bij een illegale besnijdenis te veel bloed verloor. De dood van het meisje leverde in het West-Afrikaanse land grote verontwaardiging op. www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/g...

… studies about the widespread use of informal health workers within the public sector in Africa. It’s a type of informality/ corruption that has received little attention. @researchireland.ie @rcsiglobalsurgery.bsky.social

Delighted to share that @federics.bsky.social and I just published a new paper, Employed but unpaid… which is an investigation into the challenges faced by Sierra Leone’s many (possibly as many as half of the clinical health workforce) so-called volunteer health workers. One of the first in-depth …

It’s shocking that this needs to be said again and again, in 2025…

@doctorswithoutborders.org released a report this morning documenting the targeted, orchestrated killing of civilians at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution sites.

Please read and do everything in your power to stop this.
www.msf.org/not-aid-orch... 1/7

Incredibly instructive reporting on what appears well on its way to becoming the biggest, most concentrated, most energy- and resource-intensive, and most speculative wave of capital investment ever.
ig.ft.com/ai-data-cent...

Break the selective silence on the genocide in Gaza Substantial and well-documented evidence indicates a catastrophic public health emergency in Gaza (appendix pp 1–5), marked by severe food insecurity and alarming levels of malnutrition-related deaths...

An important and eloquent letter from our friend and colleague, Roberto De Vogli - please read and share
Break the selective silence on the genocide in Gaza - The Lancet www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Just listened to the Nature podcast on this, fascinating. Congrats Dr Birhane

Awful, just awful

Opinion | The Waste Musk Created

“Children are dying because medicines have been abruptly cut off, and risks of Ebola, tuberculosis and other diseases reaching America are increasing — while medicines sit uselessly in warehouses,” our columnist @nickkristof.bsky.social writes of U.S.A.I.D. cuts in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Such a fascinating paper:

My perspective piece in the Int J of Health Management and Planning was published today.

Pieter Derks over het gevallen kabinet

Help ons. We kunnen niet meer.. Pieter Derks

youtu.be/jWBuexEdZ_M...

Why are more people not talking about this? Surely this needs to be made clear to a general public, some of whom really haven’t thought of this?!

(Part 1)

Dr Pieternella Pieterse’s Research Ireland-funded study: What impact do unsalaried health workers in Sierra Leone have on healthcare delivery?...

#Globalsurgery #GlobalSurgeryDay #GlobalSurgery10

@rcsi.bsky.social @researchireland.ie @p-pieterse.bsky.social

Research at risk: Life-saving heart pumps for babies | Cornell Chronicle After receiving a stop-work order from the federal government, the future of a device to help children with heart defects is uncertain.

One of grants frozen at Cornell: $6.7M (4 yrs) to develop heart pumps for babies born w/ heart defects.

It took decades of work to get to point of prepping device for in-human clinical trials. No private company could do this.

The cruelty of the Trump administration is heartbreaking. So to speak.

fragile state averages, worst than Somalia, despite being 23 yrs post-war. Providing unsalaried jobs suits many, facilities are well staffed, health workers are blamed for ‘misbehaviour’. Public +private health worker training is lucrative business, training women for non-existing jobs #publichealth

… unsalaried. At hospital level perhaps even more. Negative consequences include reduced access to care due to informal charging, staff selling privately bought meds thus prioritizing sales over accurate diagnosis, and absenteeism of salaried staff. Many of SL’s health outcomes are worst than…

My colleague and I returned to Sierra Leone to share our research findings last week. Due to a lack of funding for health (low priority + minimal tax income) health worker graduates are engaged in public health sector jobs on ‘voluntary’ = unsalaried basis. In primary care half of all staff is…

New WHO report “health gap targets will be missed, largely due to a lack of political will to tackle the structural drivers of poor health”

Here's a nice story for you:
A group of young migrants in an asylum center in the Netherlands was gifted a fun day out to amusement park De Efteling.

But after remarks on social media by asylum minister Faber, the trip was canceled.

Today, crowd funds raised over 100,000 euros for a day out.

This is a truly inspiring group, a rare spark of hope in an otherwise bleak time for international cooperation and collaboration for the greater good of the planet and its peoples.

‘This is insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage Agency will make researchers outside United States seek grants of their own rather than “subawards” from U.S. scientists

‘This is insane:’ New NIH policy on funding foreign scientists stirs outrage | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Medical journals hit with threatening letters from Justice Department The acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., has sent letters to several leading medical journals asking for information about their editorial practices.

The acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., has sent letters to several leading medical journals asking for information about their editorial practices.

Does Ireland really need these sheep? Wouldn’t it be much more cost effective, from achieving some level of reforestation and creating new carbon capturing areas, if the gov paid farmers not to graze these areas? I know there’s wild grazers, but if you took sheep out of the equation here?

American scientists: maybe just pretending as though we aren't subject to the capricious whims of a mad king *isn't* a sensible strategy? The damage to #research, to scientific progress, & to #PublicHealth is going to be generational. We *must* respond accordingly.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The impact of the PEPFAR funding freeze on HIV deaths and infections: a mathematical modelling study of seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa The sudden cessation of PEPFAR funding likely results in tens of thousands of HIV deaths and new infections. These losses of life and health should compel the United States government to rapidly and f...

🛑 Jan 24, 2025: the U.S. freezes all foreign aid — including PEPFAR.
7 countries. 90 days. HIV treatment disrupted. Waivers? Incomplete.

A new @thelancet.bsky.social study models the fallout. The results are devastating. 👇
www.thelancet.com/journals/ecl... #HealthPolicy 🧪🛟 💊🌐

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight RFK Jr. & HHS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

We are in an *extraordinarily* dangerous moment for democracy, civil rights, & #PublicHealth. Share this video as widely as you can. Educate everyone you're able to. It's past time to push back *forcefully* against the ignorance & cruelty threatening us.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H34...

Hi Charlie, thanks for getting in touch, I’ll email you! Greetings from Salone, just on a short visit here