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A common condition

This series draws attention to the immediate and long term dangers that non-communicable diseases – including heart and respiratory diseases, cancers, and diabetes – pose to individuals living in the developing world

  • Young cancer patients take part in a painting competition in a hospital in Chandigarh, northern India.

    ‘No child should die’: the US hospital leading a global fight against childhood cancer

    St Jude in Memphis, Tennessee, is taking its fight against youth illness around the world – thanks to its own resources and celebrity backers
  • Buns in plastic packaging hang from a snack stall by the side of a road in Dhaka.

    Snack attack: how the west exported unhealthy eating to Africa and Asia

    From rickshaw riders in Bangladesh to schoolchildren in Kenya, people in lower-income countries are turning to ultra-processed convenience foods, as experts warn of an inevitable disease toll to follow
  • A group of South African women gather around a table with a blood pressure monitor on it.

    ‘We need to act on the scale we did for HIV’: South Africa struggles to avert a diabetes ‘car crash’

    The disease kills more women in the country than any other, but lack of funding and awareness means few get support, and a fast-food culture only adds to the problem
  • An old African woman smiles as she peers at the camera

    ‘Many patients are dying blind’: South Africa’s struggle to save eyesight

    In a race to prevent blindness, a small team in the remote Northern Cape do their best to treat thousands of patients waiting in hope that their sight could be restored to them
  • An African woman in a facemask sits with a young couple and their baby on the steps outside a house

    The door to door service that is changing the diagnosis for Malawians

    In a country where many live far from clinics, a home-visit scheme has been a breakthrough in treating illnesses such as diabetes and spotting cancers
  • Members of the Krenak tribe in red shorts on the bank of the River Doce, which is coloured orange because of toxic pollution.

    ‘A never-ending fight’: cancer and diabetes cases soar in wake of Mariana dam disaster

    The poisoning of the Doce River is affecting Indigenous communities who, while still waiting for justice, are seeing an increase in illnesses barely heard of before the disaster
  • Patients wait at a hospital in Africa

    ‘There won’t be enough people left’: Africa struggles to stop brain drain of doctors and nurses

    The exodus of healthcare workers from Nigeria, Ghana and Zimbabwe continues, despite the WHO red list and a range of laws to keep them at home
  • A bra with small discs attached and wires coming out of the padding

    Can a bra detect breast cancer? This Nigerian entrepreneur thinks so

    An aunt’s death led Kemisola Bolarinwa to develop a wearable device that can pick up Nigeria’s most common cancer much earlier
  • A palliative care nurse hands painkillers to a cancer patient standing in the doorway of her home

    Ethiopians dying in agony due to lack of opioids while west battles a surfeit

    Poor countries get 1% of global supply … to treat half the world’s people. In Ethiopia, a new initiative has begun, but too late for those suffering without oral morphine
  • Shopkeeper Vasu Gupta with the Sting energy drink

    How food companies ‘sweetened the world’ – and increased the risk of disease

    The hard sell of ultra-processed foods in developing countries as being ‘good for you’ gives children a taste for sugar and salt that could have lasting effects on their health
  • CKD Nepal Pattisson - 8 of 16 CKD (chronic kidney disease) among migrant workers from Nepal Sujan Thami, 39, undergoes dialysis at the National Kidney Centre in Kathmandu. Thami worked for six years as a security guard in Malaysia before starting work in Qatar. Nine months later he was diagnosed with CKD.

    ‘Going abroad cost me my health’: Nepal’s migrant workers coming home with chronic kidney disease

    Men under 40 are coming home in need of dialysis, after working in intense heat with limited access to drinking water
  • IMG-20230412-WA0020 More hemophilia in Nigeria story pics from HFN. Thee women in the red top is Meagan Adediran, its founder. The other pics of from a HFN meeting and a HFN demo.

    ‘A single cut brings excruciating pain’: haemophilia patients struggle to access care in Nigeria

    People living with the blood disorder are often unable to obtain a diagnosis or vital treatment – a situation that is replicated across much of Africa
  • As of today, cross-border referrals of cancer patients from north-west Syria to Turkey have officially resumed via Bab Al-Hawa.

    Hope for Syrian cancer patients as cross-border treatment resumes in Turkey

    North-west Syria regains access to radiotherapy for first time since Earthquake devastated the region but backlog means many remain in limbo
  • People sit at an outdoors bar in Bridgetown, Barbados, with a prominent Coca-Cola advert.

    Barbados fights Big Sugar for the survival of its people

    The legacy of colonialism, modern-day conveniences and a diet high in fat and sugar have bequeathed the island a diabetes and high-blood pressure pandemic. But can health plans win out over corporate interests?
  • A woman exploring an anatomical model with her fingertips

    Power of touch: how blind women are helping detect breast cancer in India

    A scheme training visually impaired women to use their heightened tactile abilities benefits patients and examiners
  • A patient, sitting on an exercise ball, is treated at a rehabilitation centre in Tahiti.

    World Health Assembly commits to boosting global access to rehabilitation

    ‘Landmark’ resolution in Geneva seeks to boost neglected service in all healthcare sectors, from prosthetics to physical therapy
  • Two syringes and diabetes medication, insulin, laid out on a rug.

    Insulin costs almost a month’s wages in poorer countries, says study

    Health experts say the vital diabetic medication shouldn’t cost more than a single day’s salary
  • A closed medical centre in southern Khartoum on 8 May. Many medications for chronic illnesses – including insulin – are in short supply.

    Diabetics fleeing Sudan struggle to keep their insulin safe in 40C heat

    With makeshift coolbags and an endless quest for ice, refugees are desperately struggling to protect their precious medication – if they can access any at all
  • A south Asian woman clutching her belly.

    ‘Hell on earth’: India’s taboos around women’s pain leave endometriosis sufferers in agony

    Despite the pain of the condition, diagnoses take seven years on average globally. In India, where 42 million women have the disease, cultural stigmas can make the delay even longer
  • A runner in sorts and singlet poses with his arms crossed

    ‘A precision approach to activism’: distance runners join fight against Africa’s air pollution

    Citizen scientists in Lagos, Cape Town and Accra are gathering air-quality data on runs to help curb a key cause of early death
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