Finding the Crime in Reproductive Choice
International Women’s Month was heralded by the familiar sound of male decision making in Sri Lanka’s parliament. The agenda for International Women’s Day was the legalization of abortion in the instance of…
Healthcare
The Definition of Fully Vaccinated is Shifting – We Must Keep Up to be Safe
We are in the third year of the pandemic and the end is indefinite. What we know in terms of methods to overcome this pandemic has remained the same since mid-last year.…
How to Handle the Omicron Variant
The latest Omicron variant is currently a global concern. Emergence of new variants is partly due to the global vaccine inequity which has allowed the virus to infect many unvaccinated populations and…
The Perpetual Marginalization of People with Disabilities
Article 12 (1) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka 1978 recognizes that people are entitled to equal protection of the law. Therefore, the state is under an obligation to ensure through law…
COVID-19 and Structural Inequalities Impede AIDS Battle
World AIDS Day is an annual event commemorated worldwide since 1988 on December 1. It is an opportunity to refocus and reinforce the global efforts to prevent new HIV infections, increase HIV…
Covid-19 and the Serious Toll on Mental Health
Fear, isolation, depression, anxiety, financial worries and domestic tension due to the Covid-19 pandemic are some of the factors taking a serious toll on mental health in countries around the world. Researchers…
Coping with Dementia
The world is ageing fast. Today there are 703 million people aged 65 or older; by 2050 the number will rise to 1.5 billion. According to population estimates and projections from UN…
COVID-19: Facing the Shifting Policy Priorities
Sri Lanka is emerging from another wave of COVID-19 and there is a sense of uncertainty that surrounds us. While Sri Lanka’s notable success of vaccinating its population at record speed with…
Tracing the Roots of Drug Addiction in the North
Drug abuse is a menace that many societies are attempting to come to grips with. There has been a global rise in the number of drug users while accessing the substances has…
Stigma Related to COVID-19 Threatens to Divide Humanity Further
The global spread of COVID-19 has been accompanied by a deeply troubling rise of stigma. Stigma related to COVID-19 included stereotyping, blaming and ostracizing groups or individuals that were infected or associated…
Lockdown at Last: Too Little, Too Late?
“The most sacred laws of justice are the laws which guard the life and person of our neighbor.” Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments After nearly ten months of refusing a lockdown,…
Will COVID-19 Trigger a Baby Boom or Bust?
*Sandamali is 26 weeks pregnant but she doesn’t yet know the sex of her unborn child. She lives in Bodagama with her husband and her two children, where healthcare facilities are at…
COVID-19 Resurgence: Let’s Not Lose Hope but Let’s Not Tolerate Inadequate Solutions
Sri Lanka is facing a resurgence of COVID-19 due to the Delta variant that mirrors the devastating surge in India in April. In the last 24 hours government sources have reported 3,435…
Vaccine Politics
Public health crises by definition are not going to grant much personal choice to individuals. It’s been 18 months now since the inception of the coronavirus pandemic and there’s just enough data…
COVID-19 Public Health Measures Are Essential Even with Vaccinations
On July 19, 2021, at a World Health Organization (WHO) press conference, COVID-19 Technical Lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove’s son asked a question that has been on all our minds “when will…