N.C. journalist goes to Europe for lessons about opioid crisis

NC Health News reporter Taylor Knopf interviews Thilo Beck, head of psychiatry at Arud Centre for Addiction Medicine inside a heroin-assisted treatment facility in Zurich, Switzerland.

Photo: Andy SpechtNC Health News reporter Taylor Knopf interviews Thilo Beck, head of psychiatry at Arud Centre for Addiction Medicine inside a heroin-assisted treatment facility in Zurich, Switzerland.

Last year, Taylor Knopf, a health care journalist at North Carolina Health News, spent more than a week out of a vacation to report on how France and Switzerland have been able to do what the health care system in the United States has so far failed to do: stem the tide of opioid-related deaths.

Knopf earned first place in AHCJ’s Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism Public Health (small) category for her six-part NCHN series, “Lessons from Abroad.” Continue reading

AHCJ fellow learns about global vulnerability in midst of COVID-19 outbreak

Map of the COVID-19 outbreak as of March 19, 2020.

Image: Pharexia and authors of File:BlankMap-World.svg

Michele Cohen Marill is one of three journalists glad to be back in the U.S.

Marill, an Atlanta-based independent journalist, is one of four 2020 AHCJ International Health Study fellows and was in Germany conducting interviews for her fellowship when President Trump announced the unprecedented travel restrictions from Europe to the U.S. on March 11. Continue reading

AP correspondent brings his local experience to an international story

Al-hadji Kudra Maliro

Al-hadji Kudra Maliro

In August 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo declared its 10th outbreak of Ebola in 40 years. The number of cases has now surpassed 3,000 and more than 2,000 have died, making it the second biggest and deadliest Ebola epidemic after the West Africa outbreak of 2014-16.

One of the local journalists on the ground is Al-hadji Kudra Maliro. He is the eastern Congo correspondent for the Associated Press and also has contributed stories to the Christian Science Monitor, Daily Mail, Le Monde, France 24, Yahoo and Stars and Stripes. On his Facebook page, Maliro describes himself as a photojournalist, fixer, reporter, activist, writer and video producer. Continue reading

AHCJ selects second class of International Health Study Fellows

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded its AHCJ International Health Study Fellowships to four journalists who intend to pursue significant projects in the first half of 2020. The program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is meant to help veteran U.S.-based journalists compare elements of the U.S. health system with those of other countries.

The program for mid-career journalists is intended to give print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to study how one element of the U.S. health care system is handled in another country and to report on the differences. Fellows will interview patients, health care providers and policymakers in the United States and abroad.

Continue reading 

Health is on the agenda at UN Week

Photo: United NationsTijjani Muhammad-Bande, president of the seventy-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly, speaks at the high-level meeting on universal health coverage.

Welcome to UN Week in New York City … when savvy residents know better than to venture anywhere near the east side, avoid driving (or cabbing) below 50th Street and that the quickest way to get anywhere is by subway or on foot. Gridlock disaster doesn’t begin to describe it.

It’s a time when global leaders come together to talk about mutually important issues, like climate change (check out Greta Thunberg’s speech), trade, war and peace and world health.

A high-level meeting on universal health coverage, “Universal Health Coverage: Moving Together to Build a Healthier World,” brought together heads of state, political and health leaders, policymakers and universal health coverage champions on Monday to advocate for health for all. Continue reading