In an exclusive foreword, Northern Ireland Health Minister Simon Hamilton details his department’s Making Life Better Strategy which reflects the commitment of the Northern Ireland Executive to “improving health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities, through co-ordinated and focussed action on the wider social, economic and environmental determinants of health.”

In this insightful and topical edition of global health & pharma, Professor Alan Cameron, RCOG Vice President, Clinical Quality discusses the ‘Each Baby Counts’ five-year initiative which “aims to halve the number of babies who die or are left severely disabled as a result of incidents occurring during term labour by 2020.”

Helen Donovan, Professional lead for public health nursing at the Royal College of Nursing argues that cutting public health budgets “intended to prevent health problems before they start – is incredibly short-sighted, and risky”. Dr. Bryce G. Rutter, Founder & CEO Metaphase Design Group Inc. reveals his thoughts on the dignity of living, as we continue to make incredible advances in medicine, the importance the human factor” he argues.

Other topics covered in this edition include antibiotic resistance, HIV infection and drug development. Do feel free to contact me if you would like to submit an article for the next edition or for the global health & pharma website.

“A world without antibiotics is a public health issue and avoiding the apocaplypse needs the public interest at its heart.”