If you follow global health news closely, you’re probably already familiar with niche news sites — such as Inter Press Service, Global Health Frontline News and others — that focus either exclusively or partially on malaria, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases etc.
Put those aside for now.
Several other news organizations and journalists cover these issues, but for one reason or another, they’re often not the first thing that comes to mind as a source of global health news.
In some cases, you might not have heard of them before. I’ve also included some larger news organizations on the list, and your initial reaction might be: do they really cover global health? They do, you just need to know where to look.
So here are some unexpected/uncommon original sources of global health news to add to your RSS reader or digital alerts system:
1) Fast Company — this business mag recently devoted a lot of space to Water.org. Assistant Editor Ariel Schwartz also provides some interesting health-related updates.
2) Helen Coster’s Good Work blog on Forbes — the New York-based Forbes staff writer covers entrepreneurship for the magazine, but uses her blog to focus on social entrepreneurs — often in global health ventures.
3) Nature’s news blog — updated daily, this is a great place to find out more about anything at the intersection of science and global health.
4) Maryn McKenna’s Superbug blog on Wired — the journalist/author focuses on drug-resistance, but also covers lots other global health topics, such as polio and food safety.
5) GlobalPost’s Global Pulse blog — this newish blog has a wonky slant, focusing on Obama’s Global Health Initiative.
6) Miller McCune – the three-year old site has a solid following in academia, government and journalism. It’s focus on providing policy solutions based on academic research often leads to interesting reporting on global health.
7) The Daily Beast – there are actually several writers and pundits on this site who cover international health (just not very often). Here are some: Danielle Shapiro, Kent Sepkowitz, Lisa Armstrong. Also senior writer Michelle Goldberg has written extensively about AIDS and reproductive health.