Health

Over the last three decades, public funding for global health organizations has dried up. Private companies are writing checks to fill the gap, and, accordingly, they are bending the agenda toward their interests. Realigning priorities, however, will mean getting more private firms involved, not less.

In their single-minded pursuit of economic growth, China's leaders have long overlooked public health -- which, by some measures, is now worse than under Mao. Despite recent reforms, China's citizens keep getting sicker, threatening the country's health-care system, the economy at large, and even the stability of the regime.

Once considered a scourge just on the affluent West, as the developing world grows wealthier and more sedentary, NCDs now loom as a serious public health concern in emerging markets as well. A conversation with UN official Ala Alwan.

Although cases of sexual violence have been undercounted during some wars, during others, such as the ongoing unrest in Libya, they have been vastly overcounted. To understand the real magnitude and impact of the problem, researchers and politicians need to be more careful about how they get their numbers and how they present them to the public.