Urban health
City Mayors investigates health issues affecting urban areas with an emphasis on health in cities in developing countries

American mayors declare
racism a public health crisis
September 2020: Public health in the United States is a shared responsibility of the federal, state, and local governments. In recent years, the local level has been the primary driver of changing perceptions of public health. Between May and August 2020, at least 51 cities and mayors and 23 counties in the US have officially declared racism a public health crisis. These local governments include some of the largest cities in the US, such as Los Angeles (population 4,016,000) and some of the smallest, such as Bloomfield, Connecticut (population 20,000). The focus on racism is the latest effort by local governments to expand the public’s understanding of the biological, environmental, and social factors that contribute to an individual’s physical and mental health. MORE

Urban planners must make
public health main priority
25 July 2012: As our society changes and develops, so too does our urban environment and the process of urban planning is, at present, in a state of flux. Central to the objectives of future planning needs to be an emphasis on public health. Urban planning and public health have long been intertwined, so intrinsically is human environment linked to well being. More

US debates use of marijuana
and its effect on urban areas
10 May 2012: President Obama’s trip to Colombia in April 2012 threw a spotlight on America’s drug policy. The presidents of Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala - countries that have seen limited returns for their inordinate sacrifices of human lives and financial resources to control the supply of illegal drugs - publicly chastised the United States for failing to curb its demand for drugs. The international focus on American drug policy has resurrected a debate within the US about the legalization of drugs, especially marijuana and how it may affect urban areas. More

Black barbershops offer
health care in US cities
2 January 2012: In cities across the United States, African-American barbers are receiving accolades, not for cutting hair, but for improving health outcomes for African-American men. Their barbershops are functioning as informal health clinics and challenging American notions about how health care is delivered. More

American abortion debate characterizes the
relationship between city, state and the Union
1 November 2011: Few issues in the United States are more polarizing than abortion - President Obama once called the opposing camps on abortion “irreconcilable” - yet it is difficult to find a mayor of a large American city that is entirely against abortion. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents usually disagree about taxation, policing, housing, social welfare, and other policies. But the right of a woman to choose her own method of reproductive health is something upon which, say, Republican Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego, Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray of Washington, DC, and Independent Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City all agree. More

Provision of health infrastructure vital to
economic development of growth cities
8 March 2011: Many Latin American countries are more than 70 per cent urban with numerous small and medium cites. By contrast, in Pakistan, the urban population stands at a little more than 30 per cent - with concentrated pressure placed on individual cities, starting with Karachi. This makes the importance of developing healthy urban spaces even greater. In other words, the health of Karachi's population carries the weight of the country's growth on its shoulders. More

Mexico City parliament votes decisively
for decriminalisation of early abortions
25 April 2007: Mexico City’s legislators have approved reforms to current abortion laws. Under the new legislation, abortions carried out during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy will no longer be a criminal offence. The new legislation focuses on the sexual and reproductive health of women and the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. City Mayors was told that the proposals are also designed to reduce mortality during pregnancy and childbirth as wells as death through back-street abortions. More

Nothing short of a complete overhaul
will cure America’s health care system
29 August 2006: The US is the only major industrialized country in the world without a national health program. The US health care system is market-based and relies primarily on private health insurers. Employers and individuals pay an insurance premium, to gain access to the network of health care providers. Employers in the US are not obligated to provide health insurance for their workers, and many do not because of rising costs. More

Number of women living with HIV
increases in all parts of the world
A new report released by UNAIDS and the WHO shows that the number of women living with HIV has risen in each region of the world over the past two years, with the steepest increases in East Asia, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia. In East Asia, there was a 56 per cent increase over the past two years, followed by Eastern Europe and Central Asia with 48 per cent. More

South Asians living in urban Britain
face increased risk of heart disease
Researchers at the British University of Manchester's Medical School, working with teams in India and Birmingham, have found that people moving from South Asia to UK cities significantly increase their risk of contracting cardiovascular disease (CVD). The British population has one of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease in the world, and people from the Indian subcontinent living in Britain are amongst the most susceptible to heart attacks and strokes. More

WHO calls for stronger cities to
help prevent Asian health crisis
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the health of city dwellers in the western Pacific region will suffer dramatically unless urgent measures are taken now to alleviate worsening environmental conditions. The western Pacific region includes countries such as Australia, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Hong Kong (China), Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Viet Nam. More

Rio de Janeiro to spend US$1 billion on
innovative slum improvement programme
Rio de Janeiro aims to invest a total US$1 billion in its internationally acclaimed ‘Favela-Bairro’ neighbourhood improvement programme, Rio city leaders told City Mayors at a seminar held at the Inter-American Development Bank’s Washington headquarters in October 2003. Favela-Bairro is the name given to a programme that brings basic infrastructure as well as municipal and social services to favelas, Rio's urban squatter settlements. More

Some 8,000 people
die of AIDS every day
It is estimated that 40 million people around the world are infected with HIV, and that the global AIDS epidemic shows no signs of abating. Five million people became infected with HIV worldwide and three million died in 2003 alone - that's 8,000 people every day. The World Health Organisation estimates that six million people worldwide are in immediate need of AIDS treatment. More

More than one billion people
call urban slums their home
More than one billion people live in slums, with the highest percentage of them found in Asia, Africa and Latin America, according to a new report by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. More