Sophie Cousins

A lot of progress has been made towards combating HIV/AIDS but can we end the epidemic by 2030? 

Published in the London Review of Books, 29/7/16.

Child marriage is common in Nepal but the government hopes a new, multipronged strategy can end the practice by 2030.

Published in The Lancet, 4/6/16.

What if you could use drones to transport contraception and life-saving medicines to the world's most remote places?

Published in NPR, 19/5/16.

India aims to announce the elimination of lymphatic filariasis by the end of this year. But some experts believe it is not on track to do so. 

Published in The Lancet, 21/5/16.

India has an estimated 2.5 million medical “quacks.” Can they be trained to do no harm?

Published in Medium, 9/3/16.

At a hospital in Bangalore, doctors and nurses are being trained in a safer, quicker abortion procedure and how to better support the women in their care

Published in The Guardian, 9/3/16.

Sitting in the blistering sun as she cradles her 2-month-old baby, Genet Tamisat is one of hundreds of mothers waiting to have their children checked for malnutrition, as Ethiopia faces its worst drought in decades.

Published in USA Today, 13/3/16

FGM: girl-children of Dawoodi Bohra sect are the only Muslim women in India systematically and forcefully mutilated.

Published on Al Jazeera English, 1/3/16.

Experts believe that organ trafficking increased in Nepal after last year's earthquake, with brokers targeting vulnerable people who lost their homes and livelihoods. 

Published in The Lancet, 27/2/16.

Assam has almost double the national average maternal mortality rate. Why, and what can be done? 

Published in the BMJ, 5/4/16.

Even before last year's earthquakes, Nepal had one of the world's highest rates of suicide. Reporting from Kathmandu, Sophie Cousins, explores the reasons behind the trend.

Published in The Lancet, 02/01/16

If you've ever been vaccinated, you may have seen the nurse head out of the room to go to the refrigerator to retrieve your injection. That's because most vaccines must be refrigerated during travel and storage or they lose their effectiveness.

Published in NPR on 23/11/15

Universal health coverage is considered one of the key targets of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that were set in stone in New York in September. But just how feasible is it in a country like India?

Important questions have been raised over India’s ability to deliver UHC in a country of more than 1.2 billion, when it only spends just over 1 percent of its gross domestic product on health.

Published in  Devex on 26/11/15.

The blistering afternoon sun beats down on my face. Normally by this time of day in May, dark clouds would be gathering, preparing for an almighty downpour. But there are no clouds in sight.

The lush-green, perfectly manicured tea plants extend as far as my eyes can see. Women wearing woven bamboo hats are dotted around the plantation, plucking leaves and putting them in baskets attached to their backs. The work looks gruelling in this heat.

And there’s trouble brewing in the plantations of India’s north-eastern state of Assam – the world’s largest tea-growing region, famous for producing strong breakfast tea.

Published in New Scientist, 12/06/2015.

As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year this month, doctors and public health experts highlight the major health problems and the actions needed to address them. Sophie Cousins reports.

Published in The Lancet, 14/03/15.

India's efforts to tackle visceral leishmaniasis are producing positive results but will the country reach its target of elimination by the end of 2015? Sophie Cousins reports from Bihar.

Banana plantations and palm trees line the gravel, pot-holed narrow road to Narayanpur village in Vaishali district, Bihar, India's poorest state. It's a couple of hours from Patna, Bihar's grimy capital city. In Narayanpur, like other villages in Bihar, huts are made from mud; the floors are earthen and people sleep on the floor in close proximity to their livestock. Such conditions are ideal for sandflies to breed.

Published in The Lancet, 02/05/2015.

Kalai, like many other villages in Bangladesh, appears a rural idyll at first sight. But several villagers here have resorted to selling organs to pay back microcredit loans that were meant to lift them out of poverty. Journalist Sophie Cousins reports on an alarming consequence of the microfinance revolution.

Published in the BBC, 28/10/2013.

With no jobs and no way out, some Palestinian and Syrian refugees turn to “survival sex” -- or are forced to do so.

Published in The Atlantic, 26/09/2013.