Sophie Cousins

Family planning experts are trying to promote alternatives to sterilisation, which is still the main method of contraception in the country. 

Published in The Guardian, 13/3/17.

The TB epidemic kills 1.8m people a year – fighting it requires huge social mobilisation on the scale of the battle against HIV/Aids.

Published in The Guardian, 5/2/17.

Myanmar has a high burden of tuberculosis, including multidrug resistant forms. New drugs might help, but only a few patients are currently receiving them. 

Published in The Lancet, 4/2/17.

As many as 5000 people may have been killed since June in the Philippine president's mission to eradicate drug use. I recently spoke with the country's health minister about this brutal approach.

Published in the BMJ, 28/11/16.

The state of Haryana is leading the fight against useless – and potentially harmful – remedies illegally peddled to pregnant women desperate for a boy.

Published in The Guardian, 27/10/16.

Tuberculosis kills three people per minute across the globe. While the global goal of ending the TB epidemic is admirable, it is questionable especially given declining funds.

Published in the LRB, 16/11/16.

Civic activism was supposed to save Burma. But a violent anti-drug squad is showing its dark side.

Published in Foreign Policy, 5/10/16. 

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.

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.

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

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.

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.