IN BELLUM VERITAS: POLITICS, THE MEDIA AND THE ROLE OF MEDICINE IN REDUCING INEQUALITIES

In this issue, various contributors, in one way and another, touch on issues both political and in relation to inequalities in health. In an Editorial, one of our Board Members, Nancy Milio, makes explicit the priorities of the US Bush Administration by unpicking its annual budget. What she demonstrates is stark and unsettling. Whereas war budgets have been increasing dramatically following the Iraq adventure, social programmes affecting the poorest in America and impacting on health continue to suffer. In Iraq itself, the promise to invest in healthcare has itself been dramatically eroded, and increasingly moralistic values override the evidence when it comes to public health matters such as HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy and the health of those engaged in the sex industry.
 See page 274

In Speaker’s Corner, Cambronero-Saiz draws our attention …