WHO Video: Financing Health Care
This is a very general video by the WHO that comments on the need for countries to develop health care systems that they, and their citizens, can afford.
“Governments worldwide are struggling to pay for health care. As populations get older, as more people suffer chronic diseases, and as new and more expensive treatments appear, health costs soar. Every year, health bills push 100 million people into poverty each year. WHO’s report ‘On the Path to Universal Coverage’ takes evidence from all over the world to show how all countries, rich and poor, can adjust their health financing mechanisms so more people get the health care they need.”
Global Health News Last Week
SECTION NEWS
The 2011 IH Section award winners have been announced!
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Henry Mosley
- Mid-Career Award: Neil Arya
- Service to Section Award: Donna Barry
- Gordon Wyon Award: John Bryant
Congratulations to this year’s awardees! They will be honored at the section social on Monday night of this year’s Annual Meeting, so don’t miss it!
July 11 was World Population Day. In honor of WPD this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a greater focus on providing improved health to mothers and children.
POLITICS AND POLICY
- Last week, a United States federal appeals court overturned a George W. Bush-era “anti-prostitution pledge” that required all organizations that receive US funds to fight HIV and AIDS to adopt a formal position condemning prostitution and trafficking.
- Uganda’s legislative body has passed a bill that will criminalize  the intentional spread of HIV/AIDS.
- An in-depth report by Gregg  Carlstrom for Al Jazeera examines the state of the new Republic  of South Sudan’s health systems. Future plans appear to be in the right direction, but the present health situation is dire for the newly established
country. - U.S. officials are defending  the CIA’s use of a vaccination program in the hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden amid concerns from international aid groups that the operation  could compromise future public health efforts in Pakistan. The CIA orchestrated a hepatitis vaccination program in the city of Abbottabad in a bid to collect DNA evidence to help identify the location of bin Laden family members.
- A growing reluctance from donor countries to provide funds to help ever-wealthier China battle HIV/AIDS will adversely affect efforts against the disease’s spread, says Michel Sidibe, head of UNAIDS.
PROGRAMS
- The Medicines Patent Pool, established by UNITAID to share drug patents, has just received its first contribution from Gilead Sciences. This will allow Indian generics companies to make cheap copies of some of the best HIV/AIDS drugs.
RESEARCH
- A new study has shown that ARVs taken by women with HIV/AIDS may have an effect on fertility.
- The United Nations praised a study showing that the use of ARVs by people with HIV can reduce chance of infection between partners by 73%.
- Mosquitoes are growing increasingly resistant to pyrethroids, the only insecticides approved by the WHO for use on bednets.
- HIV/AIDS drugs can be used to provide additional protection against infection as well as for treatment of those already affect by the disease, according to results of two studies conducted in Africa.
- Researchers in Tanzania are developing a device that uses the scent of malodorous human socks to attract mosquitoes in the wild, then poisons them. Donations of $775,000 announced today by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada are intended to reduce the global infection rate of malaria by producing an affordable outdoor trap ranging in cost from between $4 and $27.
- A new study says that an inexpensive de-worming pill can help people become deadly to malaria-carrying mosquitoes, but for the pill to work, nearly everyone in a community would have to take the pill at the same time — and repeat monthly. The drug reduces insect lifespan, helping against malaria because only the older mosquitoes can transmit it.
DISEASES AND DISASTERS
- The World Health Organization says the world is better prepared for the next influenza pandemic. The centerpiece of the plan is to strengthen the capacity of manufacturers to provide enough vaccines to immunize the world’s population against influenza.
- The WHO has certified that Uganda has successfully eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus.
- According to a report published in March 2011 by the United Nations Environment Programme, only two in every five people in the Southern Africa have access to safe water for drinking and household use. Three quarters of those lacking access, live in rural areas and the majority of these are women and children.
- The CDC has expressed concern over the recently discovered strain of gonorrhea in Japan that is resistant to all present antibiotic treatments.
- Drug manufacturers, government representatives and pharmacists from six countries in East Africa have estimated that as much as 30 percent of all drugs on the market are either of very poor quality or counterfeit medicines.
- A lack of financial support and political will are contributing to the upsurge of measles in 33 countries. In an video interview, Andrea Gay at Measles Initiative, explains the different reasons for measles outbreaks in the developing and developed countries.
- The number of children facing death by starvation in Somalia has almost doubled since March and the country’s child malnutrition rate is now the highest in the world, the International Committee of the Red Cross warns. Aid agencies have struggled to reach Somalis affected by drought due to security concerns across the conflict-ravaged country.
Systems Sciences for Health Systems Strengthening: Invitation to Join New IH Working Group
Greetings, friends and colleagues.
The purpose of this message is to invite you to join a new working group within the international section of the American Public Health Association (APHA): ‘Systems Sciences for Health Systems Strengthening.’ Please forward this invite to any and all interested parties. We hope that you will advertise this group widely on the various listservs and newsletters that you manage.
As most of you know better than we do, the importance of health systems strengthening is increasingly recognized. However, health systems are incredibly complex, and there does not seem to be a consensus on the way forward. The so-called systems sciences provide unique approaches and methods to consider unintended consequences, delayed effects, and high-leverage points to strengthen health systems. You can learn more about the need for this working group, and our objectives and plans on this Google document.
We are very excited about the potential that this group will have in providing opportunities for collaboration, networking and advocacy at the interface of research, policy and practice of strengthening health systems in developed and developing countries. We hope that you will consider joining us; you don’t need to be a member of the APHA. If you are interested in the group, please join this Linkedin Group.
Best Regards,
Chad Swanson, DO, MPH
Brigham Young University
Working Group Chair
Kaja Abbas, PhD
University of Rochester
Working Group Co-Chair
Save the Date: Fourth Annual Pediatric Global Health Symposium (Philadelphia, PA)
From the brochure (PDF):
Effective interventions in pediatric global health have been critical in improving the lives of children throughout the world. Experts in childhood diseases, health systems and public health have worked closely together since the birth of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 to change the landscape of pediatric global health. Their successes are innovative, impressive and evidence-based.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were adopted by world leaders in September 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015. They provide concrete, numerical benchmarks to attack extreme poverty in its many dimensions. MDG 4 (reduce under-5 child mortality) and MDG 5 (improve maternal health) are of particular importance to the health of the world’s most vulnerable population: children. A child born in a developing country is more than 13 times more likely to die within the first five years of life than a child from an industrialized country. The top five causes of death in children under 5 — malaria, neonatal causes, lower respiratory infections, measles and diarrhea — are all preventable, and yet 8 million children still die
every year before they reach their fifth birthday.
To date, the world has made significant progress in achieving the MDGs, but there is much work to be done. Child deaths are falling, but not quickly enough. Efforts to revitalize programs combatting pneumonia and diarrhea, and those seeking to improve nutrition could save millions of children, but must still be brought to scale in many countries.
This symposium will communicate and inform pediatric health professionals on the successful efforts of international organizations and global health experts to reduce the global burden of pediatric deaths. Necessary next steps to achieving the  MDGs will also be highlighted.
The call for posters can be found here.
IH CONNECT 