It is now commonly admitted that the so-called (most) neglected tropical diseases have been given little attention. According to World Health Organization, neglected diseases are hidden diseases as they affect almost exclusively extremely poor populations living in remote areas beyond the reach of health service. The European Parliament recognised that Neglected Diseases have not received the attention they deserve from EU actions or in the Millennium Development Goals. Investing in drugs for these diseases is thought to be not marketable or profitable. However, despite their low mortality, neglected diseases are causing severe and permanent disabilities and deformities affecting approximately 1 billion people in the world, yielding more than 20 millions of Disability Adjusted Life Years (56.6 million according to Lancet's revised estimates) and important socio-economic losses. Urgent pragmatic and efficient measures are needed both at international and national levels.
Equity in Health
Social networks have been a central focus of sociological research on inequalities but less has focused specifically on chronic illness and disability despite a policy emphasis on resources necessary to support self-management. This seeks to unpack overlaps and distinctions between social network approaches and research on the experience and management of chronic illness. It outlines four main areas viewed as central in articulating the potential for future work consistent with a critical realist perspective: (1) body–society connections and realist/relativist tensions; (2) the controversy of ‘variables’ and accounting for social and cultural context in studying networks for chronic illness support; (3) conceptualising social support, network ties and the significance of organizations and technology; and (4) translating theory into method.
Income inequality is widely assumed to be a major contributor to poorer health at national and subnational levels. According to this assumption, the most appropriate policy strategy to improve equity in health is income redistribution. This paper considers reasons why tackling income inequality alone could be an inadequate approach to reducing differences in health across social classes and other population subgroups, and makes the case that universal social programs are critical to reducing inequities in health. A health system oriented around a strong primary care base is an example of such a strategy.
MHEN held a National Forum on 22nd and 23rd November 2007 at Lilongwe Hotel. It brought together a network of policy makers and practitioners who work in the field of health services delivery. The forum explored the challenges in health services delivery in a non-industrialised country with limited resources.
Visualizing inequalities in health at the world scale is not easily achieved from tables of mortality rates. Maps that show rates using a colour scale often are less informative than many map-readers realize. For instance, a country with a very small land area receives less attention, whereas a large, sparsely populated area on a map is more obvious. Furthermore, unlike our visual ability to compare the lengths of bars in a chart, we do not have a natural aptitude for translating different colours or shades to the magnitudes they represent. Here we introduce another approach to mapping the world that can be useful for illustrating inequalities in health. This article looks at various ways of mapping and visualising global health statistics.
The relationship between AIDS and poverty has more to do with inequality than poverty per se. The relationship between socioeconomic status and HIV varies considerably from country to country, reflecting differences in culture and traditions. Effective actions to tackle AIDS must directly address these specific factors—the inequalities—that drive HIV transmission in different contexts, and must overcome the obstacles to accessing treatment in different groups. It is crucial to place AIDS squarely at the centre of all socio-economic development, and provide long-term, high-level domestic and international investment in HIV prevention and treatment in the world's poorest countries.
Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals is likely to be compromised if inequities in health/ healthcare are not properly addressed. This study attempts to assess trends in inequities in selected indicators of health status and health service utilisation in Malawi using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys of 1992, 2000 and 2004. The widening trend in inequities, in particular healthcare utilisation for proven cost-effective interventions is likely to jeopardize the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and other national and regional targets. To counteract the inequities it is recommended that coverage in poor communities be increased through appropriate targeting mechanisms and effective service delivery strategies. There is also a need for studies to identify which service delivery mechanisms are effective in the Malawian context.
Gender differentials in health related risks and outcomes are partly determined by biological sex differences. Yet they are also the result of how societies socialise women and men into gender roles. The paper draws together evidence that identifies and explains what gender inequality and inequity mean in terms of differential exposures and vulnerabilities for women versus men, and also how health care systems and health research reproduce these inequalities and inequities instead of resolving them.
The health disparities between rich and poor in the developing world are so stark that reforms premised on "equal access" are inadequate, declared Werner Christie, Counsellor, Science and Technology, Norwegian Embassy, People's Republic of China and former minister of health of Norway. To be most effective, policies should be based on "disparate access," said Christie, speaking at Forum 11, the annual meeting of the Global Forum for Health Research, which this year focuses on equitable access. Such an approach would grant priority to the disadvantaged people who need help most, he said.
The world is likely to fail to meet the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals related to health, the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday at a global forum on health research for poor nations. A rise in funding for research into communicable diseases has not been matched by the power of health systems to deliver, in part because of the failure of governments to invest in the sector, said Margaret Chan.