Many gross health inequalities that exist between and within countries have social factors at the root. This Lancet article introduces the independent Commission on Social Determinants of Health, set up by WHO, and consisting of prominent figures in politics, research, and social action. Within 3 years the Commission aims to understand the societal factors that influence health and use this knowledge to develop policies to improve health. In a comment paper, Lee Jong-wook argues that public health begins with the recognition of the need for favourable social conditions, and that neglect of such factors undermines health efforts.
Equity in Health
Introducing the Commission on Social Determinants of Health
Measles deaths worldwide drop by nearly 40% over five years
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have announced that countries are on target to halve deaths from measles, a leading vaccine-preventable killer, by the end of this year. Global measles deaths have plummeted by 39%, from 873 000 in 1999 to an estimated 530 000 in 2003. The largest reduction occurred in Africa, the region with the highest burden of the disease, where estimated measles deaths decreased by 46%.
World TB Day 2005: Development of diagnostic tools key for fighting TB
Without a simple, rapid test for detecting tuberculosis, care providers in developing countries will continue to miss about half of all the people who need TB treatment. Efforts to control TB globally will be undermined, said the medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières. "I am sick and tired of watching TB kill my patients," said Dr Martha Bedelu, an MSF physician working in South Africa. It often feels as though I practice medicine with my hands tied behind my back. Since I have to use a 19th-century diagnostic tool that is wrong more times than not, it is like being blindfolded as well."
Experts meet on reproductive health
Experts from southern Africa have gathered in Namibia to discuss critical reproductive health challenges in the sub-region and formulate strategies to address them. About 200 delegates will carve out a comprehensive reproductive health component, to be incorporated into the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) framework on related health issues.
Global Health Watch 2005 set for release
Under-nutrition seems to be inexplicable in a world where the food market ascends to the 11% of the global trade and food prices have declined over the last years. Nevertheless it is one of the most important causes of illness and death globally as well as a key factor in poverty reproduction. This is according to a chapter in the Global Health Watch 2005 report. The chapter looks at the underlying causes of under and over nourishment both in developing and developed countries as directly related to the globalisation and liberalisation processes that have been taken place in the last decades. You can read the newsletter of the Global Health Watch and find out how to subscribe through the link below.
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Harare central hospital in need of care
Lack of finance has left the Harare Central hospital, one of Zimbabwe's major referral centres, on the verge of collapse. The superintendent of the 1,428-bed hospital, Chris Tapfumaneyi, told IRIN, "Most of our machines are obsolete and cannot be repaired - some of them have been like this for the past 10 years".
Nutrition Key for Success in Anti-Retroviral Therapy
The Mozambican Association of Doctors in the Fight Against AIDS (MCS) has warned that the poor quality of the diet of many HIV-positive people, who are receiving anti-retroviral drugs, is a motive for serious concern. The MCS warns that poor nutrition risks undermining anti- retroviral treatment.
Treating severe malnutrition: implementing clinical guidelines in South African hospitals
According to the World Health Organisation malnutrition is associated with about 60 percent of deaths in children under five years old in the developing world. The WHO has developed guidelines to improve the quality of hospital care for malnourished children in order to reduce deaths. The guidelines suggest ten steps for routine management of severe malnourishment. These will require most hospitals to make substantial changes. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, together with the University of the Western Cape, and the Health Systems Trust, South Africa conducted a study in two hospitals - Mary Theresa and Sipetu - in rural Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The study was designed to assess the extent to which the guidelines have been implemented and whether they have reduced fatality rates among children diagnosed with severe malnutrition.
Alarm at flight of health workers
Wealthy countries "deliberately" enlist doctors and nurses from poor nations, costing developing states US $500 million a year in lost training, Ndioro Ndiaye, deputy director-general of the International Organisation for Migration, said. According to Ndiaye, the UK drafted more than 8,000 nurses and midwives from outside of Europe in the year 2000. This was in addition to the 30,000 hired over previous years. Some 21,000 Nigerian doctors were working in the US the same year, while there were more doctors from Benin working in France than in their own country, she said.
Articles criticising nevirapine may endanger babies' lives
Three articles published by the Associated Press in mid-December criticising the conduct of a trial of the antiretroviral drug nevirapine in Uganda are threatening to undermine its use in newborn babies in developing countries, according to South African experts. A single dose of the drug given to mothers while in labour and to their babies at the time of birth is known to greatly reduce transmission of HIV from mother to child. The articles, which appeared in newspapers and were broadcast on radio stations in the United States, Britain, South Africa, and many other countries, made allegations about a trial that was conducted from 1997 to 1999 in Uganda by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and subsequently published.