According to this article, it is common in Uganda to hear arguments that men rape women because women wear indecent clothing or invite men into their homes or drink late into the night with men or accept a ride home. Much less discussion focuses on the male’s responsibility. The author of the article examines an incident ofalleged rape reported in July 2011 in Uganda’s national media. The media and the public condemned the complainant as a reckless and oversexed con-woman, the author of this article notes. Ensuing debates and responses in the media since the story broke have implied that even as rape victims, women bear sole responsibility for protecting themselves. With regard to sexual violence against women in Uganda, the author concludes it is time men started seeing women as human beings and not sexualised objects.
Values, Policies and Rights
The authors of this article warn that new vaccines are likely to be more complex and expensive than those that have been used so effectively in the past, and they could have a multifaceted effect on the disease that they are designed to prevent, as has already been seen with pneumococcal conjugate vaccines. Deciding which new vaccines a country should invest in therefore requires not only sound advice from international organisations such as the world Health Organisation (WHO) but also a well-informed national immunisation advisory committee with access to appropriate data for local disease burden. The authors discuss how the introduction of vaccines might need modification of immunisation schedules and delivery procedures and they outline progressive methods to finance new vaccines in low-income countries.
This article reports on two women who died in the process of using or seeking maternal health services in Uganda. These cases are now subjects of a lawsuit filed in March by the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development, a Ugandan nonprofit group, who contend that the government violated the two women’s right to life by failing to provide them with basic maternal care. Dr. Olive Sentumbwe-Mugisa, a Ugandan obstetrician and adviser with the World Health Organization, participated in the Health Ministry’s investigations of the deaths of the women named in the lawsuit against the government concluded that both women arrived in time to be saved. “We are in a state of emergency as far as maternal services are concerned,” Dr. Sentumbwe-Mugisa said. “We need to focus on the quality of care in our hospitals and address it in the shortest period of time. That will mean more resources. We cannot run away from that.” While the attorney general’s office has responded that replied that “isolated acts” cited in the case “cannot be used to dim the untiring efforts in the Health Sector, ” the authors raise that the case has raised attention and debate, including amongst lawmakers, to the way government has spent its funds more widely, including on military equipment, given the poor improvement in maternal health services.
Human Rights Watch argues that migrants are also especially vulnerable to communicable disease because of substandard living environments, limited sanitation, and cultural and social dislocation, making them vital targets for public health surveillance and intervention. According to Department of Health policies, everyone in South Africa should have access to treatment for communicable disease without cost. Any barrier to prevention and treatment of communicable disease for vulnerable mobile and migrant populations is unwise from a public health perspective, but also a violation of South African and international law. South Africa has recognised the importance of access to health care for vulnerable and migrant populations in its laws and policy documents, yet continues to allow unlawful discrimination by health care staff, undermining efforts to contain disease and improve treatment outcomes. In over 100 interviews with migrants, advocates, health care and other service providers in both urban and border communities, Human Rights Watch found that South Africa’s failure to protect asylum seekers and refugees from deportation and violence leads both to increased disease and injury, and increased barriers to treatment for those conditions.
The author of this article examines the availability and strength of evidence on climate change, economics and health outcomes for policy makers to draw on in making health policy decisions. Eighteen available economic studies were included in the study. The author found that in those studies that put a value on the predicted increased mortality from climate change, the health damages represented an important fraction of overall economic losses. Equally health impacts were important in considering broader measures affecting the economics of climate change beyond the health sector such as agriculture and water supply. Global adaptation cost studies carried out so far indicate costs to the health sector of roughly US$2-5 billion annually (mid-estimates). However, these costs are argued to be an underestimate of the true costs, due to omitted health impacts, omitted economic impacts, and the costs of health actions in other sectors. No published studies compare the costs and benefits of specific health interventions to protect health from the negative effects of climate change. The authors suggest that until further climate change-specific economic studies have been conducted, decision makers should selectively draw on published studies of the costs and benefits of environmental health interventions.
This paper reports the results of an assessment of the mental health policies of Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia. The WHO Mental Health Policy Checklist was used to evaluate the most current mental health policy in each country. All four national policies addressed community-based services, the integration of mental health into general health care, promotion of mental health and rehabilitation. Only the Zambian policy presented a clear vision, with the other three countries spelling out values and principles, the need to establish a coordinating body for mental health, and to protect the human rights of people with mental health problems. None included all the basic elements of a policy, nor specified sources and levels of funding for implementation. Only Uganda sufficiently outlined a mental health information system, research and evaluation, while only Ghana comprehensively addressed human resources and training requirements. No country had an accompanying strategic mental health plan to allow the development and implementation of concrete strategies and activities. The authors recommend strengthening capacity of key stakeholders in public (mental) health and policy development, the creation of a culture of inclusive and dynamic policy development, and coordinated action to optimise use of available resources.
In this article, Horace Campbell charts Africa’s exploitative history of ‘aid’ and the struggle to establish a new global system rooted in dignity, equality and genuine social justice. Throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America the author argues that international capitalism has plundered the resources of the planet. Today, ‘international plunderers’ work with local African allies and sometimes their governments in extracting resources. The author argues that some African leaders have been compromised by their “development partners” and have remained silent in the face of intensified exploitation of Africa. The continued plunder of resources by oil companies and others has grown in this period, and observers have pointed to the constant interconnections between wars, violence and economics. Similarly, as Africans move into the twenty-first century there is increased interest in the genetic resources and fresh water of Africa, especially the water resources of the Congo River and its tributaries. Thus far there is not enough work on how this century will impact the lives of Africans.
This strategy is a detailed and comprehensive guide to how health sectors can most effectively tackle the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Data shows that the epidemic has been halted and that the spread of HIV is beginning to be reversed. New infections have fallen by almost 20% in the last ten years and between 2003 and 2009 there was a 13-fold increase in treatment coverage. However, in 2009 only a third of people in need of treatment received it and the demand for resources is still outstripping supply. The Strategy is intended to optimise progress towards universal access and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. It aims to promote tailored responses to national and regional epidemics and analyses the underlying socio-economic and cultural determinants contributing to the spread of the virus. The strategy seeks to reduce vulnerability and structural barriers to accessing good quality services. It also demonstrates how HIV programmes can play a role in broader health outcomes and recognises the importance of strong health and community systems to guarantee a sustainable response. WHO will make five key contributions to the Global Health Sector Strategy: scale up innovation in prevention; optimise treatment and care; support health for women and children; promote strategic health-sector information and planning; and provide leadership in addressing health equity and HIV (examining inequities in access to HIV services).
The Joint Meeting of SADC Ministers responsible for Youth and Ministers Responsible for Vulnerable Children was held in Windhoek, Namibia, from 1-3 June 2011. The meeting was attended by delegates from all SADC Member States, except Seychelles. It was convened to discuss common ways of addressing the increasing problems and concerns of vulnerable children and youth in the SADC Region which include diseases such as HIV and AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis; poverty; hunger and malnutrition; social and political conflicts; disability among children and youth; and the growing problems of pregnancy among teenagers and unemployment among the youth. Ministers adopted common plans and actions for the region that will help to accelerate the delivery of basic services and needs for vulnerable children and youth such as the provision of safe drinking water, health care, education and skills that enable youth to earn income and to create jobs for themselves, protection from abuse, and the provision of housing and family care. Other basic services include those relating to improving the capacity of children and youth to cope with the stresses of life, and to be able to live in harmony with others in society. Ministers agreed to set up the necessary structures required to fully implement their decisions and improve the lives of children and youth in the region. In order to address issues more effectively, they agreed that in future they would meet separately as Ministers responsible for children, and those responsible for youths. Before ending their meeting, Ministers agreed to meet again in 2012 to follow up progress on the implementation of their decisions.
According to this paper, the gap between practice and policy - those providing health services to migrants versus those making policies about migrants' entitlements - is increasingly evident. At the same time that clinicians are treating more diverse migrant groups, policy-makers are attempting to implement restrictive or exclusive immigration-related health policies that contradict public health needs and undermine medical ethics that operate on the ground. Policies that respond to the diversity of migrant groups and their differential health risks and service access must be developed and implemented, the authors of this paper argue. Moreover, to make real advances in the protection of both individual and public health, interventions must target each stage of the migration process and reach across borders. Services should be based on human rights principles that foster available and accessible care for individual migrants.