According to this article, placing essential medicines at the centre of global health priorities is not without its risks. The geography of access is closely linked to other structural determinants of inequality, few of which can be fixed merely by providing a pipeline of medicines. Access to essential medicines is therefore a necessary condition but is not sufficient on its own for the amelioration of broad health disparities in global health. On the other hand, to truly engage the social factors that determine the development, production, regulation, distribution, utilisation and consumption of essential medicines is to engage with the project of understanding health disparities and the challenges of strengthening health systems at the most detailed level. As essential medicines programmes continue to expand, this article argues that it is crucial that they have the resources and leadership to realise this vision in the broadest sense possible.
Equitable health services
A consortium of AIDS organisations has given the South African government three months to deliver on promises to integrate tuberculosis (TB) and HIV services. A local AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), international medical charity Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), a regional partnership of non-governmental organisations, were among civil society groups that issued the deadline at the South African TB Conference in Durban, which took place from 1–4 June 2010. MSF spokesperson Lesley Odendal called the three-month deadline 'generous' because TB and HIV care should have been integrated by 1 April 2010, according to newly adopted national antiretroviral (ARV) treatment guidelines, but the Department of Health has yet to issue an implemention plan. TAC Deputy Secretary General, Lihle Dlamini, noted that integrating TB and HIV care would lead to earlier diagnosis of TB, especially strains of the disease occurring outside the lungs, which are common in co-infected patients. It would also help health workers become more familiar with the potentially severe interactions between antiretroviral (ARV) and TB drugs.
Most cases of gender-based violence (GBV) reported to the Nairobi Gender Violence Recovery Centre between April 2009 and March 2010 occurred in the capital's city centre, according to the centre's annual report, which also recorded an increase in gang rapes. 'A disturbing trend of GBV in the reported year is the continued number of gang rapes where the number of perpetrators per act increased from [a range of] 2-11 [perpetrators] to 2-20,' Teresa Omondi, the centre's executive director said. The centre, at the Nairobi Women's Hospital, registered 2,487 GBV survivors between April 2009 and March 2010, 52% (1,285) of whom were women, 45% (1,125) children and 3% men (77). According to the centre, neighbours topped the list of perpetrators named by survivors. Husbands and friends came second and third. Others included boyfriends, fathers, other relatives (uncles, aunts and cousins), house helps, teachers and classmates.
The objective of this study is to measure socio-economic inequalities in access to maternal health services in Namibia and propose recommendations relevant for policy and planning. Data from the Namibia Demographic and Health Survey 2006-07 was analysed for inequities in the utilisation of maternal health. Regions with relatively high human development index were found to have the highest rates of delivery by skilled health service providers. The rate of caesarean section in women with post secondary education is about seven times that of women with no education. Women in urban areas are delivered by skilled providers 30% more than their rural counterparts. High-income households use the public health facilities 30% more than poor households for child delivery. The paper concludes that, in the presence of inequities, it is difficult to achieve a significant reduction in the maternal mortality ratio needed to realise the Millennium Development Goal 5 targets. This is not achievable if a large segment of society has inadequate access to essential maternal health services and other basic social services.
This study sought to identify the leading causes of mortality and premature mortality in Cape Town, South Africa, and its subdistricts, and to compare levels of mortality between subdistricts. It analysed Cape Town mortality data for the period 2001–2006 by age, cause of death and sex. The study found that the pattern of mortality in Cape Town reflects the quadruple burden of disease observed in the national cause-of-death profile, with AIDS, other infectious diseases, injuries and non-communicable diseases all accounting for a significant proportion of deaths. AIDS has replaced homicide as the leading cause of death. AIDS, homicide, tuberculosis and road traffic injuries accounted for 44% of all premature mortality. Khayelitsha, the poorest subdistrict, had the highest levels of mortality for all main cause groups. The study emphasises how local mortality surveillance helps to map out the differential needs of the population of Cape Town. Data used in the study may provide a wealth of data to inform planning and implementation of targeted interventions. Multisectoral interventions will be required to reduce the burden of disease.
The objective of this study was to assess primary health care (PHC) facility infrastructure and services, and the nutritional status of 0 to 71-month-old children and their caregivers attending PHC facilities in the Eastern Cape (EC) and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provinces in South Africa. Structured interviewer-administered questionnaires and an anthropometric survey were administered. Of the 40 PHC facilities, 14 had been built or renovated after 1994. Only a quarter of PHC facilities had access safe drinking water and fewer had operational telephones. According to more than 80% of the nurses, problems with basic resources and existing cultural practices influenced the quality of services. Few households reported that they had enough food at all times, while the reported prevalence of diarrhoea was high at 34–38%. The study concluded that problems regarding infrastructure, basic resources and services adversely affected PHC service delivery and the well-being of rural people, and therefore need urgent attention.
The 63rd World Health Assembly raised concern that access globally to blood products is unequal and that access to these products by developing countries needs to be escalated. A major factor limiting the global availability of plasma-derived medicinal products is an inadequate supply of plasma meeting internationally recognised standards for fractionation, usually in developing countries, which lack blood components separation technology and fractionation capacity. The resolution of the Assembly calls for good practices to be implemented in recruiting voluntary healthy blood and plasma donors from low-risk donor populations and in testing and processing to be covered by relevant, reliable quality-assurance systems. Stringent regulatory control is vital in assuring the quality and safety of blood products, as well as of related in vitro diagnostic devices, and special effort will be needed to strengthen globally the technical capacity of regulatory authorities to assure the appropriate control worldwide.
The fight against tuberculosis (TB) is argued to have failed children: the share of paediatric TB is increasing, and children have not escaped the rising tide of drug-resistant strains, according to new research presented at the South African TB Conference, which was held from 1–4 June 2010. Dr Ntombi Mhlongo-Sigwebela, TB programme director at the University Research Company, a public health consultancy, told the conference in Durban that TB in children under four years of age now accounted for about 9% of all national TB cases annually. Dr Kalpesh Rahevar, a World Health Organization (WHO) medical officer, said inconclusive conventional TB skin tests (to determine whether a patient has a latent TB infection) and the inability to get sputum samples from young children made paediatric TB more difficult to diagnose and treat than in adults. Paediatric drug formulations and international treatment guidance for children were also inadequate, said Dr Ben Marais of the University of Stellenbosch, in Western Cape Province.
In this paper, a simple method based on the end-user as the denominator was employed to classify individuals into one of four insecticide-treated net (ITN) use categories: living in households not owning an ITN; living in households owning, but not hanging an ITN; living in households owning and hanging an ITN, but who are not sleeping under one; and sleeping under an ITN. This framework was applied to survey data designed to evaluate distribution of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) following integrated campaigns in five African countries, including Madagascar and Kenya. The study found that the percentage of children <5 years of age sleeping under an ITN ranged from 51.5% in Kenya to 81.1% in Madagascar. Among the three categories of non-use, children living in households without an ITN make up largest group, despite the efforts of the integrated child health campaigns. The percentage of children who live in households that own but do not hang an ITN ranged from 5.1% to 16.1%. The percentage of children living in households where an ITN was suspended, but who were not sleeping under it ranged from 4.3% to 16.4%. Use by all household members in Madagascar (60.4%) indicate that integrated campaigns reach beyond their desired target populations. The framework outlined in this paper may provide a helpful tool to examine the deficiencies in ITN use. Monitoring and evaluation strategies designed to assess ITN ownership and use can easily incorporate this approach using existing data collection instruments that measure the standard indicators.
The Perinatal Mental Health Project in Cape Town, which offers counselling to mothers throughout their pregnancy, is playing a role by tackling depression in the initial stages of the pregnancy. While most programmes only tackle cases of depression among pregnant women after the birth of the baby, the Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP) at the University of Cape Town intervenes during the early stages of pregnancy. Simone Honikman, director of the project said severe cases of depression could be treated more successfully if detected early. According to PMHP, South Africa’s postnatal depression (PND) prevalence is three times that in developed countries. For over eight years the PMHP has screened about 8,000 pregnant women for mental health conditions, while up to 1 234 women have been counselled as part of this free service. The PMHP model is one of integration. Mental health care is provided on site together with antenatal care services. This means that the mothers needing help can access this service at the same service point where they receive other health care related to the pregnancy.