Highlights of the week
Lancet – Global, regional, and national age–sex specific all-cause and cause-specific mortality for 240 causes of death, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013
GBD 2013 Mortality and Causes of Death Collaborators;
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61682-2/abstract
It’s not always we can start this newsletter with great news but the
Global life expectancy increased by 5.8 years in men and 6.6 years in women between 1990 and 2013, according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. However, some causes of death ran counter to these trends and have seen increased rates of death since 1990, including: liver cancer caused by hepatitis C, atrial fibrillation and flutter, drug use disorders, chronic kidney disease, sickle cell disorders, diabetes, and pancreatic cancer.
Tom Paulson (on Humanosphere)
summarized the report in a very neat way (for the ones among you with little time); ‘
Cause-of-death study shows progress – albeit unequal– and big red flags’. (one of the interesting remarks from Murray himself: ““
This is telling us that rather than seeing convergence, in many cases we are actually diverging”.
Lancet Comment – Global health metrics needs collaboration and competition
Igor Rudan et al. ;
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62006-7/fulltext
IHME and WHO should keep each other sharp. Let’s hope that will be the case, Rudan et al argue, as nobody wants a new global health metrics monopoly. “
The GBD initiative has emerged as a well-organised and rapidly growing collaboration that is now seriously challenging WHO's role in generating global health estimates. WHO maintains its position for several key strengths, for which it benefits from collaboration with affiliated groups of external academics. However, it will need to rethink its own role and massively scale up its capacity to generate global health estimates to remain competitive. WHO's indecision over investment in global health metrics, or over the role it should have in the long term, will help the GBD collaboration to gain widespread support for its estimates. Idleness by WHO might even lead to a new monopoly in global health metrics, with the centre of activity moving from Geneva to Seattle. Such a scenario might again simplify global health politics but, in the absence of healthy competition, science could be the poorer.”
Check out also a
Lancet Correspondence (with C Murray involved), ‘
A comparison of maternal mortality estimates from GBD 2013 and WHO’. As Murray was a co-author, you can imagine the gist of the Letter.
Plos (Policy Forum) – From Joint Thinking to Joint Action: A Call to Action on Improving Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Maternal and Newborn Health
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001771
Yael Velleman and colleagues argue for stronger integration between the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and maternal and newborn health sectors. The Post-2015 development framework is an opportunity for a stronger, more inter-sectoral response to the MNH challenge, and the goals and targets aimed at maximizing healthy lives and increasing access to quality health care should adequately embed WASH targets and success indicators.
List of 100 women leaders in global health
http://graduateinstitute.ch/files/live/sites/iheid/files/sites/globalhealth/ghp-new/news/2014/100%20Women%20in%20Global%20Health.pdf
On November 5, 2014, Ilona Kickbusch, Director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, launched a Twitter campaign aimed at showcasing female leadership in global health. Using the hashtag #wgh100, Twitter users sent nominations of women working at the forefront of global health all around the world. The following list is a compilation of the first 100 women nominated in just 26 days. They are ordered alphabetically by surname. A second list is in the making.
Now I guess the male leaders in global health should come up with something similar. Being alpha males, we don’t do ‘alphabetical lists’ and neither does one spot suffice for the egos and visionary global health leadership of some grand men – so here we go for the first entries:
- Bill Gates. 2. Bill Gates. 3. Bill Gates. 4. Julio Frenk. 5. Julio Frenk. 6. Julio Frenk. 7. Larry Summers. 8. Larry Summers 9. Larry Summers. (etc) …
(
oh – and I forgot Jeff Sachs who probably needs a competition for himself – Jeff keeps retweeting tweets from other people saying how smart his analyses are. If Sachs doesn’t manage to make our world more sustainable, at least he’ll leave a sustainable legacy as an über (or is it Uber?) alpha male).
BMC International and human rights – From international health to global health: how to foster a better dialogue between empirical and normative disciplines
Gorik Ooms;
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-698X/14/36
Absolute must-read, whether you work in Geneva (WHO), at ITM, or anywhere else. “
Although a single common paradigm for all scientific disciplines that contribute to global health research may not be possible or desirable, global health researchers with a background in empirical disciplines and global health researchers with a background in normative disciplines could present their ‘truths’ in ways that would improve dialogue. This paper calls for an exchange of views between global health researchers and editors of medical journals.” (if you’re the head of a global health institute, you might even want to read it twice, especially in this Christmas period, with Band Aid 30 playing in the backdrop).
Ebola
For the separate Ebola section, see below. Here we already flag:
- Coverage & press releases of last week’s WHO high-level meeting on boosting health system resilience in Ebola-affected countries in Geneva. See WHO and BMJ news. (and below Horton’s Offline)
- As if the situation wasn’t bad enough, mass hunger now also threatens Ebola affected countries. “500,000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are going hungry and another half million people could join them if food supplies do not improve”, UN agencies reported this week.
Lancet (Offline ) –Offline: Can Ebola be a route to nation-building?
Richard Horton;
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62387-4/fulltext
Horton’s account of the High-Level meeting in Geneva last week. Great read. Among others for this paragraph: “
WHO has been criticised for being slow to respond to the Ebola outbreak. Autopsies of the global response will surely deliver many useful lessons. But a fair record should show that WHO is now maximally engaged not only in ending this epidemic but also in using it as an opportunity to change the course of history for health systems and nation-states. If WHO was slow to start—the agency admits this freely—it is today working in overdrive, as any conversation with exhausted agency staff will quickly reveal. Margaret Chan, WHO's Director-General, knows that Ebola has become a litmus test for her agency's effectiveness.”
Can we go from a humanitarian crisis to an unexpected societal dividend? The next 6 months will tell…
Lancet (Editorial) – Ebola: protection of health-care workers
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62413-2/fulltext
“
The Ebola outbreak in west Africa has taken a substantial toll on health-care workers in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—not only doctors and nurses, but also other cadres including ambulance drivers, hospital cleaners, and burial team members. More than 600 of the nearly 17 000 cases of Ebola virus disease have been in health-care workers, more than half of them fatal. In today's issue of The Lancet we pay tribute to several of the health workers who have lost their lives to the disease since the outbreak began a year ago. Many of the doctors who have died were medical educators in their nations, representing a tragic loss for the next generation of health workers in Africa.”
See also the
Lancet Obituary –
Remembering health workers who died from Ebola in 2014.
IHP (two part communication): ‘At the epicenter of the Ebola crisis: Africa’s response – good, bad, not nearly enough or still too early to tell?’ & ‘A Preliminary Assessment of the African Ebola response’
Nana Yaa Boadu et al.;
http://www.internationalhealthpolicies.org/at-the-epicenter-of-the-ebola-crisis-africas-response-good-bad-not-nearly-enough-or-still-too-early-to-tell/
http://www.internationalhealthpolicies.org/a-preliminary-assessment-of-the-african-ebola-response/
In a two-part communication, Emerging Voices explore a key question: how about Africa’s Ebola response so far? The first part is a rough mapping, the second part a preliminary assessment/analysis.
What are strengths & merits, flaws, mitigating circumstances, … ? Is there an African equivalent of the jockeying & positioning of global health institutions and stakeholders? And how about nations like Ethiopia? … While keeping in mind that this is like chasing a moving target – the situation changes near daily, as well as the response – and based on fragmentary information, feedback and your own analysis of the African response so far are certainly welcome under
blog 2 ‘Preliminary assessment…’.
Universal Health Coverage Day
Last week we already paid quite some attention to UHC Day. Here we flag just some other pieces (including a report) published on that day, and well worth reading. Check out also the African
platform for UHC.
- Resyst – Ten arguments for why gender should be a central focus for universal health coverage advocates (see here )
- Jonathan Jay on Devex – ‘Partnering to make UHC a reality’ (see here ) (must-read) Among others, he argues for a global UHC platform which would help align resources, share knowledge, and advocate new policies and investments.
- “The world needs free health care for all, says ex-NHS boss” (Guardian Global Development Professionals network )
- Jeff Lazarus – “UHC day whaddayasay”. Blog with a title that seems to come straight out of the Flintstones, but a very nice blog indeed. “On the first Universal Health Coverage Day, and alongside our new report of pathways to progress in health, Jeffrey Lazarus celebrates the importance of the day and looks at the exploration of progress as paving the way for more ambitious thinking about the practicalities of universal health coverage.” You find this report, ‘Pathways to progress: a multi-level approach to strengthening health systems’ here. Yabba Daba Doo!
“
Given this global policy context, research on how health systems can change for the better in terms of their capacity to support universal health coverage is very welcome. It seems apt for an important new piece of work funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to be released by the Overseas Development Institute … Pathways to progress: a multi-level approach to strengthening health systems synthesises lessons from five country case studies on what has driven progress on maternal and child health (MCH) in Mozambique, Nepal and Rwanda; and on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Cambodia and Sierra Leone. … ‘The drivers of progress for MCH and NTDs were expected to be very different given the vast differences in the nature of these diseases and in the kind of health system responses needed to tackle them. However, a number of commonalities emerged inductively during the comparative analysis.’ These include improved health financing, integration within health systems, partnership with other sectors, and community engagement and participation.”
Lima climate conference - COP 20
You probably had your share of Lima readings by now, on an agreement that represents undeniably a breakthrough but one that will most likely not suffice to save the world as we know it. Just in case you didn’t:
- The five-page text agreed on Sunday – now officially known as the Lima Call for Climate Action – represents the embryonic phase of the deal due to be delivered in Paris next year (see here ).
- Coverage in the Guardian (see here, here, here ; here ).
Meanwhile, the Economist
reported on geo-engineering ready to leave the laboratory (and guess what, Bill Gates himself seems partly involved).
Scidev.net - Q&A: How the ideology of innovation harms development
Winner Langdon;
http://www.scidev.net/global/innovation/feature/langdon-winner-tyranny-new.html
Speaking of Gates, this is a must-read for Bill and all the other innovative entrepreneurs in global health. (I especially like the term ‘
god term’ for ‘innovation’.) “
Langdon Winner calls himself an “innovation critic”. The political theorist based at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, United States, thinks that most people talk of innovation using the word uncritically and buying into the ideology that change is always a good thing. Winner wants to challenge that assumption.
He spoke about this in August in a keynote speech at the International Conference for Integration of Science, Technology and Society, hosted by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon (4-8 August 2014). After the event SciDev.Net caught up with him to ask about how misuse of the word innovation impacts international development. Among other things, he says Bill Gates’ framing of innovation as the only solution to global challenges, such as global warming, risks missing easier and quicker answers.” back to topEbola
Ebola news
Devex – Battle against Ebola to go 'mini, local' — experts
https://www.devex.com/news/battle-against-ebola-to-go-mini-local-experts-85113
Report on the discussion at the high-level meeting on Ebola held on Dec. 12 in Brussels. The meeting was attended by Ebola coordinators from the United Nations, the European Union, several EU member states and NGOs. (
must-read)
Some other news items, in no particular order:
- The WHO Executive Board will hold a special session on the Ebola Emergency (see here )
- For the latest WHO figures, see here. The rate of spread in Sierra Leone seems to be slowing.
- Ban Ki Moon is travelling to Ebola-hit countries in West-Africa to raise awareness about the health crisis and send a message of solidarity.
- Ban Ki Moon appointed veteran humanitarian official Ould Cheikh Ahmed of Mauritania on Thursday as the new head of UNMEER - he will replace Anthony Banbury in January.
- The UK doesn’t need the US army to help in the Sierra Leone Ebola fight.
- The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) recommended that creditors should seriously consider debt cancellation for the countries worst-hit by the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
- Last Friday it was already reported (in the Guardian ) that Merck’s Ebola vaccine trial had been suspended.
- David Nabarro, UN’s Ebola envoy, said it could take several months before the Ebola outbreak is under control. Nabarro said “there has been a “massive shift” in the past four months as communities have heightened efforts and the international community has pitched in. But greater efforts are still needed, he said, particularly in western Sierra Leone.”
- Michel du Cille, a famous Washington Post photojournalist, died from a heart attack while covering the Ebola outbreak.
- For info on winners of the Ebola ‘Grand Challenges’ contest from USAID, see the NYT.
- Ebola serum reached
- UNICEF raised its Ebola appeal to US$500 million. So far only 24 % of funding is secured.
- More restrictions in Sierra Leone’s capital: House searches in Sierra Leone’s capital. (see here ).
- World Bank Ebola response sheet.
Ebola viewpoints
African Affairs (Briefing) – Ebola – Myths, realities, and structural violence
Annie Wilkinson & Melissa Leach;
http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/12/04/afraf.adu080.long
“…
How did it get to this? Why has this Ebola outbreak been so much larger than previous ones? The scale of the disaster has been attributed to the weak health systems of affected countries, their lack of resources, the mobility of communities and their inexperience in dealing with Ebola. This answer, however, is woefully de-contextualized and de-politicized. This briefing examines responses to the outbreak and offers a different set of explanations, rooted in the history of the region and the political economy of global health and development. To move past technical discussions of “weak” health systems, this briefing highlights how structural violence has contributed to the epidemic.”
Reuters - Shock treatment: what's missing from Sierra Leone's Ebola response
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/14/us-health-ebola-leone-idUSKBN0JS0N220141214
Last week we already reported that debate was starting on why Sierra Leone is lagging behind Liberia in its Ebola response. The WHO’s Bruce Aylward produced an explanation of his own earlier this week. (Reuters) “
The failure of Sierra Leone's strategy for fighting Ebola may be down to a missing ingredient: a big shock that could change people's behavior and finally prevent further infection. Aylward said Sierra Leone was well placed to contain the disease -- its worst outbreak on record -- with infrastructure, organization and aid. The problem is that its people have yet to be shocked out of behavior that is helping the disease to spread, still keeping infected loved ones close and touching the bodies of the dead. "Every new place that gets infected goes through that same terrible learning curve where a lot of people have to die ... before those behaviors start to change.”
WHO – Preparing to confront Ebola – just in case
http://www.who.int/features/2014/ebola-preparedness/en/
“Countries in Africa have been working on improving their preparedness in the event of an Ebola outbreak. The WHO teams have provided simulated exercises in hospitals and technical training, for immediate emergency response and communication.”
UN Foundation – 5 key takeaways on UN-Business collaboration for the Ebola response
http://unfoundationblog.org/5-key-takeaways-on-un-business-collaboration-for-the-ebola-response/
Another good reading to get in the Christmas spirit.
Speaking of Medicine – Supporting Those Who Go to Fight Ebola
http://blogs.plos.org/speakingofmedicine/2014/12/17/supporting-go-fight-ebola/
Michelle Mello, Maria Merritt, and Scott Halpern discuss healthcare institutions’ responsibilities to support their employees’ volunteer efforts in Ebola-affected regions.
Lancet – Sierra Leone doctors call for better Ebola care for colleagues
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62388-6/fulltext
Local doctors went on strike in Sierra Leone after it emerged that they would not be able to access a specialised British Ebola treatment unit for health-care workers.
Miriam Schuchman reports.
NY Review of Books – Ebola in Liberia: An Epidemic of Rumors
Helen Epstein;
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/dec/18/ebola-liberia-epidemic-rumors/?insrc=hpss
Nice long read. Interesting paragraph for example: “
Some have suggested that Ebola had never broken out in a city such as Monrovia before, and this is what made the present epidemic unique. But in 1995, Ebola struck
Kikwit, Zaire—a city of 400,000 people—and in 2001 it broke out in Gulu, Uganda, population 100,000. Health authorities then had far less experience coping with Ebola than they did on the eve of the West African epidemic, but in those cases only around 250 people died.”
Epstein’s take: “What went wrong? In October, I went to Liberia with this question in mind. I came to believe—as others have suggested—that the problem was fundamentally political. When the epidemic occurred, many ordinary Liberians were so profoundly estranged from their government that they assumed it was lying to them and actively disbelieved the warnings that Nyenswah and others were desperately broadcasting to the nation and the world.”
Lancet (Ebola correspondence) - Ebola: national health stakeholders are the cornerstones of the response
G Raguin et al ;
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62419-3/fulltext
Obviously.
Lancet (Comment) – Ebola: limitations of correcting misinformation
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62382-5/fulltext
The authors, members of the
Ebola Response Anthropology Platform, call on all organisations involved in the response to the Ebola outbreak to question the assumption that biomedicine must correct local logics and concerns, and the effectiveness of using standardised advice for non-standardised situations.
back to topUHC, post-2015 & global governance for health
Guardian – Official aid in line for a makeover as donors announce 'historic agreement
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/18/aid-definition-official-development-assistance-oecd
“
The world’s main donors have hailed what they called a “historic agreement” to modernise the statistical system by which aid flows are calculated, saying this will allow them to better meet global development targets after 2015. After a two-day meeting in Paris, the development arm of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said the changes – the first in 40 years – “will create incentives to mobilise more and better financing for development”. The key changes include modifications to the way concessional loans are calculated and reported, a recommitment to target more assistance to least-developed countries (LDCs) and other vulnerable nations, and moves to create a broader definition of aid flows.”
BMJ (Editorial) – How 21st century capitalism is failing us
Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett;
http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7516
Nice analysis; not sure about their remedy though – a democratic transformation of capitalism.
Morten Jerven - Writing about a data revolution: A critique in four venn diagrams
http://mortenjerven.com/writing-about-a-data-revolution-a-critique-in-four-venn-diagrams/
Lovely blog that woke up old memories of my math classes. “
The UN Secretary-General’s Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development (IEAG) have completed their report. “A world that counts” is a cleverly crafted motivational manifest. But it is not a practical roadmap on how to apply a ‘data revolution’ to the SDG agenda. The report’s key weakness is that it conflates a lot of terms, and assumes automatic relationships between things like ‘counting’ and ‘knowing’. … The mistakes made in the report are fundamental. Here I show some of the basic conflations in terms in four diagrams.”
UN (report) – We the Peoples – celebrating 7 million voices
http://blog.myworld2015.org/7million/
More than 7 million people have taken the MY World survey with the hopes and dreams of all people on the planet — hopes and dreams for a better life. Check out the report.
(
if you allow me a cynical remark in this Christmas time: this week, in Germany, quite some people also shouted ‘Wir sind das Volk’ – and their message was not exactly uplifting). But to quote one of my favourite philosophers these days, Susan Neiman, ‘cynicism is intellectual laziness’; even if I don’t entirely agree - I wish it were that simple - she has a point)
ODI paper – Financing the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals: a rough roadmap
A Rogerson et al.;
http://www.odi.org/publications/9097-financing-post-2015-sustainable-development-goals-rough-roadmap
“
Looking ahead to major UN-hosted international meetings on development finance in 2015 and beyond, this report for officials, advisors, and commentators aims to shape the agenda. It builds on a large body of recent literature on how the SDGs should best be framed, delivered and, in particular, funded, focusing on developing countries. The paper investigates how a country’s mix of development finance changes as it grows – the so-called ‘missing middle' dilemma. It finds that public resources overall fall continuously until a country is well into middle-income status, as international assistance falls faster than tax revenues rise. Static per capita income thresholds are becoming increasingly unreliable guides to resource allocation. This paper looks at alternative groupings, especially taking into account fiscal capacity, creditworthiness and vulnerability. The roadmap also assess the recent literature on trade-offs between rapid growth and climate change mitigation imperatives. We conclude by contrasting two alternative world views: (1) making international public finance a complement to private finance everywhere, and (2) focusing public support where the private sector is not present.”
Meanwhile, the post-2015 summit has now a date -
September 25 to 27 in New York. Member states also
finalized the negotiation modalities this week.
Global Dashboard - Which countries can broker a deal on the post-2015 development agenda?
M Elgin-Cossart;
http://www.globaldashboard.org/2014/12/17/countries-can-broker-deal-post-2015-development-agenda/#more-23963
Based on Alex Evans’ typology of the five kinds of people you find on high level panels (visionaries, expert & problem solvers; single-issue evangelists; blockers; dead wood) – but then applied on states in forging an agreement on
the post-2015 development agenda and
financing for development. Which countries are problem-solvers? The author suggests Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Germany, Liberia, Benin, Pakistan; and possibly Indonesia. …
(PS: if any among you wants to apply this typology on global health voices, feel free – IHP will publish your blog – as for myself, I’m probably a mix of a single-issue evangelist & dead wood.)
European Council conclusions on a transformative post-2015 agenda
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/146311.pdf
A document with all the right words. Now it’s about putting them into action. But being dead wood myself, I probably don’t have the right to say this.
UNAIDS – UNAIDS Board underlines ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as central to the post-2015 development agenda
http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2014/december/20141212_PR_PCB35
From last week’s UNAIDS board meeting.
Based on new Copenhagen Consensus papers, Time Magazine also has an
article by
B Lomborg saying that it would be wise to target neonatal deaths and cervical cancer post-2015. Very cost-effective.
Economist (World in 2015) - Great expectations
Bill Gates;
http://www.economist.com/news/21631967-dramatic-advances-childrens-health-and-poverty-reduction-are-within-worlds-grasp-argues
As always, Bill is upbeat. Surprising is, though, that he talks about successful social movements in the past. Building on that, he believes “2015 can be the moment when the fight to save the lives of children around the world turns into a popular movement, because the world has built a record of progress that proves dramatic change is possible in our lifetimes.” (
we hope it with him, but for some strange reason, when I copy-pasted that quote, a Shell advertisement magically opened in my window – no doubt a sign from the Creator himself).
Judith Rodin & Jim Kim – Universal Health Coverage: A Smart Investment
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-rodin/universal-health-coverage_b_6315414.html
Not much explanation needed here.
WHO – 136th Executive Board session
http://apps.who.int/gb/e/e_eb136.html
You can find all documentation & the provisional annotated agenda here.
Durham Health Summit (commentary) – Governance for Health in a Changing World
10-11 November 2014, Durham University
https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/public.health/DurhamHealthSummitCommentaryfinal.pdf
The Durham Health Summit was held to mark the occasion of the Centre for Public Policy and Health’s designation in March 2014 as a WHO Collaborating Centre on Complex Systems Research, Knowledge and Action. This Commentary has an overview of the debates.
back to topInfectious diseases
IIP Digital - More Nations to Receive Tuberculosis-Fighting Drug
IIP Digital;
USAID signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Janssen Therapeutics that aims to accelerate progress in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, specifically multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The intent of the MOU is for Janssen to donate $30 million worth of the drug SIRTURO® (bedaquiline) over a four-year period through USAID's programs for the treatment of MDR-TB.
Project Syndicate – Prepping Gay Men for PrEP
A Alimi;
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/who-should-promote-anti-hiv-therapy-by-adebisi-alimi-2014-12
Must-read. “…
As an African activist with more than ten years of experience in the fight against HIV, I hope that the WHO will build on its important first step of advising the use of PrEP. That means initiating a public conversation with countries like Nigeria, Uganda, Gambia, and Russia on the importance of inclusion in the battle against HIV. The WHO should make it clear that while it may not be advocating for LGBT political rights, it is determined to ensure that all those who can benefit from PrEP are able to access the necessary drugs, without fear of legal consequences. Researchers, drug companies, and human-rights campaigners must take up the fight to ensure that PrEP is made available – without risk – to those who need it most.”
back to topNCDs
back to topReproductive, maternal, neonatal & child health
Journal of Adolescent Health (Commentary) – Twenty Years After International Conference on Population and Development: Where Are We With Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights?
V Chandra-Mouly et al.;
http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(14)00428-5/abstract
«
The International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994 laid out a bold, clear, and comprehensive definition of reproductive health and called for nations to meet the educational and service needs of adolescents to enable them to deal in a positive and responsible way with their sexuality. In the context of the ongoing review of the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action and the considerations for a post-2015 development agenda, this article summarizes the findings of the articles presented in this volume and identifies key challenges and critical answers that need to be tackled in addressing adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights. The key recommendations are to link the provision of sexuality education and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services; build awareness, acceptance, and support for youth-friendly SRH education and services; address gender inequality in terms of beliefs, attitudes, and norms; and target the early adolescent period (10–14 years). The many knowledge gaps, however, point to the pressing need for further research on how to best design effective adolescent SRH intervention packages and how best to deliver them. » (from this
Supplement )
Lancet (World Report) – India's sterilisation scandal
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62224-8/fulltext
The deaths of several women after treatment at a mass sterilisation camp highlight deep problems with India's approach to family planning. Dinesh C Sharma reports.
Devex – more data on women and girls on the way
Devex;
"The Millennium Challenge Corp., PEPFAR, the World Bank, several U.N. agencies, and other development organizations came together Monday to make new commitments through
Data2x, an initiative led by the United Nations Foundation that works to advance gender equality and women's empowerment through partnerships that improve the collection and use of data to guide policy and investments.” Data2x was launched in 2012, among others by Hilary Clinton.
Guardian - Sex workers missing out on development funds
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/dec/17/sex-workers-missing-out-on-development-funds?utm_content=bufferf732d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
“
Organisations led by sex workers that support sex-worker rights need more funding to eliminate violence against women, halt the spread of HIV and end discrimination on the grounds of gender, according to a report published on Wednesday. About half of the €8m earmarked by foundations and NGOs to fund sex-worker rights last year – €4.5m – went to groups that were led by sex workers, said a survey conducted by the Open Society Foundations, Mama Cash and the Red Umbrella Fund, published on the international day to end violence against sex workers. But the report, Funding for Sex-worker Rights, said this amount is insufficient to bring long-term change. It added that because sex work is criminalised in many countries, which limits government funding options, money from private sources is essential.”
back to topNTDs
Guardian - Dengue fever vaccine on the cards after novel antibody discovery
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/15/dengue-fever-vaccine-novel-antibody
“A new class of antibody found in the blood of patients with dengue fever has boosted hopes for a vaccine against the virus. … Researchers spotted the new group of antibodies while they were studying blood drawn from patients who picked up dengue infections in south-east Asia. They found that about a third of the immune reaction launched by each patient came from a new class of antibodies. In tests described in the journal Nature Immunology,
the researchers found that the newly identified antibodies were highly effective at fighting the dengue virus in mosquitoes and in patients. But more surprising, and useful for a vaccine, they also neutralised all of the different forms of the germ.” back to topHealth Policy & Financing
Book - Global Politics of Health Reform in Africa: Performance, Participation, and Policy
Amy Barnes et al;
http://www.amazon.com/Global-Politics-Health-Reform-Africa-ebook/dp/B00QTTTQU6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418923677&sr=8-1&keywords=the+global+politics+of+health+reform+in+africa
“
Global Politics of Health Reform in Africa is about how participation and performance (also known as results based funding) are used to shape health reform in African countries and the role of African actors, global policy elites and international donors within these processes. Drawing on extensive qualitative research with African actors in South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, and global health institutions such as the World Bank, WHO and Global Fund in Geneva and Washington DC, this book is a must read for policy makers, practitioners and researchers interested in the politics of health system reform, the problems of performance and results based financing, and the ability of African actors to shape African health system reform. It will be of interest to students and academics working in the fields of: Global Health Governance and Health Policy, Global Governance, Development, and Africa and International Politics. »
Lancet (Editorial) – Antimicrobial resistance: in terms politicians understand
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62412-0/fulltext
This Lancet Editorial reflects on last week’s report (by Jim O’Neill) and sketches the next steps in the global AMR fight.
UNGA resolution on safeguarding health workers
Sadly, even health workers are not immune from the violent conflicts around the world, from Syria to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Last week, the
UN General Assembly passed a resolution to push states to do more to protect them.
This resolution “
recognizes for the first time the severity of attacks on health workers, facilities, and patients in all circumstances, and demands respect by States for provisions of medical ethics and human rights law, as well as international humanitarian law.” “The resolution, with 62 co-sponsors, urges States to take immediate steps to ensure health workers in all countries are protected from violence, whether in armed conflict or in times of peace.” (see also
here ). It expands on earlier resolutions that only addressed humanitarian aid workers.
China – an international journal - Domestic Politics and China’s Health Aid to Africa
Huang Yanzhong;
http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/china/v012/12.3.huang.pdf
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This study explores the role of domestic politics in China’s health-related development assistance to Africa. It identifies domestic politics as a constant, even critical, component in shaping and structuring China’s health aid to Africa. Until the late 1970s, foreign policy considerations determined the volume, direction and terms of China’s foreign aid, but since the 1980s domestic political economy has dominated China’s health aid policy process. China today utilises development assistance for health not only to expand its global influence and improve its international image, but also to serve the market and resource needs of its domestic economic development. An examination of existing policy-making and implementation regimes in health aid highlights the role of bureaucratic politics and other political-institutional variables in affecting the form, substance and effectiveness of foreign aid to Africa. The findings have important implications in China’s willingness and capacity to cooperate with the global donor community in Africa.”
Social Science & Medicine – Big-pharmaceuticalisation: Clinical trials and Contract Research Organisations in India
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25476783
“The World Trade Organisation's Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights [TRIPS] agreement aimed to harmonise intellectual property rights and patent protection globally. In India, the signing of this agreement resulted in a sharp increase in clinical trials since 2005. The Indian government, along with larger Indian pharmaceutical companies, believed that they could change existing commercial research cultures through the promotion of basic research as well as attracting international clinical trials, and thus create an international level, innovation-based drug industry. The effects of the growth of these outsourced and off-shored clinical trials on local commercial knowledge production in India are still unclear. What has been the impact of the increasing scale and commercialisation of clinical research on corporate science in India? In this paper we describe Big-pharmaceuticalisation in India, whereby the local pharmaceutical industry is moving from generic manufacturing to innovative research. Using conceptual frameworks of pharmaceuticalisation and innovation, this paper analyses data from research conducted in 2010-2012 and describes how Contract Research Organisations (CROs) enable outsourcing of randomised control trials to India. Focussing on twenty-five semi-structured interviews CRO staff, we chart the changes in Indian pharmaceutical industry, and implications for local research cultures. We use Big-pharmaceuticalisation to extend the notion of pharmaceuticalisation to describe the spread of pharmaceutical research globally and illustrate how TRIPS has encouraged a concentration of capital in India, with large companies gaining increasing market share and using their market power to rewrite regulations and introduce new regulatory practices in their own interest. …”
Devex - Paul Farmer : We’ve met the enemy and he is us
https://www.devex.com/news/paul-farmer-we-ve-met-the-enemy-and-he-is-us-85081
“Devex caught up with Farmer last week at the U.S. Senate, where he offered his assessment of key lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to the Foreign Relations Committee. One of Farmer’s conclusions for the Senate panel was that the aid community’s commitment to “building local capacity” has often been “distorted.” Devex pressed Farmer on the point after the hearing (…) to hear what changes he would like to see to the way ideas like “capacity building” get translated into action — and funding.” Nice read.
KFF – NGO Engagement in U.S. Global Health Efforts: U.S.-Based NGOs Receiving USG Support Through USAID
http://kff.org/global-health-policy/report/ngo-engagement-in-u-s-global-health-efforts-u-s-based-ngos-receiving-usg-support-through-usaid/
New KFF report on NGOs & US Global health.
Guardian – Seven breakthroughs that will transform global health
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/dec/17/seven-breakthroughs-transform-global-health-technology?CMP=share_btn_tw
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What are the next breakthroughs around the corner? Two years ago, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Institute for Globally Transformative Technologies launched a study to identify the 50 most important technology breakthroughs required for sustainable global development so that all of us who work in the technology-for-development space can put our collective efforts towards them. Working with more than 1,000 experts, we have analysed where new technologies can make a game-changing difference in the fields of global health, food security and agriculture, education, human rights, the digital divide, access to water, gender equity, access to electricity and resilience against climate change. Focusing on global health, the most important breakthroughs we have identified are: …” (as somebody mentioned on Twitter, UHC wasn’t mentioned as one of them)
BMJ (Feature) – How MSF is mapping the world’s medical emergency zones
http://www.bmj.com/content/349/bmj.g7540
A mammoth project to map the addresses of 200 million people aims to help Médecins Sans Frontières to deliver better medical care worldwide, writes Jane Feinmann.
Bill Gates notes –Year in review 2014
http://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Year-in-Review-2014
Bill kicks off the series of global health ‘year in review’ articles. He lists five ways to measure the world’s progress this year.
Lancet (World Report) – 2014: news round up of the year
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62415-6/fulltext
Neil Bennet looks back at the major medical, health, and humanitarian stories from 2014—a year in which Ebola took hold in west Africa and transplantation doctors celebrated advances.
Global Health Hub – 2014: Year of the Social Determinants of Health?
Kenny Pettersen;
http://www.globalhealthhub.org/2014/12/18/2014-year-social-determinants-health/
And another one.
Economic Times – India-led BRICS opposes UN arm’s move on model drug law
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/india-led-brics-opposes-un-arms-move-on-model-drug-law/articleshow/45516834.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
“India has spearheaded a move by BRICS countries to oppose a United Nations agency's move to float without consultations with member states a model law on fraudulent drugs that has raised fears of genuine generic drugs trade getting disrupted. An expert group within UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) had last week held closed-door meetings in Vienna to firm up a model law prescribing harsh penalties for 'falsified' drug-related crimes. The draft is expected to serve as a model for member countries to adopt and implement, but it has revived fears about seizures of Indian-made generics, as happened in 2008 when many shipments were confiscated at European Union ports.”
IS Global - Where and How do Communities Fit into People-Centred Health Systems?
Jeff Lazarus;
http://www.isglobal.org/en/healthisglobal/-/custom-blog-portlet/3125309?p_r_p_564233524_h1h2m=3301&p_r_p_564233524_userId=90253&utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=
Jeff wrote another blog last week – this one building on the HSR symposium in Cape Town. What does community involvement in (ideally people-centred) health systems mean?
back to topEmerging Voices
Elizabeth Echoka (EV 2012) just published an
article in the International Journal for Equity in health, ‘
Using the unmet obstetric needs indicator to map inequities in life-saving obstetric interventions at the local health care system in Kenya’. You find a blog post on this article, entitled ‘Mapping inequities in maternal care’ (see
here – blog Open Access in the Developing world).
“
Whilst the Maternal Mortality Rate gives an overview of the situation there is a need for more nuanced reporting tools to help understand not only the number of deaths, but the causes for these deaths. In a new study published in the International Journal for Equity in Health Elizabeth Echoka and colleagues use the Unmet Obstetric Needs (UON) indicator to look at the situation in Kenya in more detail.”
back to topResearch
Health and Human Rights – Special Issue on Health Rights Litigation
http://www.hhrjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2014/12/Front-Matter-16.2.pdf
Check it out.
Health Policy & Planning – Which intervention design factors influence performance of community health workers in low- and middle-income countries? A systematic review
http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/12/11/heapol.czu126.short?rss=1
From the HP&P December issue.
Global Health: Science and practice journal – December issue
Global Health: Science and Practice Journal
The new issue of the “Global Health: Science and Practice Journal” focuses on successes in global health programs.
Bioethics – Reinterpreting Responsiveness for Health Systems Research in Low and Middle-Income Countries.
The ethical concept of responsiveness has largely been interpreted in the context of international clinical research. In light of the increasing conduct of externally funded health systems research (HSR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), this article examines how responsiveness might be understood for such research and how it can be applied.
back to topMiscellaneous
back to top