A new report from the Institute of Development Studies, UK, calls on world leaders to look beyond the conventional staples of the public health toolkit as they draw up a new WHO global treaty on pandemics.
The objectives of the study are three-fold: to investigate who are vulnerable to welfare loss from health shocks, what are the household responses to cope with the economic burden of health shocks and if policy responses like state health insurance schemes are effective in reducing the economic vulnerability. Existing literature have investigated the impact of state health insurance schemes in reducing the vulnerability to financials risks of medical care using catastrophic health expenditure (CHE) measure.
This has several limitations like setting arbitrary threshold levels, exclusion of those that did not seek medical care due to inability to pay and non-accounting for risks posed by different sources of financing. So we use self-reported measure of reduction in economic wellbeing of households due to serious illness or death of one or more members from the recent Young Lives longitudinal study in Andhra Pradesh,
Anthropogenic climate change and anticipated adverse effects on human health as outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are taken as givens.
A conceptual model for thinking about the spectrum of climate-related health risks ranging from distal and infrastructural to proximal and behavioural and their relation to the burden of disease pattern typical of sub-Saharan Africa is provided. The model provides a tool for identifying modifiable risk factors with a view to future research, specifically into the performance of interventions to reduce the impact of climate change.
This guidance document on ethical issues that arise specifically in the context of infectious disease outbreaks aims to complement existing guidance on ethics in public health. It should therefore be read in conjunction with more general guidance on issues such as public health surveillance, research with human participants, and addressing the needs of vulnerable populations. Setting up decision-making systems and procedures in advance is the best way to ensure that ethically appropriate decisions will be made if an outbreak occurs.
Countries, health-care institutions,international organizations and others involved in epidemic response efforts are encouraged to develop practical strategies and tools to apply the principles in this guidance document to their specific settings, taking into account local social,cultural, and political contexts. WHO is committed to providing countries with technical assistance in support of these efforts.
Two decades of work delivering health care in poor communities provide a standpoint from which to challenge conventional doctrines in human rights and public health. These orthodoxies include the priority often assigned to civil and political rights over economic and social rights and a narrow concept of cost-effectiveness in public health policy. An analysis based on economic and social rights underscores, for example, that effectively treating infectious diseases in poor communities requires ensuring that people receive adequate food. The challenge of maternal mortality in low-income settings similarly shows the need for an approach to rights that is simultaneously comprehensive and pragmatic.
In many settings, paying community health workers for their efforts on behalf of their neighbours can also be seen as a critical strategy to realise rights. Across contexts, the yield on the expanded and pragmatic view of health and human rights adumbrated here may be considerable.
The purpose of this public health risk assessment is to provide health professionals in United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations, international and local organizations, donor agencies and local authorities, who are currently working with populations affected by the emergency in the Horn of Africa,with up-to-date technical guidance on the major public health threats faced by the populations affected by the drought and famine conditions in the sub-region.
The topic areas addressed have been selected on the basis of the burden of morbidity and mortality, as well as the potential for their increased risk in the affected area. Public health threats represent a significant challenge to those providing health-care services in this evolving situation. It is hoped that this risk assessment will facilitate the coordination of activities between all agencies working among the populations currently affected by the crisis
The effects of armed conflict and natural disasters on global public health are widespread. Much progress has been made in the technical quality, normative coherence, and efficiency of the health care response. But action after the fact remains insufficient. In the years ahead, the international community must address the root causes of these crises. Natural disasters, particularly floods and storms, will become more frequent and severe because of climate change.
Organised deadly onslaughts against civilian populations will continue, fueled by the availability of small arms, persistent social and political inequities, and, increasingly, by a struggle for natural resources. These events affect the mortality, morbidity, and well-being of large populations. Humanitarian relief will always be required, and there is a demonstrable need, as in other areas of global health, to place greater emphasis on prevention and mitigation