Emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are medical terms referring to a group of diseases, yet they are simultaneously socio-political constructs (EID and NTD). When viewed as such, public health interest in EID has been criticised as prioritising free market, Global North interests. This paper asks if the recent turn to NTD, which directs attention and resources to ‘the bottom billion’ of the world's population, addresses the limitations of focusing on EID. Our approach involves comparing the specific socio-political framing, or ‘worldview’ of NTD, with that of EID. We examine the distinct history, rationales, morals, political and economic tensions and loci of power entailed in each worldview. This analysis suggests that efforts to foreground NTD constitute a site where humanitarian and biomedical industry actors and actions are increasingly blurred. We examine whether the NTD worldview constitutes a break with or a new version of a free market approach to global health, and whether it reworks or solidifies paternalistic Global North–South relations. We consider some of the limits of work on NTD to date, suggesting that although the NTD worldview does not escape the neo-colonial history of global health, it can actualise it under a different form.
Equity in Health
The authors present how COVID-19 has exposed, exploited and exacerbated the health-damaging transformations of neoliberal globalization. To explain why, the authors point to a combinatory cascade of socio-viral co-pathogenesis that they call neoliberal disease. From the vectors of vulnerability created by unequal and unstable market societies, to the reduced response capacities of market states and health systems, to the constrained ability of official global health security agencies and regulations to offer effective global health governance, they authors show how the virus has found weaknesses in a market-transformed global body politic. Turning the inequalities and inadequacies of neoliberal societies and states into global health insecurities, the pandemic raises questions about whether the world now faces an inflection point when political dis-ease with neoliberal norms will lead to new kinds of post-neoliberal policy-making. The authors conclude, however, that the prospects for such political-economic transformation on a global scale remain quite limited. despite the evidence of the extraordinary damage described.
This editorial considers the neonatal deaths occurring in South Africa that are due to limited availability of intensive care beds or inadequate referral systems and problematic transport systems. The editor proposes simple, cost-effective preventative measures to decrease the mortality rate outside of tertiary care centres, including resuscitation training of primary health care providers, breastfeeding and kangaroo mother care (KMC) programmes, using polyethylene wrappings for neonates less than 1200g and increasing the number of neonatal beds available and the number of staff to care for these patients. Community education programmes on healthy pregnancies are proposed to improve help-seeking behaviour, improve clinic attendance and increase awareness of the benefits of free interventions, such as breastfeeding and KMC. While many other countries in the region have reduced their maternal mortality, South Africa has made limited progress. The authors call on government to prioritise the implementation of sustainable measures to improve neonatal mortality, and ultimately reducing under-5 mortality.
The Dutch government is to recall a large batch of AIDS drugs which were sold at cut-price rates in Africa and illegally re-exported to the lucrative European market. Dutch officials said that more than 35,000 packets of pills with a market value of close to 15m Euros had been re-sold in the Netherlands and Germany, where a similar investigation is being conducted. Two types of Aids drugs were involved, both made byGlaxoSmithKline.
A new study commissioned by the South African Cities Network (SACN) urges local municipalities to develop a multi-sectoral strategy to tackle the effects of HIV/AIDS on their communities. The report, titled 'South African Cities and HIV/AIDS: Challenges and Responses', noted that while there had been a number of initiatives to support local government in developing an HIV/AIDS response, there was little attempt to assess the challenges facing the cities.
South Africa's department of health will continue to dispense Nevirapine until further research into the reliability of the drug in preventing HIV transmission from mother to child is conducted. Concerns about the safety of Nevirapine surfaced after collaborative research conducted by the Medicines Control Council (MCC), manufacturer Boehringer Ingelheim and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases revealed that some HIV positive mothers had developed resistance to the antiretroviral, making it uncertain whether transmission of the virus was being blocked or not.
Over the past ten years, frequent outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and mosquito-borne diseases have occurred in Africa. Electric and electronic waste (e-waste) is also a fast-growing concern. There have been significant radiation incidents reported, and new and more toxic substances (dioxins, furans and heavy metals) are creating environmental and health problems and new occupational risks in Africa. According to this paper, the management of hazardous wastes must focus on environmentally sound treatment and/or long-term storage. It notes that a renewed and stronger commitment to the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants is needed. African governments may wish to consider including the following actions: monitoring of new and emerging environmental threats; reviewing their emergency preparedness plans; developing and implementing awareness-raising campaigns on the most important risks factors; and undertaking community sensitisation and education.
A new Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion has been adopted by participants at the 6th Global Conference on Health Promotion, co-hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand. It identifies major challenges, actions and commitments needed to address the determinants of health in a globalized world by engaging the many actors and stakeholders critical to achieving health for all. The Charter highlights the changing context of global health and the challenges faced in achieving its aims, including the growing double burden of communicable and chronic diseases which include heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes.
A total of 228 new cholera cases have been
reported in KwaZulu-Natal since Saturday, the provincial health department said on Sunday. No news deaths had been reported. The highest number of new cases had been reported in Lower Umfolozi District with 86, followed by Eshowe with 82. The lowest number of cases were reported on the South Coast and Pietermaritzburg with six each.
The Nobel Prize winning Organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and four eminent public research institutes from around the world have joined forces to address the lack of research and development in drugs for neglected diseases. A mere 10% of global health research is devoted to diseases that account for 90% of the global disease burden.