The objective of this study was to study cross-national inequalities in mortality of adults and of children aged 4 times the rate in countries with low mortality. For child mortality, the worse-off group made slower progress in reducing <5 mortality than the better-off group. The study concludes that inequalities in child and adult mortality are large, are growing, and are related to several economic, social and health sector variables.
Monitoring equity and research policy
Global health inequalities: An international comparison
Ruger JP, Kim H: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 60 (11) 928-936, 2006
Global health research, partnership, and equity: no more business-as-usual
Zarowsky C: BMC International Health and Human Rights 11(Suppl 2):S1, November 2011
This supplement of BMC International Health and Human Rights consists of a collection of 10 case studies showcasing effective global health research. The collection provides practical, transferable lessons for research partnerships working to address health inequities. In the context of increasing competition for individual or institutional "leadership" of the field (and business) of global health, these papers instead speak of active and sustained collaboration - listening, responsiveness, flexibility, willingness and capacity to follow as well as to lead - in learning what to transform or sustain, and how, in order to move towards greater equity in both health and health research. In addition, they challenge conventional models of research focused on narrowly defined research questions and a narrow range of pre-specified research methods, documenting instead how both the research questions and the methods most appropriate to address them change over time. Finally, they challenge both the idea of "pure" science undertaken by independent researchers on behalf of science and specific communities, and the conventional wisdom that North-South and research-research user-community partnerships are necessarily either North and researcher-driven, or scientifically dubious.
Global Indigenous Health Research Symposium Report: Papers and Presentations: Directions and Themes in International Indigenous Health Research
Reading Jeff, Marsden Namaste, Link Rachel, Kurbanova Dinara and Kelly Miranda: 2008
The goal of this book is to offer a glimpse in to the world of global health research through an indigenous peoples’ population lens. The symposium began with a presentation on Bridging Indigenous and Global Health, and the opening presenter made a plea for research into healthy equity to take a new direction by including distal determinants in the analysis. She noted that ‘it is the causes of the causes that have to be addressed… [ ] A distal determinant does not mean an unimportant determinant. This is where we have to head if we are truly going to address inequities… [ ] … because long-standing structures of disadvantage are at play in creating inequities.’ Thereafter, a number of plenary sessions were held. Two sessions covered work of direct relevance to east, southern and central Africa, namely: Mental Health Research in Africa: Lessons Learned; and Tackling Inequities in Health: Lessons from the Work of the Regional Network on Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa. Climate change and its impact on developing nations was also discussed.
Global Observatory on Health R&D
WHO: WHO Geneva online resource, 2017
The Global Observatory on Health R&D (hereafter called ‘the Observatory’) is a global-level initiative that aims to help identify health R&D priorities based on public health needs, by: consolidating, monitoring and analysing relevant information on the health R&D needs of developing countries; building on existing data collection mechanisms; and supporting coordinated actions on health R&D. Investments in health R&D are still insufficiently aligned with global public health demands and needs. As little as 1% of all funding for health R&D is allocated to diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (diseases that are predominantly incident in developing countries), despite these diseases accounting for more than 12.5% of the global burden of disease. Governments, policy-makers, funders and researchers need an accurate picture of the current situation so as to spot R&D gaps and ensure that funds and resources are used in the best possible way. The primary scope of the Observatory as outlined by Member States in World Health Assembly resolution WHA69.23 is: type II and type III diseases (i.e. diseases incident in both rich and poor countries, especially the latter; the specific R&D needs of developing countries in relation to type I diseases; potential areas where market failures exist and antimicrobial resistance and on emerging infectious diseases likely to cause major epidemics.
Global public health leader joins Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation News Inquiry, 18 January 2007
Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin announced today that Dr Ariel Pablos-Méndez is joining the Foundation as a new Managing Director. Ariel Pablos-Méndez, 45, a physician and epidemiologist, is Director of Knowledge Management & Sharing at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. He is also an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Public Health at Columbia University. He will assume his new position at the Rockefeller Foundation in April, 2007. Dr Pablos-Méndez, who joined WHO in 2004, has been working there on establishing the principles and practice of knowledge management as a core competence of public health to help bridge the gap between research and implementation.
Global tuberculosis epidemic levelling off
World Health Organisation, 22 March 2007
The global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has levelled off for the first time since WHO declared TB a public health emergency in 1993. The Global Tuberculosis Control Report released today by WHO finds that the percentage of the world's population struck by TB peaked in 2004 and then held steady in 2005. "We are currently seeing both the fruits of global action to control TB and the lethal nature of the disease’s ongoing burden," said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "Almost 60 per cent of TB cases worldwide are now detected, and out of those, the vast majority are cured. Over the past decade, 26 million patients have been placed on effective TB treatment thanks to the efforts of governments and a wide range of partners. But the disease still kills 4400 people every day."
Globalisation and its methodological discontents: Contextualising globalisation through the study of HIV/AIDS
Brown GW and Labonte R: Globalization and Health 7(29), 23 August 2011
There remains considerable disconnect between globalisation scholars about how to conceptualise its meaning and how we understand how its processes operate and transform our lives. The authors of this article argue that to better understand what globalisation is and how it affects issues such as global health, we can explore how the multiple processes of globalisation are encountered and informed by different social groups within particular contexts. The article reviews how qualitative field research assist in doing this. Three recent case studies conducted on globalisation and HIV and AIDS are reviewed for their use of qualitative methods in understanding the contexts and processes of globalisation and their impact on health.
Globalization and health:
a framework for analysis and action
David Woodward, Nick Drager, Robert Beaglehole,
& Debra Lipson. Bulletin of the World Health Organization Volume 79, Number 9, September 2001
Globalization is a key challenge to public health, especially in developing countries, but the linkages between globalization and health are complex. Although a growing amount of literature has appeared on the subject, it is piecemeal, and suffers from a lack of an agreed framework for assessing the direct and indirect health effects of different aspects of globalization. This paper presents a conceptual framework for the linkages between economic globalization and health, with the intention that it will serve as a basis for synthesizing existing relevant literature, identifying gaps in knowledge, and ultimately developing national and international policies more favourable to health. The framework encompasses both the indirect effects on health, operating through the national economy, household economies and health-related sectors such as water, sanitation and education, as well as more direct effects on population-level and individual risk factors for health and on the health care system. Proposed also is a set of broad objectives for a programme of action to optimize the health effects of economic globalization. The paper concludes by identifying priorities for research corresponding with the five linkages identified as critical to the effects of globalization on health.
Governance of dual-use research: An ethical dilemma
Selgelid MJ: Bulletin of the World Health Organization 87(9): 720–723, September 2009
Scenarios where the results of well-intentioned scientific research can be used for both good and harmful purposes give rise to what is now widely known as the ‘dual-use dilemma’. Four recent cases involving of dual-use discoveries have been particularly controversial: the development of a super strain of mouse pox, the synthesis of a polio virus from scratch, a case of genetically engineering a smallpox virus and the use of techniques of synthetic genomics (similar to those used in the polio study) to ‘reconstruct’ the Spanish flu virus, which killed between 20 and 100 million people in 1918–1919. Research may not only produce cures for modern diseases but may also be used to produce biological weapons. Though they understood the dangers, the scientists and editors involved defended their actions. It is questionable, however, whether reliance on voluntary self-governance of the scientific community in matters of censorship is advisable. Because scientists generally lack training in security studies, they may lack the expertise required for assessment of the security risks of publication in any given case.
Governments must move forward with Global R&D Framework at World Health Assembly
People\'s Health Movement, 18 May 2006
As health ministers meet in Geneva at the World Health Assembly (WHA) next week, the medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is calling on governments to overhaul the way medical research and development (R&D) is prioritised and financed, and support a resolution proposed by Kenya and Brazil for a "global framework on essential health R&D." Despite gathering increasing support from many governments, this resolution has faced consistent obstruction on the part of the WHO Secretariat.