The Global Virome Project Carroll, Dennis; Daszak, Peter; Wolfe, Nathan D ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
2018-Feb-23, 2018-02-23, 20180223, Letnik:
359, Številka:
6378
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Expanded viral discovery can improve mitigation
Outbreaks of novel and deadly viruses highlight global vulnerability to emerging
diseases, with many having massive health and economic impacts. Our ...adaptive
toolkit—based largely on vaccines and therapeutics—is often
ineffective because countermeasure development can be outpaced by the speed of
novel viral emergence and spread. Following each outbreak, the public health
community bemoans a lack of prescience, but after decades of reacting to each
event with little focus on mitigation, we remain only marginally better
protected against the next epidemic. Our ability to mitigate disease emergence
is undermined by our poor understanding of the diversity and ecology of viral
threats, and of the drivers of their emergence. We describe a Global Virome
Project (GVP) aimed to launch in 2018 that will help identify the bulk of this
viral threat and provide timely data for public health interventions against
future pandemics.
Achieving universal health coverage (UHC) involves distributing resources, especially human resources for health (HRH), to match population needs. This paper explores the policy lessons on HRH from ...four countries that have achieved sustained improvements in UHC: Brazil, Ghana, Mexico and Thailand. Its purpose is to inform global policy and financial commitments on HRH in support of UHC. The paper reports on country experiences using an analytical framework that examines effective coverage in relation to the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality (AAAQ) of HRH. The AAAQ dimensions make it possible to perform tracing analysis on HRH policy actions since 1990 in the four countries of interest in relation to national trends in workforce numbers and population mortality rates. The findings inform key principles for evidence-based decision-making on HRH in support of UHC. First, HRH are critical to the expansion of health service coverage and the package of benefits; second, HRH strategies in each of the AAAQ dimensions collectively support achievements in effective coverage; and third, success is achieved through partnerships involving health and non-health actors. Facing the unprecedented health and development challenges that affect all countries and transforming HRH evidence into policy and practice must be at the heart of UHC and the post-2015 development agenda. It is a political imperative requiring national commitment and leadership to maximize the impact of available financial and human resources, and improve healthy life expectancy, with the recognition that improvements in health care are enabled by a health workforce that is fit for purpose.
Although SARS-CoV-2 was first reported in China and neighbouring countries, the pandemic quickly spread around the globe. This paper explores national drivers of the pandemic and the radically ...different epidemiology and response in the West and in the East. We studied coronavirus disease (COVID-19) mortality until 31st December 2020, using an ecological study design, considering baseline characteristics and responses that might account for the uneven impact of the pandemic. A multivariable regression model was developed to explore key determinants. Key variables in the West were contrasted with those in the East, and speed of response was examined. Worldwide, 2.24 million COVID-19 deaths were documented in 2020. Western countries reported a median mortality 114 times that of the East (684 vs. 6.0 per million). Significant correlates of mortality in countries with at least 1 million population were median age, obesity prevalence, and democracy index; political stability and experience of SARS in 2002-2003 were protective; health system variables and income inequality were not associated. Outputs of the model were consistent when adjusted for stringency index, timeliness of stay-at-home requirements, and geographical autocorrelation. The West experiences a much higher COVID-19 mortality than the East. Despite structural advantages in the West, delays in national responses early on resulted in a loss of control over the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Although the early success of the East was sustained in the second half of 2020, the region remains extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 until enough people are immunized.
The Cost Disease Baumol, William J; Malach, Monte; Pablos-Méndez, Ariel ...
09/2012
eBook
The exploding cost of health care in the United States is a source of widespread alarm. Similarly, the upward spiral of college tuition fees is cause for serious concern. In this concise and ...illuminating book, well-known economist William J. Baumol explores the causes of these seemingly intractable problems and offers a surprisingly simple explanation. Baumol identifies the "cost disease" as a major source of rapidly rising costs in service sectors of the economy. Once we understand that disease, he explains, effective responses become apparent.Baumol presents his analysis with characteristic clarity, tracing the fast-rising prices of health care and education in the U.S. and other major industrial nations, then examining the underlying causes of the phenomenon, which have to do with the nature of providing labor-intensive services. The news is good, Baumol reassures, because the nature of the disease is such that society will be able to afford the rising costs.
At the Annual Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Financing Forum in Washington, DC, USA, on April 14-15, 2016, governments and development partners will debate how to raise and organise public and ...private resources needed for low-income and lower-middle-income countries to assure affordable, quality health care to all of their people by 2030.
Over the last 15 years, both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank Group (WBG), two major multilaterals for health and development, respectively, have taken on Universal Health Care ...(UHC) as an apex objective for all health sectors globally. This commentary traces the context that led UHC to the mainstream of global health and reflects on some of the ongoing challenges and opportunities linked to achieving UHC targets as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) health goal.
All for universal health coverage Garrett, Laurie, PhD; Chowdhury, A Mushtaque R, PhD; Pablos-Méndez, Ariel, MD
The Lancet (British edition),
10/2009, Letnik:
374, Številka:
9697
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Since the mid-20th century, most nations have signed many accords, establishing that provision of health is a fundamental human right;1-4 health for all should be not only an aspirational target but ...also an essential framework for the United Nations system;5,6 international donor mechanisms should include support for essential health systems and health-workforce development;7,8 poor population health contributes to social and economic instability and undermines development eff orts;9 and specifi c targets for country achievements in health should be set, and funded, through international instruments. Yet, the full bill for health spending in the world may already surpass $6 trillion or 10% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), and the fi nancing challenges in low-income and middle-income countries will increasingly be domestic, just as they are in high-income countries.11 There is increasing appreciation of the links between disease and population health and nations' security, foreign policy, economic, and general social wellbeing.12-14 Amid the unfolding H1N1A infl uenza pandemic, political leaders everywhere are appreciating the strong link between health systems in low-income and middle-income countries, and the ability of the global scientifi c community to acquire real-time assessments of epidemic spread and clinical eff ect. ... new threats to health arising from climate disruption suggest the need for vast infrastructures of adaptation to population-scale health disasters resulting from rising global carbon dioxide concentrations: catastrophic weather events, drought, heatstroke and dehydration, new infectious diseases emergence, food and malnutrition crises, and human migrations.15 On an immediate basis, the global campaign to provide antiretroviral drugs to people with HIV living in low-income countries, coupled with the worldwide increase in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other long-term management ailments, have prompted a shift in thinking about global health.
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