News of 22 March 2005

Nachrichten vom 22. März 2005

Liebe Leserin, lieber Leser,

An welchem Tag beginnt der Frühling? Und wann findet jährlich der Welttuberkulosetag statt? - Ich nehme an, Sie kennen nur die Antwort auf die erste Frage und wissen aufgrund Ihres Interesses an internationaler Gesundheit allenfalls, wo Sie die Antwort auf die zweite Frage mit überschaubarem Aufwand finden können...

"Internationale Tage" kommen und gehen, gerade jetzt zum Frühlingsbeginn. Sehen wir vor lauten internationalen Tagen die dahinter liegenden Anliegen nicht mehr? - Vor einem Jahr liess ich an dieser Stelle Alfonso Gumucio-Dagron zu Wort kommen. Er schrieb in einer Kolumne: "Take a good look at the calendar. You may not be fully aware, but almost every day in the year is the 'international day' for some good cause. The very day they happen, I realize they exist, and they seem to vanish immediately after."

Na und? Ist es denn so schlimm, wenn am 22. März niemand mehr vom Frühlingsanfang spricht - oder am 25. März niemand mehr vom Welttuberkulosetag? Ich denke nicht. Wenn wir dafür jährlich am 23. oder 24. März dank der Vermittlung durch interessierte Medien einen Blick auf die Realitäten der von TB betroffenen Menschen werfen können und einen Einblick in die Tätigkeit der im Kampf gegen die TB aktiven Organisationen erhalten, dann bin ich damit eigentlich schon ganz zufrieden. Und Sie?

Ich wünsche Ihnen einen guten Frühlingsbeginn!

Thomas Schwarz, Co-Geschäftsführer
Medicus Mundi Schweiz. Netzwerk Gesundheit für alle

Mitglieder und Partner des Netzwerks
International Days: Here they come again...
Internationale Gesundheit und mehr: Themen, Debatten, Denkanstösse, Werkzeuge

Newborn health. A key to child survival
The Lancet, 2005
(E) Eldis Health | This paper, the first in the Lancet Neonatal Survival series, focuses on the growing proportion of child deaths that occur in the neonatal period (the first four weeks of life), accounting for 38 per cent of all child deaths in 2000, or 4 million a year. Most of these deaths occur in the first week of life. However, preventing deaths of newborns has not been prioritised in either maternal or child health programmes. While 99 per cent of neonatal deaths arise in low and middle income countries, research focuses on the one per cent of deaths in rich countries.
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC18012

Tackle causes behind the causes of ill-health
Commission on Social Determinants of Health
(E) WHO | Much of the profound inequity in peoples' health within and between countries is socially determined. It arises from the circumstances in which people live and work. The thee-year, high-level Commission on Social Determinants of Health launched on March 17, 2005 will leverage change in policy and institutional practice by turning existing knowledge on social determinants into actionable global, regional and national policy agendas.
http://www.who.int/entity/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr13/en/index.html
http://www.who.int/social_determinants/en/

Health and social protection
Meeting the needs of the very poor
(E) Eldis Health Reporter | There has been a great deal of work on the formulation and implementation of strategies to reduce both poverty and the burden of disease, since the publication of World Development Reports in 1990 and 1993. This paper explores the policy implications of bringing these parallel areas of work together, focusing particularly on the very poor. The burden of disease focuses on the cost-effective prevention and treatment of disease; social protection gives more weight to the needs of the very poor and the impoverishing impact of shocks. (G. Bloom, IDPM, 2005)
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC17860

The ethics of research related to healthcare in developing countries
(E) PAHO equidad listserv | Many people in the developing world suffer from poor health and reduced life expectancy. The role of research that contributes to the development of appropriate treatments and disease prevention measures is vital. However, lack of resources and weak infrastructure mean that many researchers in developing countries have very limited capacity to conduct their own clinical research. They therefore often undertake research in partnership with groups from developed countries. A sound ethical framework is a crucial safeguard to avoid possible exploitation of research participants in these circumstances. (Nuffield Counsil on Bioethics, 2005)
http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/

The Courage to Change the Rules
A Proposal for an Essential Health R&D Treaty
(E) There is a growing demand from many quarters for a new international policy framework. A new international treaty on essential health R&D could provide a binding framework to redirect today's knowledge and scientific expertise to priority health needs. The treaty could help to cement new political commitments and coordinate complementary partnerships aimed at generating and rewarding health innovation as a global public good. (Nicoletta Dentico and Nathan Ford, in: PLoS medicine, February 2005)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020014

Is leprosy elimination goal realistic?
(E) Some two million people around the world are disabled as a result of leprosy. Multidrug therapy was introduced by WHO in 1982 as the key to eliminating this disfiguring and debilitating disease. In their public health review, Diana N.J. Lockwood & Sujai Suneetha find that this therapy has helped considerably towards eliminating leprosy worldwide but left gaps where the infection has not been adequately controlled by antibiotics alone. They conclude that leprosy should be treated as a chronic rather than acute infectious disease and that its treatment should be integrated into general healthcare systems in countries where that has not already happened. (in: WHO Bulletin, March 2005)
http://www.who.int/entity/bulletin/volumes/83/3/en/230.pdf

Updated International Drug Price Indicator Guide
MSH, 2004 edition
(E) E-Drug | "The Guide provides a spectrum of prices from 23 sources, including pharmaceutical suppliers, international development organizations, and government agencies. The Guide assists supply officers to determine the probable cost of pharmaceutical products for their programs, allows users to compare current prices paid to prices available on the international market or assess the potential financial impact of changes to a drug list, and helps to support rational drug use education."
http://erc.msh.org