Access to medicines
© 2000 Todd Shapera, Courtesy of Photoshare How best to provide effective protection for the poorest against the financial risks of ill health remains an unanswered policy question. Community-based health insurance (CBHI) schemes, by pooling risks and resources, can in principal offer protection against the risk of medical expenses, and make accessible health care services that would otherwise be unaffordable. The purpose… Read more
This article introduces a Series in The Lancet in which Srinath Reddy and colleagues call for universal health-care coverage in India, and outline why the development of national health provision is both timely and necessary. Without question, India has reached the right point in time to undertake universal health-care coverage, a move that is likely to… Read more
The recent UN General Assembly resolution calling for universal health coverage (UHC) was testimony to the continuing high-level political commitment to achievement of global health goals—an achievement that has the potential to transform health systems, especially for the poorest people. Fulfilment of this potential, however, requires a clear definition of the term UHC otherwise it… Read more
Community-based health insurance has been associated with increased hospitalisation in low-income settings, but with limited analysis of the illnesses for which claims are submitted. A review of claims submitted to VimoSEWA, an inpatient insurance scheme in Gujarat, India, found that fever, diarrhoea and hysterectomy, the latter at a mean age of 37 years, were the… Read more
In most parts of the world, health outcomes among boys and men continue to be substantially worse than among girls and women, yet this gender-based disparity in health has received little national, regional or global acknowledgement or attention from health policy-makers or health-care providers. Including both women and men in efforts to reduce gender inequalities… Read more
OBJECTIVE:To assess the effect of HIV care (including highly active antiretroviral therapy if eligible) on neurodevelopment. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. METHODS: Motor and mental development of 35 HIV-infected children (aged 18-71 months) was assessed at entry into care and after 6 and 12 months using age-appropriate tools. Developmental trajectory was compared with 35 HIV-uninfected, affected,… Read more
On 12 June 2014, Professor Mark Tomlinson from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, gave a seminar to DFID health advisors on maternal mental health in the context of community based home visiting. The seminar highlighted that in low and middle income countries women and girls carry a significant care burden. They are twice as likely as… Read more
My co-authors and I recently published a paper in which assess whether the efficiency of a hospital is affected by its type of ownership. Interestingly, in parallel unrelated efforts, the US think tank Centre for Global Development is also currently publishing a series of papers and blogs that seek to re-examine the role of hospitals… Read more
In this short video Kara Hanson from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) explains how universal health coverage (UHC) aims to make services available to everyone, without leading to financial impoverishment. The challenge is to provide the services that are needed while at the same time maintaining quality. To achieve UHC, health financing… Read more
The REACHOUT programme is an ambitious international research project helping to understand and develop the role of close-to-community providers of health care in preventing, diagnosing, and treating major illnesses and health conditions in rural and urban areas in Africa and Asia. The REACHOUT consortium is composed of eight partners and is co-ordinated by the Liverpool School… Read more
Access to reproductive health services remains a big challenge in rural remote areas in Tanzania, due to limited health personnel, the public’s poor health seeking behaviour, distance between the villages and facilities as well as medicine stock-outs in public facilities. Due to these reasons, people resort to visiting informal providers based in their communities such… Read more