Health
Health
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has exposed the limits of the current approach to the global governance of infectious diseases, which mixes public health and security interests. International efforts to strengthen ‘health security’ quickly faltered when confronted with weak national health systems. Costly attempts by Western governments to strengthen global health security by developing… Read more
As the Ebola crisis continues to unfold across West Africa and the international community belatedly responds, broader questions arise beyond the immediate challenges on the ground. These fundamentally challenge our understanding of ‘development’ as framed and practised in past decades. In order to understand the causes and consequences of this particular outbreak, and to foster… Read more
Background The UN will formulate ambitious Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, including one for health. Feasible goals with some quantifiable, measurable targets can influence governments. We propose, as a quatitative health target, “Avoid in each country 40% of premature deaths (under-70 deaths that would be seen in the 2030 population at 2010 death rates), and… Read more
Visual and information technologies are now more diversified and widely accessible. Digital images and mapping enhance access and exchange on local realities; social media (blogs, tweets and others) provide new methods for communicating experience for collective analysis, mobile phones facilitate communication and pooling of evidence across wider social networks and mapping and crowd-sourcing technology provide… Read more
In this paper the authors argue that a gender analysis is fundamental to health and health planning. We begin with a definition of gender and related concepts including equity and equality. There is discussion on why gender is key to understanding all dimensions of health including health care, health seeking behaviour and health status, and… Read more
This paper argues that a focus on the middle groups in a multi-dimensional socioeconomic ordering can provide valuable insights into how different axes of advantage and disadvantage intersect with each other. It develops the elements of a framework to analyse the middle groups through an intersectional analysis, and uses it to explore how such groups… Read more
Universal coverage by health services is one of the core obligations that any legitimate government should fulfil vis-à-vis its citizens. However, universal coverage may not in itself ensure universal access to health care. Among the many challenges to ensuring universal coverage as well as access to health care are structural inequalities by caste, race, ethnicity… Read more
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
The psychological states of Dominican women with chronic lymphedema and elephantiasis of the leg and the coping strategies they used to ameliorate the negative psychological effects of this condition were explored using modified precepts of grounded theory method. Qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviewing and focus group discussions held in the Dominican Republic. Thematic… Read more
The post-conflict or post-crisis period provides the opportunity for wide-ranging public sector reforms: donors fund rebuilding and reform efforts, social norms are in a state of flux, and the political climate may be conducive to change. This reform period presents favourable circumstances for the promotion of gender equity in multiple social arenas, including the health… 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