-
The global health crisis you’ve never heard of
When we talk about global health challenges, we often cite the ones that receive the most attention or funding. AIDS and malaria come to mind. You probably don’t think about injuries sustained from cooking fires or acid attacks. But the truth is, severe burns are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in developing countries — a crisis afflicting the poor that hardly anyone is talking about.In resource-strained parts of the world, open fires and kerosene cookstoves are relied upon for cooking, heating and lighting. Add in to the mix overcrowded living conditions, lack of proper fire safety measures, loose clothing worn by women and insufficient supervision of children. Suddenly, it’s not hard to see why someone is severely burned every three seconds in a developing country.That’s more than 10 million people each year. For those burn survivors around the world who do not have access to basic medical care, burns are left to heal by themselves, creating a permanent tightening of the skin as the burn wound heals. As a result, even a minor burn can restrict one’s ability to walk or cause a working hand to become an unusable fist.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
-
Microfinance, Macro Health Benefits: Partnerships can plug service delivery gaps on the way to universal care
Financial service providers are delivering significant aspects of health care in India, giving a glimpse of how some of the biggest challenges of universal health coverage might be addressed.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
The Future of Health Care Access
For generations, the model of how people in the developed world access health care services has involved face-to-face encounters between doctors and patients in brick-and-mortar medical facilities. The contours of that model are well known: A patient arrives in a clinic, registers her insurance at the front desk, and waits. Then a nurse or an aide ushers her into a sterile room, takes her vital signs, and hands her a paper gown. Some minutes later, a doctor in a white coat enters the room, asks her questions for 10 minutes or so, and conducts a brief physical examination. The doctor issues a diagnosis, writes a prescription, and sends the patient off to make a copayment. Afterward, the patient will drive to a local pharmacy to purchase medication. She is one of 40 patients whom the doctor will see that day.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
Building public-private partnerships for better access to health products
Improving health outcomes for the most vulnerable people requires global funding and collaboration – but neither will have an impact without effective systems for delivering health products and care. Strong supply chains, while critical for improving lives, are rarely the focus of programmes that aim to achieve the millennium development goals or end deaths from preventable disease. As World Health Organisation director-general Dr. Margaret Chan has said, "All the donated drugs in the world won't do any good without an infrastructure for their delivery."
- Categories
- Health Care
-
Pakistan polio outbreak puts global eradication at risk
A Taliban ban on vaccination is exacerbating a serious polio outbreak in Pakistan, threatening to derail dramatic progress made this year towards wiping out the disease worldwide, health officials say.Health teams in Pakistan have been attacked repeatedly since the Taliban denounced vaccines as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims and imposed bans on inoculation in June 2012.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- public health
-
Oiling the Vaccine Supply Chain: Corporate expertise helps give more kids a shot at a healthy life
About 20 percent of the world’s children go unvaccinated, leading to more than 1.5 million avoidable deaths annually. Many are due to inadequate vaccine delivery systems. A new initiative aims to ease this problem by tapping into global corporations’ supply chain expertise.
- Categories
- Health Care
-
Birth advice by text message: Phone medicine saving lives in Kenya
A young woman steals her way down darkened passages in Korogocho -- one of Kenya's largest slums. Crime, prostitution and drug use are rampant in the locality where a quarter of a million people reside and the young woman's eyes dart around erratically on the lookout for danger. It should be one of the happiest days of her life -- she is pregnant and has just gone into labor. She is also one of the fortunate few that can afford to go to hospital. Some women face a homebirth where, instead of medical equipment, they must make do with cotton wool and razorblades. But the journey to hospital leaves her vulnerable to opportunistic assault.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
-
Low-cost healthcare: US can take cue from India
The United States may be good at innovations in medicines, procedures and equipment. But it should learn from India how to keep health care affordable, says a new study. India's private hospitals provided world-class health care at a fraction of US prices using innovative ways to manage costs, personnel, equipment and even real estate.
- Categories
- Education, Health Care
- Region
- South Asia
The Best of NextBillion in Your Inbox Each Week!
Subscribe to NB Notes for news, jobs & on-the-ground insights from the world of emerging markets business.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.