unintended consequences (david egilman, 03 June 2008)
Your paper ends by warning that "The transformation of the Global Fund into a 'diagonal' and ultimately perhaps 'horizontal' financing approach should happen gradually and carefully, and be accompanied by measures to safeguard its exceptional features."This implies that your vertical programs can just be funded willy nilly (as they have been) without much if any thought (never mind study) about unintended adverse consequences. These take many forms, only one of which you mention (health budget substitution). An anecdote may suffice here. Haitian HIV education programs suffer since many Haitians have realized that becoming HIV positive is their best hope for survival. They then qualify for food, job training & a job and all kinds of other services. Trickle down is not working either. In...
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Comment on: Ooms et al. Globalization and Health, 4:6
Mobile phone transcends barriers in health system -NID in India (Rajesh Sood, 09 May 2008)
In health programmes with outreach components, we found mobile phone to be a useful asset in overcoming barriers and improving performance.Supervision in National Immunisation Days is often not easy and is the weakest link. A supervisior is expected to visit ten house to house teams in a day (often in difficult terrain over sparsely populated hamlets). When the supervisor visits the hamlet, the teams may have not arrieved or have already left, thus hampering corodination and timely feedback. Waiting or huting for the team is not practicable as he/she has to move to the next hamlet and oversee the next team with a limited transport support. Moreover, even if both are present in same area they may not be able to establish contact.During revising microplannings in one block of District...
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Shortly following publication of this article, Dr. Aldar S. Bourinbaiar of Immunitor USA Inc sent me an article ["Low-Cost Anti-HIV Compounds: Potential Application for AIDS Therapy in Developing Countries" by Aldar S. Bourinbaiar and Vichai Jirathitikal, Current Pharmaceutical Design, 2003, 9 (18): 1419-1431] that provided additional information on the distribution of V-1 Immunitor in Thailand and the Thai government's response.The article states that as of 2003, V-1 Immunitor had been distributed to about 65,000 HIV-infected individuals in Thailand and 50 countries around the world. Regarding the distribution of the medicine in Thailand, the article states:"Public opinion on V1 became sharply divided in the summer of 2001 when V1 was given away free-of-charge by local charities during...
read full comment
Siegel and Narayan have really hit upon the fundamental challenges confronting the global effort (or lack thereof) to combat diabetes. My colleagues and I (Stuart A. Seale MD and Franlin House MD) have been on the road spreading a similar message about how the former "diseases of kings" are rapidly spreading through the non-Western world, thanks in part to the "McDonaldization" of diets. Dr. House has seen this for decades in Micronesia, where Type-2 diabetes was nearly unheard of two generations ago, and is now rampant, even among the young. In our opinion, the key to stopping this tsunami of diabetes is lifestyle modification, not more medicine, though of course this is easier said than done. Like our colleague T. Colin Cambpell who authored The China Study, we're gravely concerned...
read full comment
Comment on: Siegel et al. Globalization and Health, 4:3
Timely and needed (Mattie Tolley, 19 June 2007)
Thank you for this excellent research. As a recently retired but still active nurse educator focusing on community and global health the issues you address are so relevant and timely. However there is little evidence to back up what is clear to some of us but not to other colleagues who have a narrower view. Now if you will just continue your research and speak to nursing education directly!
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Thai compulsory license (CL) not based on 31 (f) waiver (Ellen 't Hoen, 19 June 2007)
The article mistakenly presents the compulsory licenses issued by the Thai governement as based on the WTO waiver of 31(f) also known as the August 30 decision or paragraph 6 solution. However the Thai government use licenses are straightforward article 31 licenses. There was no need for a waiver of the TRIPS provision that a CL is predominantly for the suply of the domestic market because the products Thailand is importing from India are not patent protected in India and can be freely shipped to a country that has issued a CL (or where patents are not in place). In the case Thailand will produce domestically it has fulfilled the requirement that a CL is predominantly for the domestic market and thus is there no need for a wauver. See for details of the Thai CLs:...
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Comment on: Kerry et al. Globalization and Health, 3:3
Cell phones as a health care intervention in Peru: The Cell-PREVEN project (Walter H. Curioso, 12 October 2006)
Dear editor,In response to the article, “Can the ubiquitous power of mobile phones be used to improve health outcomes in developing countries?” (May 23, 2006), our answer is an empirical ‘yes’.Author Warren Kaplan wrote that “Asides from recent work in South Africa, there is almost no literature on using mobile telephones as a healthcare intervention for chronic, non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and for chronic, communicable diseases such as HIV and TB (in developing countries). [1]” We would like to share our experience with Cell-PREVEN [2], a real-time surveillance system using cell phones to collect data from female sex workers in Peru [3]. Cell-PREVEN is part of a large randomized trial in Peru in 20...
read full comment
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Latest comments
unintended consequences (david egilman, 03 June 2008)
Your paper ends by warning that "The transformation of the Global Fund into a 'diagonal' and ultimately perhaps 'horizontal' financing approach should happen gradually and carefully, and be accompanied by measures to safeguard its exceptional features."This implies that your vertical programs can just be funded willy nilly (as they have been) without much if any thought (never mind study) about unintended adverse consequences. These take many forms, only one of which you mention (health budget substitution). An anecdote may suffice here. Haitian HIV education programs suffer since many Haitians have realized that becoming HIV positive is their best hope for survival. They then qualify for food, job training & a job and all kinds of other services. Trickle down is not working either. In... read full comment
Comment on: Ooms et al. Globalization and Health, 4:6
Mobile phone transcends barriers in health system -NID in India (Rajesh Sood, 09 May 2008)
In health programmes with outreach components, we found mobile phone to be a useful asset in overcoming barriers and improving performance.Supervision in National Immunisation Days is often not easy and is the weakest link. A supervisior is expected to visit ten house to house teams in a day (often in difficult terrain over sparsely populated hamlets). When the supervisor visits the hamlet, the teams may have not arrieved or have already left, thus hampering corodination and timely feedback. Waiting or huting for the team is not practicable as he/she has to move to the next hamlet and oversee the next team with a limited transport support. Moreover, even if both are present in same area they may not be able to establish contact.During revising microplannings in one block of District... read full comment
Comment on: Kaplan Globalization and Health, 2:9
V-1 Immunitor (Joseph Amon, 09 May 2008)
Shortly following publication of this article, Dr. Aldar S. Bourinbaiar of Immunitor USA Inc sent me an article ["Low-Cost Anti-HIV Compounds: Potential Application for AIDS Therapy in Developing Countries" by Aldar S. Bourinbaiar and Vichai Jirathitikal, Current Pharmaceutical Design, 2003, 9 (18): 1419-1431] that provided additional information on the distribution of V-1 Immunitor in Thailand and the Thai government's response.The article states that as of 2003, V-1 Immunitor had been distributed to about 65,000 HIV-infected individuals in Thailand and 50 countries around the world. Regarding the distribution of the medicine in Thailand, the article states:"Public opinion on V1 became sharply divided in the summer of 2001 when V1 was given away free-of-charge by local charities during... read full comment
Comment on: Amon Globalization and Health, 4:5
Kudos (Ian Blake Newman, 20 February 2008)
Siegel and Narayan have really hit upon the fundamental challenges confronting the global effort (or lack thereof) to combat diabetes. My colleagues and I (Stuart A. Seale MD and Franlin House MD) have been on the road spreading a similar message about how the former "diseases of kings" are rapidly spreading through the non-Western world, thanks in part to the "McDonaldization" of diets. Dr. House has seen this for decades in Micronesia, where Type-2 diabetes was nearly unheard of two generations ago, and is now rampant, even among the young. In our opinion, the key to stopping this tsunami of diabetes is lifestyle modification, not more medicine, though of course this is easier said than done. Like our colleague T. Colin Cambpell who authored The China Study, we're gravely concerned... read full comment
Comment on: Siegel et al. Globalization and Health, 4:3
Timely and needed (Mattie Tolley, 19 June 2007)
Thank you for this excellent research. As a recently retired but still active nurse educator focusing on community and global health the issues you address are so relevant and timely. However there is little evidence to back up what is clear to some of us but not to other colleagues who have a narrower view. Now if you will just continue your research and speak to nursing education directly! read full comment
Comment on: Koehn Globalization and Health, 2:2
Thai compulsory license (CL) not based on 31 (f) waiver (Ellen 't Hoen, 19 June 2007)
The article mistakenly presents the compulsory licenses issued by the Thai governement as based on the WTO waiver of 31(f) also known as the August 30 decision or paragraph 6 solution. However the Thai government use licenses are straightforward article 31 licenses. There was no need for a waiver of the TRIPS provision that a CL is predominantly for the suply of the domestic market because the products Thailand is importing from India are not patent protected in India and can be freely shipped to a country that has issued a CL (or where patents are not in place). In the case Thailand will produce domestically it has fulfilled the requirement that a CL is predominantly for the domestic market and thus is there no need for a wauver. See for details of the Thai CLs:... read full comment
Comment on: Kerry et al. Globalization and Health, 3:3
Cell phones as a health care intervention in Peru: The Cell-PREVEN project (Walter H. Curioso, 12 October 2006)
Dear editor,In response to the article, “Can the ubiquitous power of mobile phones be used to improve health outcomes in developing countries?” (May 23, 2006), our answer is an empirical ‘yes’.Author Warren Kaplan wrote that “Asides from recent work in South Africa, there is almost no literature on using mobile telephones as a healthcare intervention for chronic, non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and for chronic, communicable diseases such as HIV and TB (in developing countries). [1]” We would like to share our experience with Cell-PREVEN [2], a real-time surveillance system using cell phones to collect data from female sex workers in Peru [3]. Cell-PREVEN is part of a large randomized trial in Peru in 20... read full comment
Comment on: Kaplan Globalization and Health, 2:9