Tag: health workers
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Aug 3, 2010
Preventing AIDS Deaths Need Not Be a Fight: A Health Systems Approach
This post was originally published on the CapacityPlus blog (August 2, 2010). In the Washington Post article “Rage, panic in AIDS fight” , David Brown alleges that the goal of health systems strengthening is “hard-to-define.” In fact, it is not. Whatever the disease or health sector of priority—be it HIV/AIDS, malaria, family planning, labor and delivery, or pneumonia—six components of the health system must be functioning and integrated in order for health impacts to be maximized. These components are: Service delivery Medical products, vaccines, and technology Financing Health information systems Leadership and governance The health workforce—arguably most important of all. The challenge has not been that health systems are hard to define, but rather that advocates for funding for specific diseases are generating parallel health systems that are not integrated, not sustainable, and not cost-effective. While HIV/AIDS activists lobby for funding in the face of 2.5 million people who die each year from HIV/AIDS, Ezekiel J. Emanuel , President Obama’s special adviser for health policy,... Read More » -
Apr 16, 2010
Lancet Reports Steady Decline in Maternal Deaths Throughout the World: Key Advances in Saving Lives
Findings from secondary data sources of maternal mortality of 181 countries strongly suggest that the number of women dying from pregnancy or childbirth has declined sharply since 1980. The New York Times covered the story on April 13, citing research published in the Lancet . (Free registration is required to view the Lancet article.) Maternal mortality has always been one of the most difficult indications of progress to measure, as noted in the Lancet article. We are thrilled that new combined methodologies have made it possible to much more accurately track trends in maternal deaths—and that the news is good! The total number of maternal deaths in 2008 was estimated at 342,900, down from 526,300 in 1980. Although, as the Lancet points out, there are still only 23 countries that are truly on track to reach the Millennium Development Goal of a 75% reduction in maternal mortality rates by 2015—many countries are now achieving accelerated progress. Key advances in saving lives have included better care for obstetric complications, which are the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age in developing countries (where... Read More »
