global health Archives - Humanosphere

global health

Outsourcing health care: The global growth of medical tourism |

Guest contributor Jill Hodges is a Seattle-based writer and lead editor of a new book Risks and Challenges in Medical Tourism. This is the first of her two-part series examining the growth of this globalized health industry. Here’s the second, a focus on Panama.

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By Jill Hodges

In some respects, the growth of the medical tourism industry relies on the failures of domestic health systems.

“Medical tourists” travel from the US to Central and South America for affordable treatments, from the UK to India for shorter waits, from Nigeria to Europe for decent quality services.

As frustration with the US health care system mounts, so do calls to outsource our health care.

The hope is that medical tourism can provide fixes not only for individual patients, but also for our health system—that US patients seeking less expensive bariatric surgery in Colombia or cancer treatments in Singapore could reduce our overall health care tab, and that global competition potentially could encourage greater efficiency in the US.

Medical tourism is, in one sense, a neglected facet of global health – one which could perhaps help achieve the goal of expanded access to care or, conversely, undermine basic public health in low- and middle-income countries. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, global health, Jill Hodges, medical tourism, universal health care

March 12, 2013 | 9:00 AM | By Tom Paulson |

A King County Yankee amid Kenya’s Electoral Count |

Apologies to Mark Twain, for bastardizing the title of his novel about a Connecticut engineer transported back to King Arthur’s time. But it seemed like a nice, phonetic headline for this guest column by Michael Golomb, a University of Washington student who, with his physician fiance Aliza Monroe-Wise, is in Kenya working on a variety of development & health issues. I asked Mike for his perspective on Kenya’s recent elections. More about both of them at bottom.

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By Michael Golomb

As an American student temporarily living in Kenya and witness to the recent elections here, I’ve gained a unique perspective on how distinctly different a story looks depending upon how it’s covered and by whom.

: Polling station in a Maasai village. Laikipia district, central Kenya; Mike Golomb

Leading up to Kenya’s election, western media mostly ran with headlines playing up the fear of political violence while Kenyan newspapers reported on the problems, but also on the progress being made, the many peace parades and positive political dynamics.

On March 9^th, Uhuru Kenyatta was announced the winner of the election by both the Kenyan government and international observers. His challenger, Raila Odinga, condemned the process as fraudulent – but also called upon his supporters to refrain from violence and said that the matter would be taken up by the Kenyan judiciary at a later date.

So far, only isolated demonstrations have occurred. There have been no widespread demonstrations or violence like what took place here in 2007 and 2008. Odinga’s camp has made numerous public statements urging peace and denouncing violence as a roadblock to electoral justice.

In Nairobi, the day after the announcement of Uhuru’s win, one Kenyan told me, “We are just happy to move past this. It is time for Kenyans to go back to our lives.”

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Basics, elections, global health, Kenya, Mike Golomb, University of Washington

February 12, 2013 | 11:44 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Food & beverage industries undermining global health |

: Flickr, su-lin

The ‘junk food’ industry is a major threat to global health, according to study published in The Lancet and as reported by The Guardian, Reuters, the Independent and other news organizations.

Makers of sugary drinks, high-caloric processed foods and other unhealthy food products are employing some of the same tactics of the tobacco industry to argue against causality (i.e., that high-sugar or high-fat foods can be blamed for the epidemic of obesity, diabetes and heart disease) and for self-regulation, contend the Australian scientists who wrote the report.

“”These industries are taking governments for a ride by saying: ‘We are part of the solution’ and installing codes they know will have no effect,” said Professor Rob Moodie at the University of Melbourne.

What’s at issue here is the widespread recognition within the public health and global health community that a lot of death and disability is caused by so-called non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and the like. Poor diets and the rising global tide in obesity contributes to this problem.

In 2010, nearly 35 million people died from these diseases – or 65 percent of all deaths that year. The NCD death toll is expected to rise to 50 million deaths a year by 2030 if the trend continues. The World Health Organisation has set a target to reduce these deaths by 25 percent by 2025.

Given the increased attention to the toll taken by the NCDs, many health experts argue for imposing regulations and limits on especially unhealthy foods — much like health experts have done for tobacco. Not surprisingly, some within the food and beverage industry don’t like this idea. Some of the first signs of industry’s push-back on this global health initiative emerged at the UN more than a year ago.

Here are a few related, earlier stories:

World Health Organization partners with junk food makers to fight obesity

Pepsi exec tries to convince people that industry is serious about fighting bad food

The news reports cited at the top provide a good overview of the study and the issue, but this report from ABC Science (the ABC, in this case, referring to Australian Broadcasting Service) provides more depth and commentary from the researchers.

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, food industry, global health, non-communicable diseases

February 6, 2013 | 1:58 PM | By Tom Paulson |

Global health spending is stable, non-communicable diseases neglected |

Some of the world’s leading global health number-crunchers, at the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, wanted to know if a perceived slowdown in what had been a rapidly increasing war chest for fighting diseases of poverty represented The End of the Global Age for global health.

Funding has flattened out, the study reports, but on a plateau that reveals one category of huge neglect – non-communicable diseases.

“From the late 1990s to 2010, we saw a period of rapidly increasing funding for global health,” said Michael Hanlon, one of the lead authors of the report released today entitled Financing Global Health 2012: The End of the Golden Age? The IHME report follows up several earlier, similar reports which revealed a plateau, and even a decline between 2010 and 2011, in new funding for global health activities.

“I think the good news here is that we’re not seeing a decline yet and are maintaining a high level of funding,” Hanlon said. “That could change, of course, but I think it’s fair to say we’ve ended the phase of rapid increases in funding and entered a new phase, a maintenance phase.”

Here’s an illustration from the IHME report showing, over the past 10 years or so, the overall increase in development assistance for health (DAH).

So it’s mostly good news, at least for those who believe spending on global health is good.

Whether this is good enough (relative to what we spend on dog food, cosmetics and bottled water – not to mention military adventures or bailing out struggling bankers) is another question, of course. And whether the money is going where it’s most needed is another question raised by this report. Following are some highlights: Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Amanda Glassman, Chris Murray, financing, global health, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Michael Hanlon

October 4, 2012 | 11:30 AM | By Tom Paulson |

Seattle talk: Philanthro-capitalism and the politics behind the global health agenda |

On Friday, 3:30-6 pm, UW Health Sciences Hogness Auditorium, historian Anne-Emanuelle Birn gave the Stephen Stewart Gloyd endowed lecture, “Philanthrocapitalism, Cooption and the Politics of Global Health Agenda-Setting.”

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The words “global health” usually conjure images of health workers vaccinating children in Africa, major initiatives aimed at getting anti-HIV drugs or anti-malaria bed nets out to people in poor communities across the globe or any number of other noble efforts aimed at fighting diseases of poverty.

Most don’t think of global health as a means to also advance corporate or political agendas.

Anne-Emanuelle Birn

But Anne-Emanuelle Birn does and on Friday, at a UW symposium, she explained why.

Birn’s a historian who literally wrote the book on global health! (Well, okay, she’s first author on the 3rd edition of it … known as the Textbook of International Health). The popular narrative of global health, she says, is too often a simplistic portrayal of the field as a charitable enterprise largely devoid of political and economic power or social conflict.

“There’s an incredible amount of naivete and lack of knowledge about all this,” said Birn. “To begin with, it’s important to recognize that philanthropy emerged in the United States in the early 20th century as an alternative to the welfare state.”

That’s important, she explained, because it provides a lens through which to evaluate the strategies and choices made by philanthropists to advance their goals. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Politics, Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, global health, philanthropy, politics, Rockefeller Foundation, University of Washington

July 31, 2012 | 2:57 PM | By Daniel Drake |

Ugandan President calls on citizens to help quell Ebola outbreak |

By Daniel Drake

Two more people have died and six others quarantined after an outbreak of Ebola was confirmed in western Uganda this weekend.

In a state broadcast yesterday, President Yoweri Museveni called on Ugandans to help stomp out the outbreak by avoiding physical contact and reporting symptoms quickly.

“I appeal to you to first of all report all cases which appear to be like Ebola, and these are high fever, vomiting, sometimes diarrhoea, and with bleeding,” Museveni added. “When you handle this case well you can eliminate Ebola quickly.”

Government officials confirmed the outbreak at a press conference Saturday, causing some patients to flee Kagadi Hospital where victims are being treated. At the conference, officials confirmed 20 infections and 14 deaths.

President Yoweri Museveni, speaking at the London Summit on Family Planning on July 11, 2012. Photo via DFID - UK Department for International Development on Flickr.

The virus appeared a month ago in the Kibaale district—105 miles west of the capital—but was initially misdiagnosed because it didn’t trigger the usual symptoms.

Officials are now trying to contain the outbreak and keep it away from the nation’s capital Kampala. One death has already been confirmed within the city—a health worker who is believed to have traveled there independently from the Kibaale district after her three-month old child died.

“So far no infections have occurred,” a WHO spokesperson told the Associated Press.

There is no treatment or vaccine against Ebola, which is transmitted between both humans and non-human primates through close physical contact. The virus causes hemorrhagic fever, which kills the majority of its victims. Health care workers have frequently been infected while treating Ebola patients. (Reuters)

Officials are containing the outbreak by isolating anyone suspected of infection and asking them who they were in contact with recently—a technique known as “contact tracking.” (NPR)

See Also:

FILED UNDER: Health, Ebola, fever, global health, kampala, kibaale, Museveni, Uganda, virus

July 3, 2012 | 1:16 PM | By Tom Paulson |

The Gates Foundation connection to the Glaxo drug fraud scandal |

In a ‘landmark’ legal case, the pharmaceutical giant firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) pled guilty this week to engaging in fraudulent, criminal behavior which included covering up adverse drug side-effects, promoting ineffective therapies and hiding unfavorable data — and will pay a record $3 billion in fines.

Most news reports quoted GSK’s CEO Andrew Witty blaming the misconduct on others and “a different era for the company,” adding that such behavior will not be tolerated. “I want to express our regret and reiterate that we have learnt from the mistakes that were made.”

Gates Foundation

Tachi Yamada

One of the most high-profile GSK executives alleged to have engaged in misbehavior is Tachi Yamada, former head of global health for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who was before that head of research and development for GSK.

Yamada, while he was head of global health for Gates Fdn, was accused in a U.S. Senate hearing of bullying a scientist to not publish negative findings about a GSK diabetes drug. This was fairly big news at the time and such behavior is part of the federal complaint against the drug firm.

As a journalist blogger, I don’t have as much time as the major news outlets to do a lot of original reporting so I count on the big guns to do the work which I can then plagiarize, uh, I mean ‘curate.’

But so far as I can tell, nobody has made any mention of Yamada’s role in this case. Yet he was pretty high profile — at the center of the controversy surrounding the drug company’s attempt to cover-up adverse side effects of its diabetes drug Avandia.

Here are some of the stories that came out years ago, while he was at the Gates Foundation:

CBS News Meet Glaxo’s Fixer

Guardian Glaxo’s handling of drug Avandia damned by US Senate

ABC News Charity chief accused of bullying critic

Wall Street Journal Glaxo’s criticized for response to critics

Yet none of the news stories about this record-setting case mentions Tachi Yamada. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Justice, Science, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, fraud, GlaxoSmithKline, global health, Tachi Yamada

April 24, 2012 | 9:30 AM | By Guest |

UW conference explores the intersection of justice and health |

Kavita Ramdas, Executive Director of the Program on Social Entrepreneurship at Stanford, will set the tone.

By Claudia Rowe, special correspondent

The relationship between social justice and human health is at the heart of an upcoming conference at the University of Washington expected to draw hundreds of students and policy experts to Seattle at the end of this month.

Co-sponsored by more than two dozen colleges and universities, The 9th Annual Western Regional International Health Conference highlights global perspectives on mental health; marginalized populations; clinical issues; funding; communications; and the environment. It runs April 27-29.

“You’ll have people with PhDs and MDs sitting on panels with graduate students, all of them talking about the research they’re doing,” said Lisa Lester, an organizer and UW senior majoring in Spanish and international studies.

“It’s just very exciting and we’ve gotten just huge amounts of support. I definitely get the sense that in Seattle global health is a field that’s on the rise.”