1,721,316 research outputs found
Global health philanthropy and institutional relationships: how should conflicts of interest be addressed?
Full text linkDavid Stuckler and colleagues examine five large private global health foundations and report on the scope of relationships between these tax-exempt foundations and for-profit corporations including major food and pharmaceutical companies
The production of consumption: addressing the impact of mineral mining on tuberculosis in southern Africa
Full text linkAbstract Background Miners in southern Africa experience incident rates of tuberculosis up to ten times greater than the general population. Migration to and from mines may be amplifying tuberculosis epidemics in the general population. Discussion Migration to and from mineral mines contributes to HIV risks and associated tuberculosis incidence. Health and safety conditions within mines also promote the risk of silicosis (a tuberculosis risk factor) and transmission of tuberculosis bacilli in close quarters. In the context of migration, current tuberculosis prevention and treatment strategies often fail to provide sufficient continuity of care to ensure appropriate tuberculosis detection and treatment. Reports from Lesotho and South Africa suggest that miners pose transmission risks to other household or community members as they travel home undetected or inadequately treated, particularly with drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis. Reducing risky exposures on the mines, enhancing the continuity of primary care services, and improving the enforcement of occupational health codes may mitigate the harmful association between mineral mining activities and tuberculosis incidence among affected communities. Summary Tuberculosis incidence appears to be amplified by mineral mining operations in southern Africa. A number of immediately-available measures to improve continuity of care for miners, change recruitment and compensation practices, and reduce the primary risk of infection may critically mitigate the negative association between mineral mining and tuberculosis.</p
A Global Social Support System: What the International Community Could Learn From the United States’ National Basketball Association’s Scheme for Redistribution of New Talent
Full text linkIf global trade were fair, it is argued, then international aid would be unnecessary and inequalities inherent to the economic system would be justifiable. Here, we argue that while global trade is unfair, in part because richer countries set the rules, we believe that additional interventions must go beyond trade regulation and short-term aid to redress inequalities among countries that will persist and possibly worsen in spite of such measures. Drawing on an example of measures taken to redress the characteristics of a system that inherently increases inequality, the ability of dominant teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) to recruit the most talented players, we argue that market-based competition even in the context of fair rules will create and amplify economic inequalities. We argue that, just as the NBA created a draft to reduce the emergence of severe inequalities among teams, systems of social support within richer countries should be paralleled by a global system to counterbalance persisting inequalities among countries that are produced by market forces. We explain how such a mechanism might operate among integrated market economies, and identify the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) as an example of such an emerging form of global social support
Manufacturing epidemics: the role of global producers in increased consumption of unhealthy commodities including processed foods, alcohol, and tobacco.
Full text linkIn an article that forms part of the PLoS Medicine series on Big Food, David Stuckler and colleagues report that unhealthy packaged foods are being consumed rapidly in low- and middle-income countries, consistent with rapid expansion of multinational food companies into emerging markets and fueling obesity and chronic disease epidemics
Towards a Global Social Support System: A Response to the Recent Commentaries.
Full text linkWhen we invoked the example of the US National Basketball Association’s (NBA’s) scheme for redistribution of new talent as a model offering lessons for a possible future global social support system we hoped that we would stimulate debate. Consequently, we are very grateful to Goldblatt1 and Labonté2 for their insightful commentaries that explore some of the issues that arise from our suggestio
Tuberculosis control and economic recession: longitudinal study of data from 21 European countries, 1991-2012.
Full text linkOBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the economic recession affected the control of tuberculosis in the European Union. METHODS: Multivariate regression models were used to quantify the association between gross domestic product, public health expenditure and tuberculosis case detection rates, using data from 21 European Union member states (1991-2012). The estimated changes in case detection attributable to the recession were combined with mathematical models of tuberculosis transmission, to project the potential influence of the recession on tuberculosis epidemiology until 2030. FINDINGS: Between 1991 and 2007, detection rates for sputum-smear-positive tuberculosis in the European Union were stable at approximately 85%. During the economic recession (2008-2011) detection rates declined by a mean of 5.22% (95% confidence interval, CI: 2.54-7.90) but treatment success rates showed no significant change (P = 0.62). A fall in economic output of 100 United States dollars per capita was associated with a 0.22% (95% CI: 0.05-0.39) mean reduction in the tuberculosis case detection rate. An equivalent fall in spending on public health services was associated with a 2.74% (95% CI: 0.31-5.16) mean reduction in the detection rate. Mathematical models suggest that the recession and consequent austerity policies will lead to increases in tuberculosis prevalence and tuberculosis-attributable mortality that are projected to persist for over a decade. CONCLUSION: Across the European Union, reductions in spending on public health services appear to have reduced tuberculosis case detection and to have increased the long-term risk of a resurgence in the disease
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