Global Health Policy

At a panel session during the 4th Conference of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) held in Washington, DC, a group of distinguished speakers and leaders on health in China – from the China Medical Board, top universities and the Ministry of Health – were tasked with discussing and elaborating on China's role in global health. The speakers briefly discussed China's history in international health activities (their first deployment of medical teams to Africa dates back to 1963!), different kinds of partnerships in global health - particularly among universities, and examples of current and upcoming initiatives. In sum, the panel suggested a promising future for China’s role in global health.

TB Trade-Offs

3/26/13

This is a joint post with Kate McQueston.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on a case of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) found in a man who had traveled through 13 countries, and was stopped when attempting to enter the United States. This story – and others like it – make the headlines because both XDR-TB and multiple drug-resistant (MDR) TB are highly contagious and resistant to most treatment, leaving very limited (and often very toxic) options to patients who develop the disease.

Saving Lives by Visualizing Deaths

3/22/13

Denizhan Duran

My recent wonky indulgence has been exploring the visualization tool of the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), which produces stunning graphs that display a snapshot of our planet’s disease burden across 5-year intervals from 1990 to 2010. The global and regional results of the study were launched in December 2012 in a special issue of The Lancet, and there are several country-specific papers expected this year.

New PPP Tests Innovations in Health Aid

3/18/13

At the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) recent annual meeting in Panama, the two richest men in the world –Carlos Slim and Bill Gates- discussed their contributions to a little known public-private partnership that aims to improve the health status of the poorest Central Americans and Mexicans – Salud Mesoamerica 2015 or SM2015.

Global Burden of Disease Estimates: Secret Recipes or Spoiled Ingredients?

3/11/13

Although counting the sick and dead in a country can seem quite dull if not morbid, these facts are critical inputs to designing any national health policy, let alone global priorities in health. Yet 85% of the world's population still lack systems that register births and deaths along with high-quality data on causes of death.

Performance-Based Financing Is a Major Opportunity for PEPFAR

3/6/13

The recent IOM evaluation of PEPFAR made clear that a key challenge for the program moving forward will be to get country governments to effectively assume primary responsibility of AIDS programs in their countries, both in terms of finances and “leadership”. But seeing that most PEPFAR funds are channeled through US-based contractors – and not country governments – it seems impractical to expect countries to be able to take real leadership and accountability for AIDS spending.

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Trade-offs in FY14: A Case for the Global Fund

3/5/13

Amid an increasingly complex fiscal environment in Washington (i.e. the newly-triggered sequester and the soon-to-expire FY13 continuing resolution), I can’t help but think about the tough trade-offs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must be considering as they finalize the President’s FY14 budget request to Congress, expected to be released in mid-March. From an economics perspective, I appreciate careful consideration of these trade-offs. But from a health economics perspective, I have concerns about what cuts will mean for critical US investments in the global fight against AIDS, TB and Malaria. For reasons that have mostly to do with timing, coming in low on the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria request for FY14 could spell disaster.

Institute of Medicine Pushes PEPFAR on Data Collection, Disclosure

2/25/13

Mead Over

The Institute of Medicine, the prestigious health arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has weighed in with a massive report on the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the multibillion dollar US effort to confront the epidemic in the developing world. The evaluation validates PEPFAR’s enormous reach during its first 10 years and identifies concrete actions that Congress and PEPFAR should take for the program to become more sustainable moving forward.

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What Will Universal Health Coverage Actually Cover?

2/20/13

This week the World Health Organization held a major international meeting on universal health coverage (UHC), with Director General Margaret Chan reaffirming her regard for universal coverage “as the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer.” While the term “universal” signals that the entire population will be “covered,” an unanswered question is: covered with what? Another way to put the question: What health benefits or interventions would represent coverage, taking into account UHC’s implicit goals of improved health, equity and financial protection?

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What We’re Looking For in the IOM Report on PEPFAR

2/19/13

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) will soon release its much anticipated report evaluating the implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Conducted at the request of Congress, the forthcoming report should follow up on points raised by a previous IOM report (2007), which provided a “short-term evaluation” of implementation after PEPFAR’s first three years, and which was soon followed by PEPFAR’s Congressional reauthorization in 2008. The new report is expected to broadly assess the cumulative performance of US HIV/AIDS programs, with two main tasks: