Useful Resources
Global Health: Progress amid Despair
December 15, 2008
Although some international health indicators have improved substantially in the last decade, poverty, conflict, lack of access to health care and/or education, poor sterilization techniques, evolving human migration patterns, unsafe water, new infectious agents and changing development activities all contribute to what seems a dismal global health climate.
Despite targeted efforts by the World Health Organization, nongovernmental organizations, and governments, more than 80 percent of deaths from infectious diseases worldwide continue to be caused by just a handful of diseases, including lower respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, malaria and measles, according to an update of the WHO's Global Burden of Disease report issued in 2008. (An updated study is expected to be released in late 2010.) Since 1981, an estimated 25 million people have died from AIDS alone, according to the 2008 United Nations Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic. Children younger than age 5 face multiple other health challenges, including birth injuries, marasmus (protein-energy malnutrition) and infection. Other diseases, such as intestinal parasites and leprosy, continue to cause chronic disability and stigma. Despite political impediments to progress, well-funded organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are conducting specialized research and translating that research into both policy and on-the-ground services in developing countries. Updated April 2010
Resource Links
Understanding the Issue
A Kaiser Family Foundation guide that provides an overview and basic information on diseases and health conditions in developing countries around the world.
This links to the most recent World Health Report, which describes threats to global public health and global security, such as disease outbreaks, epidemics, industrial accidents and other health emergencies. Figures and maps can be downloaded by chapter for further comprehension.
The foundation funds both medical research and on-the-ground health care. The site link is organized into priority diseases and conditions, breakthrough science, initiatives and grant-seeking categories.
Link to page that breaks world health issues into the following categories: women's health, child health, HIV/AIDS, infectious diseases and emerging threats. Each of these topics, themselves, link to further, detailed information.
Blogs
This blog relates the progress of the Global Health Delivery Project - a comprehensive knowledge base for the design and implementation of global health care programs - in order to more efficiently and effectively improve population health on an international level
Also maintained by Christine Gorman, this blog OKs/debunks media coverage of health information. In the process, light is often shed on domestic national health issues (e.g., obesity, extending health care coverage for children).
Health journalist Christine Gorman blogs about the current and future public health needs she witnesses in her travels
Blog sponsored by Voices for a Malaria Free Future and controlled by Bill Brieger, a professor in health systems at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the senior malaria adviser for JHPIEGO, Johns Hopkins University's reproductive health affiliate
A blog directed at the donor community that addresses everything from HIV/AIDS prevention/treatment financing to pharmaceutical research and development to health-systems concerns
The blog provides updates on international news and views about health impact assessment, a combination of procedures, methods and tools by which a policy, program or project may be assessed and judged for its potential effect on the health of the population.
Advocacy
This group aims to make clean, safe water accessible, even in the most impoverished countries. The site describes the crisis and solutions.
Nonprofit Family Health International partners with governmental organizations and NGOs in 70+ countries to conduct research and provide education and services. Along with AIDS/HIV prevention and treatment efforts, FHI works to improve people's access to reproductive health services (especially family planning) and to improve the health of women and children, particularly those in resource-constrained settings.
Link leads to the mobilizing support/advocacy area of the foundation (i.e., raising awareness, identifying and training leaders, and improving the collection of health statistics)
This advocacy group, partnered with USAID Bureau for Global Health, applies interventions to prevent and treat the major causes of newborn and childhood death (e.g., malaria, pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, malnutrition, birth complications and HIV/AIDS.) BASIC focuses efforts in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and the Middle East.
A nonprofit alliance of health care professionals, NGOs, governmental agencies and academic institutions, founded in 1972. Comprehensive site.
Public Policy
Relates AIDS epidemic trends and policies
Interesting 2004 eight-page JAMA article on chronic diseases worldwide
This organization aims to strengthen the policy environment for public health programs. Since 1971, the group has worked on projects in more than 100 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Link to the federation's Global Water and Sanitation Initiative, with map of federation's sanitation activities over 10 years and access to latest news and hygiene promotion information
This Canada-based organization aims to strengthen water management capacity in developing countries
VOICES for a Malaria-Free Future draws attention to successful programs and evidence-based results on effective malaria control. Sponsors advocacy programs in Ghana, Kenya, Mali and Mozambique
Statistics, Trends and Research
This organization is involved with maternal and child health in 17 countries; site provides good information about maternal and child health around the world
International nutrition facts, trends
Web site operated by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundations allows users to country-by-country analyses of funding and statistics.
Links to the complete reports on particular diseases from The Global Fund, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria; useful charts and graphs. The Global Fund operates a transparent site that offers detailed proposals from countries, spreadsheets on both committed and disbursed funding, and report cards on how countries have used the money given to them.
