Blog assignment #5 -- Global health

A decade ago, lack of resources was the biggest public health concern. However, today, thanks to varous donations, there are enough money and resources; however, due to uncoordination, the money is directly towards high-profile disases than public health. The world now emphasizes conquering of the common diseases in developing countries with various reasons: moral duty, public diplomacy and self protection. However, the efforts are focused more on specific diseases than on broad measures. Also health care workers tend to flood to west, causing brain drain in developing countries.Among those global health projects, there hardly are methods of their efficacy; the world's poor does not have a way to tell what they want, what they actually need. Thanks to recent AIDS pandemic, there was a surge of funding from various sources such as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bush administration, and world bank. But the discrepency between the developed and the developing is still in dillema. A study showed that fewer than 40,000 subsaharan africans were reciving AIDS treatment when some 25 million in the region were infected with HIV and 600,000 of them needed the drugs immediately. However, the article looked at this surge positively, this is a "marvelous momentum for health assitance" and says 3 million of Africans could easily be on the medication. Bush administartion's fund estimates that it now supports 20 percent of HIV/AIDS programs and 66 percent of funding for TB and malaria research. However, most of funds come under conditions and must be spent according to donors' priorities, politics, and values; moreover, not all the funds end up being spent effectively. A lot of money leaks out in the process. Also, as mentioned above, lack of coordination of donor activities is another problem. For example, most of the globla HIV/AIDS related funding goe sto stand-alone programs such as HIV testing sites, ARV dispersal stations, HIV/AIDS education projects and the like. The article suggests that donors and UN agencies should at least try to integrate thier programs into general public health systems, therefore providing better coordination of the programs. Also donors and public health officials also try to build local industries, franchiese and such profit centers as well as local health infrastructures.

Now, among the various reasons given by the author why global public health keeps worsening despite bountful monetary resources, this week's blog assignment question asks which one i believe the most valid. I believe lack of coordination is definitely most valid. Developing countries often lack not only proper health care system and health care workers, but they also have bad economy and political infrastructures. Although it seems like a little process, giving out appropriate medical care to people consists of multiple steps. As the article said, donations and funds tend to disease or process specific; therefore, to make an improvement, it requires coordination of these funds and various activities. The second question asks what are the most important indicators of the status of the health care system in developing countries and why are they so important. The question said "markers," and i do not really understand what it exactly means but I am guessing markers are like indicators. I think types of common diseases in one region and maternal mortaliy/life expentanc are the most important indicators. Types of common disease in one region reflects the conditions of health care centers/system, including available vaccines and treatments. Also maternal mortality is also heavily dependent on hygeine, health care system, treatments and the like, therfore indicating the current status of healtch care system in those developing countries. HIV and TB are examples of how faulty systems and lack of sustainablity of current donor practices can lead to more deadly disease states. In South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal Province, during mass vaccination, due to financial constraints, health care workers re-used syringes which might have led to more people's HIV infection. Also that region's general health system is so poor that TB treatment was poorly handleed that only a third of patients got the whole regular/complete TB antibiotic therapy; this led to promotions of drug-resistant strains.