Posted 9:24 AM
by Mary
Social injustice 'killing on a grand scale': WHO
28/08/2008 12h55 ©AFP/File - Joel Nito
GENEVA (AFP) - A "toxic combination" of poverty and social injustice is killing people on a grand scale, a World Health Organisation report said Thursday, urging states to fund healthcare to cut inequalities.
The Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, a report commissioned by the WHO and chaired by Sir Michael Marmot of University College London, said these health inequalities were avoidable but only if concerted efforts were made by governments and civil society.
"Reducing health inequities is an ethical imperative. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale," the report said.
Marmot told journalists that a girl born in Zambia can expect to live 43 years, while one born in Japan can expect to live twice as long, to 86 years.
"There is no good biological reason why this should be the case," he said, instead pointing the finger at social factors that give rise to such a gaping disparity.
"These health inequalities are preventable. They arise from the circumstances in which people are born, grow, live, work and age -- the social determinants of health," he said.
"Taking action to deal with preventable causes of illness means taking social action... a toxic combination of poor social policies, unfair economic arrangements and bad politics is responsible," he added.
Health care must remain within the public sphere and universally available regardless of people's ability to pay, he said.
"The Commission considers health care a common good, not a market commodity," the report said.
A girl born in Zambia has a life expectancy of only 43 years
©AFP/File - Alexander Joe
"The Commission advocates financing the health-care system through general taxation and/or mandatory universal insurance ... the evidence is compellingly in favour of a publicly funded health-care system," it added.
Labels: health, MDGs, WHO
Posted 10:13 AM
by Mary
Africa failing to cut infant deaths - report Wed Apr 16, 2008 12:25pm EDT CAPE TOWN, April 16 (Reuters) -
African countries have made the least progress among developing nations towards a U.N. goal of cutting infant and maternal mortality by two thirds by 2015, a new report showed on Wednesday.
The 10 countries with the worst infant mortality records were in sub-Saharan Africa, hard hit by HIV/AIDS and civil strife, Peter Salama, chief of health at U.N. children's agency Unicef, said at the release of the 2008 Countdown report.
"Many of these countries where under-five mortality has actually increased since 1990 are high HIV prevalence countries... such as Botswana, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa," Salama told reporters.
He noted that none of the countries that had made the most progress were in sub-Saharan Africa.
Chad had made the least progress, with 209 out of every 1,000 children dying before the age of 5 in 2006 compared to 201 deaths in 1990. Peru had made the greatest strides, reducing the number of deaths to 25 per 1,000 from 78 in 1990.
China had the lowest maternal mortality rate, and was making progress, along with Haiti and Turkmenistan, in reducing child deaths.
The report, which includes Unicef and the World Health Organisation as partners, measures progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals on reducing child and maternal mortality by two thirds by 2015.
Each year about 10 million women and children die from preventable diseases, with poor nutrition, weak health systems and lack of funds seen as major challenges.
The report's authors suggest an extra $10 billion is needed to improve intervention and reduce death rates. Many of the 68 countries suffer severe shortages of doctors and nurses.
Countries that had improved had increased vaccination programmes and distributed more vitamin supplements and insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the report said.
Labels: Africa, HIV, infant mortality, UNICEF, WHO
