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Testing treatments : better research for better healthcare

EVANS, Imogen
THORNTON, Hazel
CHALMERS, Iain
2010

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This book highlights issues that are fundamental to ensuring that research into the effects of treatments is soundly based and designed to answer questions that matter to patients and the health professionals to whom they turn for help in critically assessing treatment options

IDF diabetes atlas

UNWIN, Nigel
et al
2010

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This report presents evidence that diabetes is a global epidemic. It contains comprehensive information in the following sections: What is diabetes?; The Global Burden; Regional Overviews; Diabetes and Development; Linking Local to Global; Resources and Solutions; References; Additional Resources. This report is useful for health professionals, scientists, economists, policy-makers, and national and international agencies

Culture and mental health in Haiti : a literature review

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
2010

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"This paper reviews and summarizes the available literature on Haitian mental health and Mental health services. This review was conducted in light of the Haitian earthquake in January 2010. The first part of the review describes historical, economic, sociological and anthropological factors essential to basic understanding of Haiti and its people. This includes discussion of demography, family structure, Haitian economics and religion. The second part of the review focuses on mental health and mental health services. This includes a review of factors such as basic epidemiology of mental illness, common beliefs about mental illness, explanatory models, idioms of distress, help-seeking behavior, configuration of mental health services and the relationship between religion and mental health"

Medicines : corruption and pharmaceuticals

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
December 2009

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This fact sheet gives a brief overview of the key facts regarding corruption in the pharmaceutical supply chain. It focuses on unethical practices in the medicines supply chain, factors contributing to pharmaceutical corruption, the impact of corruption, and the response of the WHO

Towards equitable access to medicines for the rural poor : analyses of insurance claims reveal rural pharmacy initiative triggers price competition in Kyrgyzstan

WANING, Brenda
et al
December 2009

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This article examines medicines price competition that ensued in a rural village in Kyrgyzstan after the opening of a small network of non-profit pharmacies created and managed by an NGO. While the rural pharmacies were created to increase access to medicines in villages where no pharmacies existed, the project had unexpected, substantial spillover effects, spurring medicines price reductions in pharmacies quite far away

Taxing essential medicines : a sick tax that hinders access to treatment

HEALTH ACTION INTERNATIONAL (HAI)
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
December 2009

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This issue of the bulletin includes articles about the taxes on medicines and access to medicines; a report of a survey about medicine prices and availability in Latin America and the Caribbean; and about poor access to diabetes care in the Philippines

Barriers to sustainable access of children and families to ART centres in rural India : a report on operations research conducted in Maharashtra and Manipur

INDIA HIV/AIDS ALLIANCE
December 2009

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This report identifies barriers that children and families face in accessing anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres in rural India. The report also seeks to find solutions to these barriers based on an operations research conducted in Maharashtra Pradesh and Manipur. Operations research objectives: * To build an understanding among policy makers of the barriers faced by children and caregivers accessing ART services in rural communities. * To assess and highlight a basic minimum level of standards for ART centres in terms of adequacy, quality and timeliness of support needed. * To explore opportunities for linkages with state and district level departments and/or local self-governing institutions

The role of local manufacturers in improving access to essential medicines|Creating opportunities for the scale-up of local pharmaceutical production

MOHAMED, Nazeem
November 2009

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The local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals is a hotly contested issue in many countries. It runs to the heart of key concerns such as quality, availability, and price of medicines. Some of the arguments of the local manufacturers are set out in this article by one of the co-chairs of the Medicines Transparency Alliance Uganda Council and Chairman of the Uganda Pharmaceutical Manufacturer's Association (UPMA)

Survey of the quality of selected antimalarial medicines circulating in Madagascar, Senegal, and Uganda

UNITED STATES PHARMACOPEIA DRUG AND INFORMATION PROGRAM
November 2009

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This report focuses on three of 10 sub-Saharan countries that were covered by a study examining the quality of key antimalarial medicines. A total of 491 samples of anti-malarial medicines (both artemisinin-based combination therapy and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine products) were collected from the public sector, the regulated private sector and the informal market in these three countries. The study revealed a high failure rate among sampled antimalarials in all three countries, based both on Minilab and full-compendial or quality control laboratory testing

Packages of care for depression in low- and middle-income countries

PATEL, Vikram
SIMON, Gregory
CHOWDHARY, Neerja
KAAYA, Sylvia
ARAYA, Ricardo
October 2009

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This article focuses on the effective management of depression in low- and middle-income countries, reviewing the evidence on efficacy of treatments and delivery of interventions derived from those countries to the extent possible

Special issue on access to medicines, pricing and generics

September 2009

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This issue has articles about medicine prices in Vietnam, Thailand and South Africa, generic medicines in Malaysia and Australia, anti-retroviral therapy in South Africa, and legislation and regulation in the retail pharmacy sector in low-income countries.
Southern Med Review : Vol 2, Issue 2

The push for local production, costs and benefits - a case study of Uganda’s Quality Chemicals|Africa Fighting Malaria policy paper

TAYLOR, James
et al
September 2009

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This research report considers the challenges faced by a local pharmaceutical firm - Quality Chemicals - in Uganda, which was started up as a 'solution' to reducing the high cost of medicines and improving access to medicines. "...many burdens and barriers to access continue to seriously hinder the success of such enterprises. Indirect government subsidies to exporters selling into African markets, and pressure by donors and lobbyists on innovator producers to offer developing countries subsidised prices, actually undermine the competitiveness and viability of these nascent firms. Furthermore, the focus on drug pricing and local production can actually undermine the overall aim to increase access to medicines"

A trade agreement’s impact on access to generic drugs

SHAFFER, Ellen R
BRENNER, Joseph E
August 2009

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This article reports on a study which examined the availability of certain drugs in Guatemala and found that the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) intellectual property rules reduced access to some generic drugs already on the market and delayed the new entry of other generics. It found that some drugs protected from competition in Guatemala will become open for generic competition in the United States before generic versions will be legally available in Guatemala

Mobile cell-phones (m-phones) in telemicroscopy : Increasing connectivity of isolated laboratories

BELLINA,Livia
EDUARDO, Missoni
June 2009

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This article analyses the development of modern information telecommunication (ITC) technology and its use in telemedicine by facilitating access to some diagnostic services. Images were taken without the use of an adaptor by simply approaching the lens of the mobile cell phone camera to the ocular of common optical microscopes, and subsequently sent via multimedia messaging services (MMS) to distant reference centres for tele-diagnosis. The study concludes that "the use of otherwise already widely available technologies, without any need for adaptors or otherwise additional technology, could significantly increase opportunities and quality diagnostics while lowering costs and considerably increasing connectivity between most isolated laboratories and distant reference center"
Diagnostic Pathology Vol 4, Issue 19

Medicines use in primary care in developing and transitional countries : fact book summarizing results from studies reported between 1990 and 2006

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
May 2009

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Irrational use of medicines is one of the most serious global public health problems we face today. Improving use requires regular monitoring and application of effective interventions, both of which are often not done, particularly in many lower income countries. To address this issue, WHO created a database of medicines use in in primary care settings in developing and transitional countries. Quantitative information has been extracted from 679 studies conducted in 97 countries and on 386 interventions (from 313 studies). The medicines use database has allowed the first systematic quantitative review of studies measuring medicines use in developing and transitional countries and the results are now presented

Keeping it real : combating the spread of fake drugs in poor countries

HARRIS, Julian
STEVENS, Philip
MORRIS, Julian
May 2009

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This paper is about substances that are sold as medicines yet are not what they purport to be. Some of these substances are deliberately mislabeled, i.e. counterfeit. Others may have been inadvertently mislabelled or the pills contaminated during manufacture. Others may originally have been exactly as they claim, but due to poor storage have degraded and are consequently substandard. The paper is composed of four parts. The first looks at the scope of the problem in less developed countries; the second examines the health impacts of fake medicines; the third section considers the main causes of the problem; and the final section offers some possible solutions

A handbook for network support agents and other community workers supporting HIV prevention, care, support and treatment

March 2009

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This manual is intended to help network support agents and other community workers be more effective in disseminating standardised information about HIV and AIDS. It "...emphasises the importance of the acquisition of knowledge, skills and the right attitude needed to identify the psychosocial needs of people of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and address these needs by giving information, counselling and appropriate referrals. Knowledge of counselling and psychosocial care, is combined as much as possible with prevention activities such as adopting HIV basic care positive prevention and adherence to treatment"

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