Global public health
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Global public health · Jan 2009
Historical ArticleLa Grippe and World War I: conflict participation and pandemic confrontation.
This paper assesses whether a nation-state's participation in conflict influences its ability to confront global pandemic or disease. Two alternative hypotheses are proposed. First, increased levels of conflict participation lead to increased abilities of states to confront pandemics. ⋯ Using simple correlation and case illustrations, we test these hypotheses with special focus upon the ability of the participant countries to confront the pandemic. The findings suggest, in a limited and varied fashion, that while neutral countries enjoyed the lowest levels of pandemic deaths, of the participant countries greater levels of conflict participation correlate with lower levels of pandemic deaths. The paper concludes with some propositions regarding the relationship between the current 'war on terror' and prospective pandemics such as avian flu.
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Using HIV/AIDS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and avian influenza as case studies, this paper discusses the processes and dilemmas of China's participation in health governance, both at the domestic level and the global level. Globalization has eroded the boundary between public and private health and between domestic and global health governance. In addition, the SARS outbreak of 2002-2003 focused global attention on China's public health. ⋯ Its interactions with United Nations agencies have triggered a learning process for China to securitize the spread of infectious diseases as a security threat. Conversely, China has utilized multilateralism to gain access to international resources and technical assistance. It is still a matter of debate whether China's cooperative engagement with global health governance can endure, because of the persistent problems of withholding information on disease outbreaks and because of its insistence on the Westphalian notion of sovereignty.
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Global public health · Jan 2009
Civil society and the negotiation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Tobacco control civil society organisations mobilised to influence countries during the negotiation of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) between 1999 and 2003. Tobacco control civil society organisations and coalitions around the world embraced the idea of an international tobacco control treaty and came together as the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), becoming an important non-state actor within the international system of tobacco control. Archival documents and interviews demonstrate that the FCA successfully used strategies, including publication of a newsletter, shaming symbolism and media advocacy to influence policy positions of countries during the FCTC negotiation. The FCA became influential in the negotiation process, by mobilising tobacco control civil society organisations and resources with the help of the Internet, and framing the tobacco control discussion around global public health.
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Global public health · Jan 2009
Determinants of accessibility and affordability of health care in post-socialist Tajikistan: evidence and policy options.
There is increasing evidence of rising levels of inequality in health care utilisation in the post-socialist countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus. Against this backdrop, we investigate the determinants of accessibility and affordability of health care utilisation in Tajikistan. A modified version of the Andersen Behavioural Model is used to conceptualise the determinants of health care utilisation in Tajikistan. ⋯ Empirical results demonstrate that poverty, chronic illness and disability are the most important determinants of health care utilisation and affordability in Tajikistan. Other significant determinants include gender, the level of education of the household head, and the availability of medical personnel at a given population point. These findings suggest an urgent need for health care reform in order to ensure equality in accessibility and affordability for the entire population.