(Press-News.org) Bethesda, MD—Two new studies, in Health Affairs July 2013 issue, describe health success stories outside the US.
One, by Sema Sgaier of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and colleagues, is titled "How The Avahan HIV Prevention Program Transitioned From The Gates Foundation To The Government Of India." It explains how the Gates Foundation worked with the Government of India to ensure a smooth transition of Avahan – an HIV prevention program funded and initiated by the Gates Foundation – to be run and managed by that government. The transition strategy, implemented in phases between 2009 and 2013, was backed by planning that began in 2005 and received $100 million in funding. This paper calls this example a case study for the transfer of donor-funded programs in middle-income countries such as India, Brazil, China, and South Africa, where government absorption of donor-funded programs is fiscally feasible and increasing country ownership is seen as a solution to diminishing development aid and time-limited donor commitments that challenge long-term sustainability.
The second, by Amie Shei at Analysis Group, a strategy consulting firm in Boston, is titled "Brazil's Conditional Cash Transfer Program Associated With Declines In Infant Mortality Rates." The paper describes Brazil's Bolsa Família conditional cash transfer program, an example of recent actions by the Brazilian government to reduce poverty and inequality and increase access to health care among its poorer residents. The program provides monthly cash transfers to parents, usually the mothers, to finance health care. Participants are required to comply with health guidelines and education guidelines, such as school enrollment, abiding by a vaccination schedule, and regular medical check-ups. The program has expanded rapidly: when it began in 2003, 3.6 million families were covered; by 2008, that number had increased to 11.4 million. In the study, Shei found that the average treatment effect of the program was a 9.3 percent decline in infant mortality rates and a 24.3 percent decline in post neonatal mortality rates.
###
ABOUT HEALTH AFFAIRS:
Health Affairs is the leading journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published by Project HOPE, the peer-reviewed journal appears each month in print and online. Additional Web First papers are published periodically, and Health Policy Briefs are published twice monthly at http://www.healthaffairs.org. You can also find the journal on Facebook and Twitter. Tap into Health Affairs content with its iPad app. Read daily perspectives on Health Affairs Blog. Download monthly Narrative Matters podcasts on iTunes.
Health Affairs July issue contains global innovation studies from India And Brazil
2013-07-17
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Susceptibility genes for cerebral infarction or hemorrhage in the Han in Hunan, China
2013-07-17
Atherosclerosis is widely recognized as an independent risk factor for stroke, and its occurrence is closely related to lipid metabolism. numerous studies using transgenic and knockout animals have shown that scavenger receptor class B type I has a protective effect against atherosclerosis. Previous studies of scavenger receptor class B type I gene polymorphisms have focused on the exon 1 G4A polymorphism and the exon 8 C1050T polymorphism, and these polymorphic loci impact blood lipid levels and are involved in the dyslipidemia in diabetes patients. A recent study published ...
New technology will improve neuron activation induced by cochlear implants
2013-07-17
Cochlear implants, electrical prosthetic devices that stimulate inner ear neurons of individuals who have lost their cochlear sensory cells, restore usable hearing to deaf patients. Cochlear implant electrodes are placed in the fluid-filled scala tympani of the cochlea, at a significant distance from the spiral ganglion and even from the spiral ganglion dendrites. Stimulation via a cochlear implant electrode pair is therefore likely to activate large numbers of neurons concurrently. This may decrease the resolution and dynamic range of information transmitted in patients ...
Health-related quality of life in PD patients in northeastern Sicily, Italy
2013-07-17
Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory emphasizes the development of a series of nested environment systems with which an individual interacts. These systems interact with the individual, and also affect the development of the individual. The theory is that the natural environment is the major source influencing human development, which is often ignored by scholars in the laboratory. U Brofenbrenner saw the individual's experience "as a set of nested structures, each inside the next, like a set of Russian dolls". In other words, the individual develops in the middle ...
Arg-Phe-amide-related peptides influence gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons
2013-07-17
During the last decade, our understanding of this hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis has quickly expanded. Two novel hypothalamic Arg-Phe-amide- related peptides, kisspeptin and gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone, may be important regulators of the reproductive axis. Kisspeptins are currently recognized as the most potent activators of the hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axis. Kisspeptin and its receptor, G protein-coupled receptor 54 (GPR54), are expressed on gonadotropin-releasing hormone neurons, thus regulating the reproductive axis. Kisspeptins strongly release gonadotropin- ...
Discovery of a new class of white blood cells uncovers target for better vaccine design
2013-07-17
1. Scientists at A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) have discovered a new class of white blood cells in human lung and gut tissues that play a critical role as the first line of defence against harmful fungal and bacterial infections. This research will have significant impact on the design of vaccines and targeted immunotherapies for diseases caused by infectious microbes such as the hospital-acquired pneumonia.
2. The scientists also showed for the first time that key immune functions of this new class of white blood cells are similar to those found in mice. ...
Single dose of ADHD drug can reduce fall risk in older adults -- Ben-Gurion U researchers
2013-07-17
BEER-SHEVA, ISRAEL…July 17, 2013 -- Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have discovered that a single dose of methylphenidate (MPH), used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy, helps to improve balance control during walking, hence reducing the risk of falls among elderly adults.
Falls in older adults are the leading cause of hip fractures and other injury-related visits to emergency rooms and of accidental death. Age-related deterioration in gait and balance is a major contributor to falls in older adults.
According ...
Big-nosed, long-horned dinosaur discovered in Utah
2013-07-17
A remarkable new species of horned dinosaur has been unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. The huge plant-eater inhabited Laramidia, a landmass formed when a shallow sea flooded the central region of North America, isolating western and eastern portions for millions of years during the Late Cretaceous Period. The newly discovered dinosaur, belonging to the same family as the famous Triceratops, was announced today in the British scientific journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The study, funded in large part by the Bureau of ...
Ripped apart by a black hole
2013-07-17
In 2011 ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) discovered a gas cloud with several times the mass of the Earth accelerating towards the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way (eso1151 [1]. This cloud is now making its closest approach and new VLT observations show that it is being grossly stretched by the black hole's extreme gravitational field.
"The gas at the head of the cloud is now stretched over more than 160 billion kilometres around the closest point of the orbit to the black hole. And the closest approach is only a bit more than 25 billion kilometres from the black ...
New way to target an old foe: Malaria
2013-07-17
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Although malaria has been eradicated in many countries, including the United States, it still infects more than 200 million people worldwide, killing nearly a million every year. In regions where malaria is endemic, people rely on preventive measures such as mosquito netting and insecticides. Existing drugs can help, but the malaria parasite is becoming resistant to many of them.
Scientists working to develop new drugs and vaccines hope to target the parasite in the earliest stages of an infection, when it quietly reproduces itself in the human liver.
In ...
Accurate prognosis for epilepsy patients
2013-07-17
Scientists at Bonn University Hospital and at the Max Planck Institute for neurological research in Cologne have developed a method with which the chances of success of a surgical procedure for temporal lobe epilepsy can be accurately predicted. The rate of accurate predictions is more than 90%. The results are now being presented in the scientific journal "NeuroImage:Clinical."
When many nerve cells simultaneously fire in the brain, an epileptic seizure results. The most frequent form is temporal lobe epilepsy. It originates in one of the two temporal lobes which contain, ...