(Press-News.org) Boston, MA – The World Bank and World Health Organization have voiced fears that policymakers will break their commitments to support desperately needed global health services in low- and middle-income countries because of the ongoing global economic downturn. Yet, according to a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health, there is surprisingly little historical evidence to justify reversing these commitments.
"In order to achieve a sustainable economic recovery, governments must first take care of people's most basic health needs," said David Stuckler, assistant professor of political economy at HSPH and lead author of the study. "Our findings remind us that there are alternative ways to finance recovery than by cutting vital health services to the world's poorest and most vulnerable groups."
The study appears February 25, 2011, in an advance online edition of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.
To identify whether donating countries reduced their health aid in response to prior recessions, Stuckler and colleagues Sanjay Basu at University of California at San Francisco, Stephanie Wang at Caltech, and Martin McKee at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, studied data on health aid and economic downturns from 15 European Union (EU) countries covering the past three decades, from 1975 to 2007. The study investigated the relationship of health aid to recessions, measured in three ways: episodes of recession, percentage changes in per capita gross domestic product, and changes in unemployment rates in donor countries.
The researchers found that there was surprisingly little evidence that economic downturns were associated with large cuts in aid, at least within the first several years of a financial crisis. Similar to present circumstances, they found that some countries appeared to reduce aid, while others increased it in a manner that did not seem to depend on the scale of the financial crisis they faced.
Global health aid is critical to support ongoing health-care infrastructure development and to sustain existing health programs in developing countries. According to 2009 reports of global aid budgets, Italy and Ireland have reduced development aid by 56% and 10%. On the other hand, the United Kingdom has protected its aid budget from cuts and Australia, Germany, and the U.S. have all made strong commitments to increasing their support to protect vulnerable groups from the impact of the crisis.
There are concerns that donor agencies will reduce aid in response to a political climate that calls for fiscal austerity in their countries, say the authors. "In particular, there is a risk that if the U.S. and EU countries reverse course on their commitments, donor countries will be viewed as 'bad samaritans'—withdrawing support at a time when people need their help the most," said McKee.
"The financial crisis has given politicians ample excuses to break their aid promises," said Stuckler. "We found that such a political choice cannot simply be justified on the basis of the past."
###
"Does Recession Reduce Global Health Aid? Evidence from 15 High-Income Countries, 1975-2007," David Stuckler, Sanjay Basu, Stephanie W. Wang, Martin McKee, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, online February 25, 2011
Harvard School of Public Health is dedicated to advancing the public's health through learning, discovery and communication. More than 400 faculty members are engaged in teaching and training the 1,000-plus student body in a broad spectrum of disciplines crucial to the health and well being of individuals and populations around the world. Programs and projects range from the molecular biology of AIDS vaccines to the epidemiology of cancer; from risk analysis to violence prevention; from maternal and children's health to quality of care measurement; from health care management to international health and human rights. For more information on the school visit www.hsph.harvard.edu.
HSPH on Twitter: http://twitter.com/HarvardHSPH
HSPH on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/harvardpublichealth
HSPH on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/HarvardPublicHealth
HSPH home page: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu
Little historical evidence to support cutting global health aid during recessions
2011-02-28
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Quick, easy test identifies aggressive type of lung cancer in never-smokers
2011-02-28
An inexpensive and rapid testing method can effectively identify a sub-group of never-smoking lung cancer patients whose tumors express a molecule associated with increased risk of disease progression or recurrence, US researchers have found.
Dr Ping Yang from the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA, and colleagues, reported the findings at the European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology (EMCTO), 24-26 February 2011, Lugano, Switzerland.
Approximately 8% - 12% of patients with lung adenocarcinoma who have never smoked cigarettes carry tumors that express a protein ...
Oncogene AEG-1 strongly predicts response to erlotinib treatment in EGFR-mutant lung cancer
2011-02-28
Spanish researchers have identified a gene whose expression level strongly predicts how well certain lung cancer patients will respond to treatment with the drug erlotinib.
Dr Rafael Rosell and colleagues reported their findings at the European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology (EMCTO), 24-26 February 2011 in Lugano, Switzerland.
The researchers studied 55 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, whose tumors had mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene. All were being treated with the drug erlotinib, which acts on the EGFR molecule.
"Currently ...
Bone drug zoledronic acid may help prevent spread of early lung cancer
2011-02-28
A drug that is currently used to help treat bone metastases in patients with lung cancer could also be useful at an earlier stage of treatment, to prevent the cancer from spreading in the first place, Italian researchers have found.
Dr Michela Quirino and colleagues from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome have reported important new evidence that zoledronic acid may be able to prevent lung cancer metastases from recruiting the new blood vessels they need to survive. This process of recruiting new blood vessels is called angiogenesis.
"Our investigation ...
Brain imaging provides window into consciousness
2011-02-28
NEW YORK (Feb. 25, 2011) -- Using a sophisticated imaging test to probe for higher-level cognitive functioning in severely brain-injured patients provides a window into consciousness -- but the view it presents is one that is blurred in fascinating ways, say researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in the Feb. 25 online edition of the journal Brain.
In a novel study of six patients ranging in their function from minimally conscious state to the locked-in syndrome (normal cognitive function with severe motor impairment), the researchers looked at how the brains of ...
Adverse drug events costly to health care system: Vancouver Coastal Health-UBC research
2011-02-28
Patients who suffer an adverse medical event arising from the use or misuse of medications are more costly to the health care system than other emergency department (ED) patients, say physicians and research scientists at Vancouver General Hospital and UBC. Their research, the first to examine the health outcomes and cost of patient care for patients presenting to the ED with adverse drug events, is published today in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
The research team, led by Dr. Corinne Hohl, emergency physician at Vancouver General Hospital and research scientist with ...
Scientists find increase in microearthquakes after Chilean quake
2011-02-28
By studying seismographs from the earthquake that hit Chile last February, earth scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have found a statistically significant increase of microearthquakes in central California in the first few hours after the main shock. The observation provides an additional support that seismic waves from distant earthquakes could also trigger seismic events on the other side of the earth. The results may be found online in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
It has been well known that microearthquakes can be triggered instantaneously ...
New study shows marine 'networks' can protect fish stocks
2011-02-28
MIAMI -- University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science faculty were part of an international scientific team to show that strong links between the corals reefs of the South China Sea, West Pacific and Coral Triangle hold the key to preserving fish and marine resources in the Asia-Pacific region.
Rosenstiel School researchers Drs. Claire Paris and Robert Cowen and colleagues from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University and University of California - Los Angeles, have established that the richest marine region ...
Listening to music is biological
2011-02-28
Music is listened in all known cultures. Similarities between human and animal song have been detected: both contain a message, an intention that reflects innate emotional state that is interpreted correctly even among different species. In fact, several behavioral features in listening to music are closely related to attachment: lullabies are song to infants to increase their attachment to a parent, and singing or playing music together is based on teamwork and may add group cohesion.
In the study of University of Helsinki and Sibelius-Academy, Helsinki, the biological ...
Happy children make happy adults
2011-02-28
Being a 'happy' teenager is linked to increased well-being in adulthood, new research finds.
Much is known about the associations between a troubled childhood and mental health problems, but little research has examined the affect of a positive childhood. For the first time, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing have analysed the link between a positive adolescence and well-being in midlife.
Using information from 2776 individuals who participated in the 1946 British birth cohort study, the scientists tested ...
Heparin a key role player in allergy and inflammatory reactions
2011-02-28
Heparin plays a key role in allergic and inflammatory reactions driven by mast cells, scientists from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows in an international collaboration involving colleagues from Germany and Switzerland. The study is published in the recent issue of Immunity, and sheds some new light on the biological function of heparin.
Heparin has a long history at Karolinska Institutet, since here the substance was originally purified and its chemical structure was characterized back in 1935 by Professor Erik Jorpes. Knowing about the therapeutic implications ...