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All posts in low-income countries

Abolition of user fees: do we (really) know enough?

By Valéry Ridde and Emilie Robert, University of Montreal

“I think the bank was ideological”, in an interview with The Guardian last month the President of the World Bank surprised everyone by acknowledging that his institution had for years promoted user fees on the basis of an ideology.
Remember…

Muddling through the jungle of hospital priority setting

By Lydia Kapiriri, Associate Professor, Department of Health, Aging and Society, McMaster University

Have you ever wondered why patient X goes to a hospital and gets all the treatment they need, yet, patient Y goes to the same hospital and somehow fails to get the treatment they need? I will…

How much more evidence on community case management of pneumonia in sub-Saharan Africa?

By Joan Kalyango

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death among children under five years old worldwide, despite being preventable and treatable, mostly due to poor access to care. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) contributes more than half of the total deaths due to pneumonia. Community case management of pneumonia (CCMp…

Medicine pricing and purchasing in LMICs: looking under the wrong street lamp?

By Warren Kaplan

The increase in global spending on medicines has been dramatic, with an approximate per capita increase of 50% between 1995 and 2006.  In a recently published paper, Nguyen et al. reviewed the literature on pharmaceutical pricing and purchasing policies. They found that no one option is preferred…

Why are women at higher risk of HIV than men in sub-Saharan Africa?

By Shelley Lees

HIV is the leading cause of death amongst women of reproductive age worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, the HIV epidemic is disproportionally affecting women – they make up 60% of those living with HIV in the region. These inequalities are driven by gender norms related to masculinity and…

Physician salaries: one ingredient in the cake of retention

By Kate Tulenko

With the global migration of health workers increasing and population growth outstripping the training of new health workers in more and more countries, there is increasing emphasis on finding effective ways to retain health workers in country. In an effort to add light to this issue Edward…

The road to universal health coverage in Kenya

By Adam Koon

Successful health finance reforms in several upper and lower middle-income countries have helped drive universal health coverage (UHC) to the top of the global health agenda. Unfortunately, low-income countries have few examples to guide them towards UHC. Instead they will largely be weighing the positive…