The economic and financial crisis of 2007-2009 had a serious impact on the larger European region. For western Europe this was the deepest economic downturn since the Second World War. Given the well-developed safety nets for this region the immediate impact on health is likely to be minor....

Who invents medicines for the poor of the world? This question becomes very important where the WTO allows low income countries to be unbound by the TRIPS agreement. This agreement concerns medicines for infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. These diseases cause serious...

La descentralización territorial y la sustitución del Sistema Nacional de Salud (SNS) por un sistema de competencia regulada redefinieron el funcionamiento del sistema de salud colombiano a finales de la década de los ochenta y comienzos de los noventa. En particular, en el SNS las...

The treatment and prevention of tuberculosis have gained importance as the number of cases continues to increase worldwide and the ability of the disease to pass from one area to another becomes progressively greater. Interventions used in the US to help control the disease include the...

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) constitutes one-quarter of all avoidable deaths in developing countries. In the Eastern Cape, South Africa, TB is a public health problem of epidemic proportion. Poor compliance and frequent interruption to treatment are associated with increased transmission rates,...

Innovation dynamics in Tuberculosis control in India: The shift to new partnerships Tuberculosis remains the biggest infectious killer in India and worldwide, and it has recently regained substantial international attention with its come-back in drug resistant forms. The environment, the disease...

Tuberculosis remains the biggest infectious killer in India and worldwide, and it has recently regained substantial international attention with its come-back in drug resistant forms. The environment, the disease and the societal response to it are changing and with it challenges and...

Emerging infectious diseases regained substantial international attention in recent years and it has been argued that flexibility and innovation in public health systems is needed in order to react to changing challenges. This paper will take these policy claims as a starting point to examine...

Background: Around 0.4 million cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) occur each year. Only a small fraction of these cases are treated according to international guidelines. Evidence relevant to decisions about whether to scale-up treatment for MDR-TB includes cost and...