Communicable Diseases
Communicable DiseasesBoth under- and over-treatment of communicable diseases are public bads. But efforts to decrease one run the risk of increasing the other. Using rich experimental data on household treatment-seeking behavior in Kenya, we study the implications of this tradeoff for subsidising life-saving antimalarials sold over-the-counter at retail drug outlets. We show that a very high… Read more
Recently, I visited Ghana as part of the Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium which is focused on zoonoses, animal diseases which can be passed on to humans. During the trip, other partners in the Consortium and I conducted some planning and fieldwork, including participatory mapping, the work being led by the Ghana team…. Read more
This audio recording is of Dr. Neil Squires, Head of Profession for Health at DFID, talking at The International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ISNTD) Coinfections meeting in February 2013. The ISNTD Coinfections meeting was aiming for multidisciplinary progress in global healthcare by exploring the implications of coinfection between NTDs and other communicable diseases, and… Read more
The Dynamic Drivers of Disease in Africa Consortium is focused on animal diseases which can be passed on to humans, known as zoonoses, in Africa. These are an important issue for poverty and public health because many emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic and they have a big impact poor people’s lives and livelihoods. As this… Read more
Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) do not require a laboratory or any special equipment; they are simple to use and can give results as a simple positive/negative result within 15 minutes. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), RDTs are adequate to diagnose malaria in febrile patients. RDTs have better sensitivity and specificity than routine microscopy… Read more
In 2001, DFID made an accountable grant to Population Services International-Kenya, to begin the social marketing of untreated mosquito nets (Supanet) bundled with a liquid insecticide treatment (KO-Tab). Since then, the programme has had five further DFID grants. The impact of these efforts on malaria in Kenya has been dramatic. Malaria admissions to hospitals in… Read more
This report looks at the strategies for trachoma control. Trachoma is endemic in more than 50 countries with more than 80% of the burden concentrated in 14 countries, and predominantly in the savannah areas of East and Central Africa and the Sahel of West Africa. Nearly 110 million people live in areas where trachoma is… Read more
Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) have tended to receive little attention because of the once-widespread assumption that people at risk of NTDs experience relatively little morbidity, and that these diseases have low rates of mortality. These views have been comprehensively refuted (WHO 2010a). NTDs have a substantial health and economic burden on poor populations. They cause… Read more
The Department for International Development (DFID) conducted a public consultation to seek inputs into its Malaria Business Plan. The Business Plan is part of the UK’s commitments to Millennium Development Goal six. The 12-week consultation took place in 2010. It gathered views from UK and international experts and the public through an interactive website, individual… Read more
This review is of the 2nd year of work of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) support to the national malaria programme (SuNMaP). The goal of the support is ‘to achieve progress towards the health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Nigeria’. Its purpose is ‘to strengthen delivery of Nigeria’s national malaria control effort’. This… Read more
There have been many academic studies and analyses of malaria interventions and their cost effectiveness. Unfortunately however, as the studies have varying methodologies and countries of focus, they are difficult to compare. The information in this report outlines cost effectiveness data and conclusions. One article did a comparison of various trials which led the authors… Read more