Donor money for health care in developing countries could be spent more effectively if it were channeled through a single global fund

Donor money for health care in developing countries could be spent more effectively if it were channeled through a single global fund, experts said Friday.A steady flow of funds is essential for health sector improvements, Gorik Ooms from Belgium’s Institute of Tropical Medicine said.

Research by Ooms and other experts published in The Lancet medical journal Friday said the amount and regularity of international aid was often unpredictable, making it hard for governments to plan ahead.Another study, by Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington, found that in some recipient countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, foreign health aid was partly replacing — not supplementing — domestic health budgets.

In such countries, for every $1 given in aid, governments move between 43 cents and $1.14 of their own health funds to other sectors, such as education or sanitation.”Governments compensate for exceptional international generosity to the health sector by reallocating government funding to other sectors,” Ooms wrote in The Lancet.He said governments also compensated for the unreliability of aid by spreading it over several years.One way to make health aid more stable would be to disburse it via a common pool, similar to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria set up in 2002.

“If a young institution such as the Global Fund already stands out as delivering stable and predictable financing, it shows the potential advantage of pooling international aid,” Ooms wrote.In a news briefing, he said countries with high dependency on aid usually received pledges from donors for two to four years ahead.”When we in our own countries consider reforming health care, we make estimates for 20, 30, 40 years ahead: how much money will we have? what will happen with the population? what will be the health needs?,” he said.

Another issue is donors’ delivery on their promises.Madalo Nyambose, assistant director at the debt and aid division in Malawi’s Finance Ministry, said aid money was often disbursed later than promised, forcing recipient governments to borrow from financial markets and incur interest payments.

Ooms said a new global health fund could borrow ideas from the Global Fund, which pools donors’ money and allocates it in consultation with the countries in need and independent experts. Its board includes representatives of donors and recipient governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses and affected communities.The U.S. researchers examined data on 113 developing countries from 1995 to 2006.(Reuters)

Netherlands A global group funding the battle against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in impoverished nations worldwide

THE HAGUE, Netherlands  A global group funding the battle against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in impoverished nations worldwide is urging donors to keep paying for the fight even as the economic crisis forces budget cuts.

The Global Fund is outlining the lifesaving work it can finance in developing countries from 2011-13 if donors pledge $13 billion, $17 billion or $20 billion.

Pledges will be made at an Oct. 5 conference at U.N. headquarters.The fund’s executive director Michel Kazatchkine told The Associated Press on Wednesday he is “very concerned” that the global economic meltdown could make rich countries scale back their contributions.But he says the fund’s success over the past eight years against the killer diseases makes it clear the effort is saving millions of lives.(AP)

Kate Moss Hates Popularity

WHO does not know Kate Moss? In the world of fashion, Kate Moss is one of the most famous supermodels. Behind its activities to enjoy success in the fashion world, was a supermodel who has been campaigning for several fashion houses including Calvin Klein, Chanel, and Burberry is not happy with its popularity. We met several times by paparazzi, she always hid his face or trying to escape. In fact, when the camera caught the paparazzi, she was 35 years rarely smiling and excited. Now, we have to know the cause. Once news quoted from Hollyscoop, Sunday (14.3.2010).

“I do not like the famous,” said the British fashionista who has been a model since the age of 14 years. She also wondered why the people are very interested in his personal life. He felt the figure that appeared during this reporting is not what she actually is.

“It violates your life. Many. In fact, I do not know why people are so interested in me. Actually, it makes me a little uncomfortable talking about it,” he continued. “I’m not alone anymore. I have been different. I had to get out as you wish from the stylists and photographers. This is not like the country, is more than a feeling,” he admitted. As reported earlier, she admitted often surprised by their own popularity.

“I still can not believe it, even until now. I still think I was a bit much, no one who has not felt happy with it,” he explained. Model that has more than 300 times so that the cover is one of the supermodels who have achieved the status as a “superstar” in a long time. Many people liked the taste of his style, so the longer she appeared, she looked better.

WHO staff prepare boxes of antiviral drugs to treat the H1N1 virus

WHO staff prepare boxes of antiviral drugs to treat the H1N1

The moderate impact of the H1N1 pandemic is the “best possible health news of the decade,” but the head of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today warned that more people – particularly in the southern hemisphere – could become sick this season and that it would be premature to say the health risk is over.“It is too early for us to say that we have come to an end of the pandemic influenza worldwide,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told reporters at a year-end press conference in Geneva.“There is no basis for any allegations that this is not a pandemic. We are seeing million and millions of people infected with this new virus and we are fortunate that many of these people make recovery.”

Ms. Chan added that it would be prudent for WHO and member states to continue to monitor the pandemic evolution for up to 12 more months.According to the agency, more than 6,000 people have died from the H1N1 since the outbreak began in April, compared with up to 500,000 who die annually from the regular flu. Pregnant women, children under two and people with underlying conditions such as respiratory problems are particularly vulnerable.

The WHO head said that in a background of a fragile economy where many people suffer from chronic diseases, a severe instead of a moderate pandemic could have brought momentum for health development “to a grinding halt and reversed the hard-earned against that the world collectively has achieved in the last ten years.”

She added that Member States and WHO partners have made steady but fragile progress in internationally-agreed goals in the past decade, and must work hard to maintain the momentum of progress and to catch up in areas that are lacking.

Among the priorities for the next year, Ms. Chan called on countries to continue to push for progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight ambitious anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline, especially in improving maternal mortality.

She noted possible roadblocks caused by weak and insufficiently-funded health care systems. She also cautioned against threats from policies outside the direct control of the health sector, such as from the financial or the agricultural sectors.

On a positive note, she highlighted the new breed of South-South and North-South collaborations on research and development that have yielded “badly needed vaccines and drugs, particularly for diseases of the poor.”

filariasis or elephantiasis as a disease of the legs or arms.

Jakarta, Most people only know filariasis or elephantiasis as a disease of the legs or arms. But filariasis is also pleased to attack the genitals, especially male. Swelling of the genitals caused by the entry of larvae mikrofilaria generally come from the worm Brugia timori.The larvae will enter the lymphatics (lymph nodes) in the scrotum (scrotal skin) and cause swelling of the genitals (hydrocele),” said Dr Rochani, a urology specialist surgeon from RSCM, in Iluni media gathering at the Faculty of Medicine FK UI, Salemba, Jakarta, Thursday (19/11/2009).According to Rochani, hydrocele cases was more pronounced in the eastern region of Indonesia. “Like a worm only (B. timori), hydrocele are common in NTT, Papua, Flores, and other eastern regions. But now many are also in Bekasi,” said Rochani.

According to WHO, the characteristics of the scrotum (scrotal skin) swelling is impalpable testes and genitals can be opaque because of the piles of lymph nodes in the privates.A man who has had hydrocele will experience disruption in their activities, especially sexual intercourse. But not to worry, hydrocele can be solved by surgery.”After the operation, the tool can be normal again pubic within 6 months. He was also still able to have children because during the had hydrocele, spermatogenesisnya process is not disrupted,” explained Rochani.

The principle of hydrocele surgery is changing the flow through the testicular lymphatics and lymph fluid that accumulate in the scrotum. One week after surgery, patients can be active again and within 6 months of genitals will return as before.”But if the balls are broken, then the process will be disrupted and spermatogenesisnya likely to have children so hard. It can happen if left untreated hydrocele for 10 years,” said Rochani.

For that, Rochani recommend that treatment continue to be done on an ongoing basis if someone is caught mikrofilaria infected. “The sooner the better because the caught this hydrocele occurs slowly over many years,” he said.Once a year treatment with the drug Di ethyl Carbonation (DEC) and Albendazol for 5 years can kill the worms and larvae in total mikrofilaria.According to parasitology expert, Prof. Saleha Sungkar, filaria worms can actually die alone after 6-10 years. But who wants to wait that long until swollen genitals?(detik)