2nd Global symposium on Health system Research

The second Global symposium on health system research is scheduled to start tomorrow in Beijing. It is impressive to see that everything and everybody (plenary speakers and participants) is ready.The symposium is dedicated to evaluate progress, sharing insights and recalibrating the agenda of science to accelerate universal health coverage (UHC).
In this symposium , participants will share new state-of-the art evidence on universal health coverage, review the progress towards UHC including progress since the World Healt report of 2010, facilitate greater collaboration and learning communities across desplines, sectors, initiatives and countries. It will also identify and discuss the approaches to strengthern the scientific rigor of health systems research including concepts, frameworks , measures and methods.

The main themes of the conference will be; knowlege translation, state-of-the art research on Health Systems Research (HSR)  and HSR methodologies.Cross-cutting themes include; Innovations in HSR, neglected priorities or population groups in HSR and financing and capacity building for HSR.Moreover the new international society called Health systems global will be officially launched. As in the 1st global symposium on HSR that took place in 2010 in Montreux, Swirtzeland, the emerging voices will actively participate in the symposium. 

Fake ARVs in Tanzania: Consumers at a crossroads

Counterfeit drugs around the World

It is well known that fake drugs cost a lot of lives in developing countries, where it is a home of most of fake drugs. This has been a serious challenge to the integrity of public health systems as well as serious threat to the national security in these countries and probably is a major cause of death (from curable diseases) than anything else.

Of recent, in Tanzania, the Minister of Health and social Welfare , Dr. Hussein Mwinyi  suspended top officials of the Medical sores department (MSD) and halted the production of all drugs by TPI ( alleged to have manufactured fake ARVs) to allow investigation to take place. He also urged all people under medication to continue using ARVs drugs because they are safe as the fake ones have already been removed from the hospitals.

It is by now a public knowledge that most of the drugs produced locally are of low quality due to the widespread corruption in political circles in the country. Also, the fact that global counterfeit black market thrives better in poor countries, makes Tanzania vulnerable in all aspects. The profits from this “crime” are being co-opted by an array of organised criminal groups, who see that this the only way they can survive.

Although the Minister of Health and social welfare has assured the public that the drugs that are in the market today are of good quality, critics can still think that the MSD officials who were suspended are the ones who know exactly what the public is consuming. Earlier this year I posted an article on  fake malaria drugs circulating in the country. The issue here is; who exactly knows the network behind these fake drugs in the country? How can we make our medicines safe? What about the patients who have consumed these fake drugs? The first question might probably be answered by the committee formed by the Minister. I am not sure about the remaining questions!

It has been always said (at least by most policy makers) that having appropriate policies and adequate power to reinforce the policies is the only way to control these crimes. This might be true at least in theory. Corruption has made the aforementioned statement useless because people who are supposed to make (guide the formulation of) such policies and reinforce are the ones who are involved in these criminal networks. I think, it is a time now for the consumers (the victims) to do something rather than waiting for committees or flawed expert reports. Here you are talking of about 500,000 Tanzanians  who are on Antiretroviral therapy

Public-Private Partnerships in health care: Any prospects for equity?

"We are living in an unfair world, and that gonna not change whether you like or not"!..This was an opening statement by  one of the speakers in a conference on  "the role of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in equity in health care". He was representing a Multinational corporation that has signed more that 200 PPPs in the world, especially in developing countries, where because of poverty, governments find themselves signing such PPPs in order that they can at least provide social services to their people. The company having been working in health care technologies, have facilitated building up to date health care facilities and supplied up to date medical equipment to these countries. The fact that they have technologies and are looking for profits, it is without doubt that they will not provide services to the people without profit. At the time when these deals are signed and implemented, no one can clearly see  that" this as a profit making business" as the recipient governments and the citizens look at what they get at that time, but they don't attribute to what is  going to happen later. The dark side of these partnerships is making the governments or the people dependent to the technologies brought by a partnering company ,in which afterwards, you might find these technologies to be very expensive. These deals have contributed to increased inequalities and poverty in most of the developing countries. It has become at least difficult talking about Social justice when these companies are involved in PPPs
The Private sector ( especially the Multinational corporations and Foundations) is becoming more powerful than governments in developing countries, they take advantage of corrupt governments to sign PPPs that are not advantageous to these countries, but to themselves and the countries they represent.
As a point of departure from imaginary world, he pointed out of the fact that we can not eliminate inequalities in this world, what we can do is just to reduce it by few kilometers.
Public-Private Partneships can take different forms, and sometimes it is difficult  even to know how does a Private sector differ from a public one.
However, this was an example of the Private for profit Multinational companies, that might not represent all what is done by the Private sector in eliminating inequalities in the health sector. The private sector in the health sector  in many developing countries is composed of  Non-for profit foundations, Faith based organisations, Private for profit institutions and Private practitioners (who on part time basis work in Private clinics/ hospitals). Through the Non-for profit and Faith based organisations, alot have been done in eliminating inequalities in the health sector. Different innovations have been encouraged to increase access to health care services even to hard to reach areas. The fact that the role of the government is to provide services its citizens, non-for profit and religious organisations share this goal; therefore this partnership is a partnership that has the same goal, unlike the private for profit multinational corporations.
Should governments in developing countries opt out partnering with profit making multinational corporations  in order to provide equitable social service?