advanced search

<< Back To Home

CSU 132/2010: A CALL FOR RESPONSIBLE ESTIMATION OF GLOBAL HEALTH

Tuesday, 21st of December 2010

CSU 132/2010: A CALL FOR RESPONSIBLE ESTIMATION OF GLOBAL HEALTH

Anyone who was working in EPI in 1990 is likely to remember the interagency discussions (too polite a word) on whether we had attained UCI, Universal Childhood Immunization, defined as 80 percent vaccination coverage, antigen by antigen, among the world’s infants . Time has not been kind to the then accepted figure of 78 percent. Are we likely to have similar discussions in 2015, as the world tries to agree on where we are, for example, with under-five mortality and maternal mortality?

Not before time, PLOS Medicine has published a series of five articles on the subject of global health estimates, a topic likely to become of consuming interest as the world measures progress towards the MDGs.

The article by Graham and Adjei, text below, is best seen at http://www.ploscollections.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001003;jsessionid=680C0E7AFFAB40B321150D61D47AEE71.ambra01

From their summary:

‘There is new urgency and potential to deliver leadership on the process of global estimation of women's and children's health.

‘Recent controversies over global estimates highlight fundamental questions about the performance of the “suppliers” of the figures and the needs of the “clients”.

‘Stakeholders in the process are now even more diverse, and include country governments, bilateral and multi-lateral agencies, academics, professional associations, and non-governmental organisations, and newer members from global philanthropic organisations and the business community.

‘We propose responsible estimation of global health, which is stakeholder-centric, accountable, and transparent, and which has a clear leader.

‘This article is part of a cluster of five articles on global health estimates.’

All five articles are available at http://www.ploscollections.org/article/browseIssue.action?issue=info:doi/10.1371/issue.pcol.v07.i12

Good reading.

BD