Millennium Development Goal 8E aims for affordable access to essential medicines. Essential medicines, as defined by WHO, are those that “satisfy the health-care needs of the majority of the population” and that should therefore “be available at all times in adequate amounts”. However, there... is a category of medicines that faces a unique challenge in terms of availability. These are the medicines governed by the international conventions on narcotic and psychotropic substances. “Controlled medicines” is the common definition for pharmaceuticals whose active principles are listed under the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs as amended by the 1972 Protocol, such as morphine and methadone; the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances, such as diazepam and buprenorphine; and the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, such as ergometrine and ephedrine. The conventions list substances in “Schedules” according to their different levels of potential for abuse and harm, and the commensurate severity of control measures to be applied by countries.
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Prices people pay for medicines.
Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. (2013) 10(5):210-229
Plants are important sources of medicines. Herbal medicines in Lesotho are exposed to excessive exploitation and habitat destruction. Comprehensive information to promote proper use and conservation of these herbal medicines is lacking. ...This study described the uses of medicinal plants in Lesotho with comparative reference between practice and the literature, highlighting important ethno-medicinal information and conservation status of the plants. Additionally, the study established a repository and monograph for the herbal medicines in Lesotho.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ajtcam.v13i1.20
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The purpose of these guidelines is to help health workers to participate in the process of continuous surveillance of safety and efficacy of the pharmaceutical products which are used in clinical practice, thus help to achieve the ultimate goal to make safer and more effective treatment available to... patients. This guideline addresses specifically the issues on what to report, why to report, when to report, where to report and how to report.
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The manufacturing process is one of the key steps where quality control is required to ensure quality of medicinal products, including herbal medicines. Good manufacturing practices (GMP) is one of the most important tools for this measure.
The main objectives of these guidelines are to:
1. contribute to the quality assurance of medicinal plant materials used as the source for herbal medicines to improve the quality, safety and efficacy of finished herbal products;
2. guide the formulation of national and/or regional GACP guideli...nes and GACP monographs for medicinal plants and related standard operating procedures; and
3. encourage and support the sustainable cultivation and collection of medicinal plants of good quality in ways that respect and support the conservation of medicinal plants and the environment in general.
These guidelines concern the cultivation and collection of medicinal plants and include certain post-harvest operations.
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Annals of Global Health, 87(1), p.30. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.2647
Demographic Health Survey Working Paper 2017 No. 130
Curriculum reform efforts to enhance training on rational medicine use (RMU) and AMR should pay particular attention to ensuring that the right topics are integrated and the right teaching-learning methodologies are adopted.
An action research conducted in Bang Shau village Northern Shan State, Myanmar
We will soon be piloting a project titled “Integrating Spirituality into Patient Care” that will form “spiritual care teams” to assess and address patients’ spiritual needs in physician outpatient practices within Adventist Health System, the largest Protestant healthcare system ... in the United States.This paper describes the goals, the rationale, and the structure of the spiritual care teams that will soon be implemented, and discusses the barriers to providing spiritual care that health professionals are likely to encounter.Spiritual care teams may operate in an outpatient or an inpatient setting, and their purpose is to provide health professionals with resources necessary to practice whole person healthcare that includes spiritual care.We believe that this project will serve as a model forfaith-based health systems seeking to visibly demonstrate their mission in a way that makes them unique and expresses their values.Not only does this model have the potential to be cost-effective, but also the capacity to increase the quality of patient care and the satisfaction that health professionals derive from providing care.If successful, this model could spread beyond faith-based systems to secular systems as well both in the U.S. and worldwide.
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Despite the increasing uptake of information and communication technologies (ICT) within healthcare services across developing countries, community healthcare workers (CHWs) have limited knowledge to fully utilise computerised clinical systems and mobile apps. The ‘Introduction to Information and ...Communication Technology and eHealth’ course was developed with the aim to provide CHWs in Malawi, Africa, with basic knowledge and computer skills to use digital solutions in healthcare delivery. The course was delivered using a traditional and a blended learning approach.
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The Indigenous tribe called the Wiwa lives retracted in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Little is known about their health status and whether the health care system in place covers their needs.
March 28, 2017https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002274
PLoS Med 14(3): e1002274. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002274
Background
Low- and middle-income countries now experience the highest prevalence and mortality rates of cardiovascular disease.
Main text
While improving the availability and delivery of proven, effective therapies will no doubt mitigate this burden, we posit that studies evaluating cardiovasc...ular disease risk factors, management strategies and service delivery, in diverse settings and diverse populations, are equally critical to improving outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. Focusing on examples drawn from four cardiovascular diseases — coronary artery disease, stroke, diabetes and kidney disease — we argue that ethnicity, culture and context matter in determining the risk factors for disease as well as the comparative effectiveness of medications and other interventions, particularly diet and lifestyle interventions.
Conclusion
We believe that a host of cohort studies and randomized control trials currently being conducted or planned in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on previously understudied race/ethnic groups, have the potential to increase knowledge about the cause(s) and management of cardiovascular diseases across the world.
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