Global Health Diagnostics

Access to essential medicines is a right. People deserve to receive treatments.

However, a key question is what medicines to use. To facilitate maximally effective therapy,

diagnostic capacity must be strengthened.

 

In many countries, medical care and medicines are subsidized or paid for by government and international agencies. However, diagnostic services often are not support to the same extent.

 

Empiric and near universal antibiotic therapy is leading to a rapidly increasing antibiotic resistance (Okeke et al, 2005)

 

The real economic cost of developing diagnostic infrastructure in Africa is likely to be less than what is supposed and will be recouped in savings accrued.

 

labs

 

Resources and References

 

Rosanna W. Peeling, David Mabey, Alan Herring, Edward W. Hook. (2006) Why do we need quality-assured diagnostic tests for sexually transmitted infections? Nature Reviews Microbiology 4:12, 909

 

Okeke IN, Klugman KP, Bhutta ZA, et al. Antimicrobial resistance in developing countries. Part II: strategies for containment. Lancet Infect Dis 2005; 5:568–80.

 

http://www.msh.org/programs/southafrica_tasc.html