Challenges in Public Health – serie

The process of health care reforms must be based on demographic, epidemiological and economic evidence if it is to achieve the fundamental target of affordable, sustainable and efficient health care services for the entire population. Consequently, costing of health care services has become a frequently used element of health care reforms. This book presents the essentials of costing in a health economic framework and gives examples from successful costing studies done by the author in Tanzania, Vietnam and Burkina Faso. Based on these examples it demonstrates the importance of costing information for the planning and decision-making process in the field of budgeting, resource allocation, setting an insurance premium and strategic planning. The main message of this book is that costing of health care services is a valuable instrument in the fight for better ‘health for all’.

About half of the world’s population is still at risk for contracting malaria, and the main disease burden is now in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). As a result of the activities of a number of new and powerful Global Health Initiatives, malaria morbidity and mortality has recently started to decrease and the idea of eradication has re-emerged. This book provides a comprehensive update on the recent developments of the epidemiology of malaria and of existing strategies and tools for malaria control and elimination in Africa, which is discussed in the context of the long global history of malaria control. The main message is that the ambitious Global Malaria Action Plan of RBM will fail without serious efforts to systematically and massively strengthen the health systems of African countries.

Migration-sensitive monitoring of health is essential in order to assess and react to changing health care needs of culturally diverse groups in Europe. One example is cancer registration, allowing for the ascertainment and analysis of trends in cancer occurrence and survival in good time. This book for the first time presents a detailed overview and methodological discussion of migration-sensitive cancer registration in selected European countries. It describes the current situation on the European level by means of five country reports, written in close collaborations with local experts. It examines the ideas of developing common indicators, standardizing data collection procedures and enhancing networking throughout Europe.

Schistosomiasis is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases worldwide and continues to be a public health concern in many countries. China made huge progress in the control of Schistosomiasis japonica, aiming at the elimination of the disease from many previously endemic areas. This book presents a scientific investigation into the practical implementation of the Chinese national control strategy at the grass root level. It focusses on availability and composition of human resources for control and on performance of sero-diagnostic tests needed for case detection and surveillance. The main message of this book is that effective control and elimination of Schistosomiasis are feasible, but high levels of support for control need to be sustained to prevent resurgence of this disease.

This book analyzes the patterns of and factors associated with health seeking behavior and out-of-pocket (OOP) spending on chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCDs) in rural Malawi. The author used descriptive statistics to describe treatment options and related household OOP expenditure on CNCDs and econometrics models to analyze factors influencing health seeking behavior and OOP expenditure on CNCDs. This study found that in spite of a context where care for CNCDs should in principle be free of charge at the point of use, the utilization rates of CNCD care are still low and OOP payments impose a considerable financial burden on rural households, especially among the poorest.