Parasites, People and Policy: Infectious Diseases and the Millennium Development Goals

Parasites, people and policy: infectious diseases and the Millennium Development Goals.

Here, I briefly review past history and present patterns in the interactions between parasites (defined broadly to include viruses and bacteria along with protozoan, helminth and arthropod parasites) and human populations in developed and developing countries. Against this background, I offer thoughts on current public health initiatives at national and international levels, with particular ref...

Achieving the Millennium Development Goals: Rural Investment and Enabling Policy

The "other diseases" of the Millennium Development Goals: rhetoric and reality of free drug distribution to cure the poor's parasites.

The sixth MDG aims 'to combat HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria and other diseases'. The residual category of 'other diseases' has become the focus of intense interest, partly because it has provided an opportunity to increase resources for the control of the mostly parasitic 'neglected tropical diseases' (NTDs). Intense lobbying has secured large amounts of funding from donors, as well as generous donatio...

HIV and the Millennium Development Goals.

Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 has two HIV/AIDS commitments: to have halted and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 and to ensure access to treatment among all those in need by 2010. Given the almost universal lack of access to HIV testing, prevention and treatment for children in high prevalence countries in 2000, the achievements of the past 15 years have been extraordinary, ...

The millennium development goals and tobacco control.

The eight Millennium Development Goals were proposed by the UN Secretary-General in 2001. They are goals with measurable targets to be achieved by 2015 or earlier. The Goals were distilled from the 2000 United Nations Millennium Declaration, a sweeping statement of development values, principles, objectives and proposed actions. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is a demonstrab...