D Bulletin of the World Health Organization | August 2008, 86 (8) research systems, institutions and personnel. As a result, research activities in many lowand middle-income countries reflect more closely foreign and global health research priorities than the research needs of the countries in which research is being conducted. As externally funded research is virtually monopolised by HIV/AIDS,...

INTRODUCTION Studies on the relevance of stronger health systems to the success of vertical programmes has focused mainly on developing countries with fragile infrastructures and limited human resources. Research in middle-income, and particularly post-Soviet, settings has been scarce. This article examines the relationships between health system characteristics and the HIV response in Russia, ...

INTRODUCTION In South Africa where HIV prevalence is high, mentor mother programmes have been used to promote the health and wellbeing of women enrolled in government programmes preventing vertical transmission. The Masihambisane Project trained mentors to be educators and facilitators as "expert patients" in self-help groups. While this and other similar interventions demonstrate positive outc...

Since 1994, integrating human immunodeficiency virus/sexually transmitted disease (HIV/STD) services with primary health care, as part of reproductive health, has been advocated to address two major public health problems: to control the spread of HIV; and to improve women's reproductive health. However, integration is unlikely to succeed because primary health care and the political context wi...

Indian society is distinguished by marked cultural pluralism and a relatively young population that in 1999 has grown to one billion. Its regional and economic diversity and complex social structure and extremes of poverty and wealth make planning a challenging task. Developing economic self-reliance, tackling poverty and building a strong welfare state were major commitments of the newly indep...

Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections are among the most prevalent of chronic human infections worldwide. Based on the demonstrable impact on child development, there is a global commitment to finance and implement control strategies with a focus on school-based chemotherapy programmes. The major obstacle to the implementation of cost-effective control is the lack of accurate descriptions ...