Dear friends and colleagues with an interest in primary health care and community health:
Since my last communication in May, I am pleased to be able to share with you a few items of possible interest.
1. Raj Panjabi, renowned advocate for community health workers and primary health care and now serving in the White House on the National Security Council as Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense, was the commencement speaker at both the University of North Carolina and Johns Hopkins University Schools of Public Health in May. Here is a link to his inspiring Hopkins address: Convocation | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health (jhu.edu) (it begins at 35:00 and runs for 20 minutes).
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/academics/convocation
2. In June, the Baltimore Sun ran an article about a special exhibit in the Baltimore Museum of Art featuring the heroic work of Community Health Workers of Baltimore during the COVID pandemic. You can read about this here.
https://artbma.org/about/press/release/bma-acquires-latoya-ruby-fraziers...
3. The New York Times ran an article on September 21 highlighting the important role of CHWs and their low pay (see attached PDF). This same theme was also the subject of a recent article in Lancet Global Health regarding the need for fair labor practices for CHWs led by Madeleine Ballard (I am a co-author on this). (See attached PDF)
4. The Lancet published a comment authored by Jeffrey Sachs and myself highlighting the urgent need for investments in community-based primary health care to accelerate progress in achieving Universal Health Coverage. It also calls for the donor community to assist low-income countries in building stronger community-based health delivery by CHWs (see attached PDF).
5. The World Health Organization and multilateral development banks launched a 1.5 billion Euro fund of concessional loans and grants for expanding PHC services, described further here.
https://www.eib.org/en/press/all/2023-240-multilateral-development-banks...
6. Richard Horton, Editor of the Lancet, published a provocative commentary in the Lancet in September entitled “Primary Health Care Is Not Enough,” highlighting the growing need for specialty hospital care that is emerging in poor countries. PHC alone will not be sufficient , he says: “The current preoccupation with primary healthcare condemns millions of people to disease, pain and death. This acceptance of failure is intolerable.” He raises an urgent and growing ethical dilemma without mentioning the still remaining enormous unmet need for basic and essential services for so many. See attached PDF.
7. There have been three remarkable books published recently about Bangladesh. Vortex, by Scott Carney and Jason Miklian, is a mesmerizing account of the 1971 cyclone and the War of Liberation against Pakistan that followed only a few months later. https://www.amazon.com/Vortex-Historys-Deadliest-Unspeakable-Liberation-... Hope Over Fate: Fazle Hasan Abed and the Science of Ending Global Poverty by Scott MacMillan is a beautifully written thorough and informative biography of the founder of BRAC, providing an in-depth view of BRAC as well. https://www.amazon.com/Hope-Over-Fate-Science-Poverty-ebook/dp/B09ZNX7QBR Finally, 50 Years of Bangladesh Advances in Health, edited by Ahmed Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury, Yasmin Ahmed, Khairul Islam and Shishir Moral, is an in-depth history of the country’s extraordinary health achievements since independence. https://www.amazon.com/Hope-Over-Fate-Science-Poverty-ebook/dp/B09ZNX7QBR I was honored to give the keynote speech at the launch of the book in Dhaka. See attached PDF. [Note from NPW: HIFA does not carry attachments]
8. Professor Jan De Maeseneer, Head of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Health Care at Ghent University (Belgium) is looking for signatures in support of the proposal calling for one-third of donor funding for vertical programs to be used for support of integrated primary health care programs. To do so, click here: www.30by2030.net
Feel free to share this email with anyone else or with any relevant listserve you may have access to.
You are receiving this email because of your interest in primary health care and community health.
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Warm regards,
Henry
Henry B. Perry, MD, PhD, MPH
Senior Associate, Health Systems Program
Department of International Health
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD, USA 21205
Hperry2@jhu.edu; 443-797-5202
HIFA profile: Henry Perry is a Senior Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA. Professional interests: Community health and primary health care. hperry2 AT jhu.edu
