Blogs
ALMA-ATA at 40: Time for a Critical Health Economics
Sara L.M. Davis
When the Alma-Ata declaration was launched in 1978, it called for “urgent action” by states and others to ensure a “level of health that will permit [people] to lead a socially and economically productive life.”[1] A product of its…
ALMA-ATA at 40: Civil Society Continues the Commitment to Health for All
Leigh K. Haynes and Julia Robinson
With the Alma-Ata Declaration, the world committed to achieving “health for all by the year 2000”, designating this “a most important world-wide social goal.” It identified primary health care as the principal…
ALMA-ATA at 40: Revisiting the Declaration
Audrey R. Chapman
The fortieth anniversary of the Declaration of Alma-Ata comes at a time when primary health care is once again receiving some well-deserved attention.[1] Target 3.8 of the Sustainable Development Goals to achieve universal health…
ALMA-ATA at 40: A Milestone in the Evolution of the Right to Health and an Enduring Legacy for Human Rights in Global Health
Benjamin Mason Meier, Maximillian Seunik, Roopa Dhatt, and Lawrence O. Gostin
Forty years ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF convened the International Conference on Primary Health Care on September 6, 1978 in Alma-Ata, USSR (now…
Side Effects: Persecution of Health Workers in Nicaragua
Lori Hanson
Dia de los Trabajadores de la Salud (Health Workers Day) on 9 August was a somber and bitter affair in Nicaragua this year. Rather than celebrating, the Nicaraguan Medical Association (AMN) marked the day recounting medical personnel…
AIDS 2018 – Debates Over Best Use of Global Funds
Sara L.M. Davis
Steadily growing rates of HIV infection in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) are at the heart of a debate roiling health aid at AIDS 2018. While US funding for the global HIV response increased in 2017, that trend is unlikely…
AIDS 2018 – New Technologies, New Data, New Risks
Sara L.M. Davis
Data has been a hot topic throughout the first two days of AIDS 2018—who has it, how to get it, and what kinds of data can speed progress to the end of AIDS. But while new technologies are generating real excitement among donors…
AIDS 2018 – Award to Allan Maleche: A “Tireless Crusader”
Sara L.M. Davis
AIDS 2018 is honoring human rights advocates and acknowledging their work is becoming ever more challenging in many countries. At the opening ceremony, the Elizabeth Taylor award went to Kenyan rights advocate Allan Maleche,…
AIDS 2018 Kicks Off: Warnings of a Resurgent Pandemic
Sara L.M. Davis
The International AIDS Conference opens today in Amsterdam, with up to 19,000 scientists, activists, and officials coming together from around the world. The world has come a long way since the last time the meeting took place here, in…
Civil Society Unites to Fight for Affordable Medicines
By Fran Quigley
Frustration over Congress’s failure to reduce prescription drug prices is bringing civil society organizations together. Drug prices are continuing to increase far above rates of inflation, year after year, and more than 80% of…