The global disease scape is constantly shifting, influenced by demographic transitions, altering the balance of the burden of infectious and non‐communicable diseases. The epidemiological transitions can be divided into three stages: the first, an increase in infectious disease burden as populations settled, then grew into towns and cities providing conditions for infectious agents to maintain spread; the second transition follows industrialisation, changes in lifestyle, diet and improved sanitation whereby infectious diseases are reduced and non‐communicable disease (NCD) prevalence increases; the third transition describes the re‐emergence of infectious diseases as the AIDS epidemic and other emerging and re‐emerging disease outbreaks lead to an increasing burden of infectious diseases, particularly in developing countries. Analysis of the disease‐scape has been carried out using WHO Global Burden of Disease data and correlation to demographic factors calculated using World Bank Development Indicators. The balance of chronic NCDs and infectious diseases can be represented numerically as the unit rate of infectious to non‐communicable diseases. The rate, which indicates at which end the continuum lies can then be correlated to these demographic development indicators to assess the factors which are influential to the continuum. As the balance of infectious and non‐communicable diseases around the world alters, the focus of the advocacy at the global health level has been examined to assess if the trends follow that of the shifting continuum. This has been carried out through an assessment of the WHO World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions adopted annually between 1948 and 2013 on the subject of infectious and/or non-communicable diseases. The principle of International health stemmed from the need to contain the international spread of communicable diseases, so it is not surprising that in the first decade of the WHO, 88% of the resolutions adopted for infectious and non‐communicable disease were adopted for infectious diseases. In the latest ten years of the WHO, 72% of the Assembly resolutions for infectious and non‐communicable diseases were focused on infectious diseases; this indicates that while there has been a shift in the balance, the adopted resolutions still focus heavily on infectious diseases. An example of how advocacy can elevate diseases to a higher position on the global health agenda is that of the Neglected Tropical Diseases. Following the Millennium Development Goals, this group of seventeen diseases has been highlighted as being “neglected” in terms of funding, research and political will. A review of the campaign to highlight this shows how global health advocacy can elevate diseases to a prominent position on the global health agenda. With this in mind, the advocacy for a sub‐group of Neglected Zoonotic Diseases has been examined at the WHA level. The results highlight the sporadic nature of support to control these diseases, and that activism for control of some of the major zoonotic diseases remains lacking. Rabies is explored as an example of a disease for which there are recommendations and support at the global level for the control and elimination of the disease, but for which barriers to control exist locally in endemic countries. The advocacy for diseases at the global health level has the possibility to impact the priorities of health care within individual nations. However the advocacy at this level may take time to reflect the changes within the disease‐scape. The impact of such advocacy is also limited by local political will, availability of resources and local cultural implications. Therefore there is a need to ensure that efforts to control diseases are tailored to specific populations and that resources are made available to support the advocacy.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:699975 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Mableson, Hayley Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Picozzi, Kim ; Welburn, Sue ; Fyfe, Jenna |
| Publisher | University of Edinburgh |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/1842/17855 |
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