A nationwide immunization campaign in Vietnam focuses on controlling measles. In malnourished populations, measles are associated with "relatively high case-fatality rates."

After implementing the 2002-2003 campaign, incidence rates for measles have reduced. The surveillance system implemented "indicates that the system’s ability to detect and confirm measles cases improved."

Source: World Health Organization

The focus of today’s report focuses on the establishment of health care in post-conflict countries such as Afghanistan. The research findings show that:

• "The cost per capita of a basic health service package is not a robust planning parameter."
• "There may be opportunities for cost-saving through the standardization of fixed-cost elements since these costs were dominant."
• "Where the utilization rate is low, this study suggests that targeting patient satisfaction offers an opportunity to increase utilization."
• "The Afghan MOPH’s strategy of deploying female health workers to remote areas to help increase acceptance as well as utilization among a key target group (i.e. women) is working quite well in secure areas."

Source: World Health Organization

In light of the New Year, I wanted to dedicate this week to international health. From December 29th, 2008 to January 2nd, 2009 I will post a health related research paper from the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

Today’s Article Focuses on “Understanding the decline of mean systolic blood pressure in Japan: an analysis of pooled data from the National Nutrition Survey.”

Source: World Health Organization

Here are a few articles I found interesting about long-term care:

1) Long Term Care Insurance
2) Ethical Issues in Long Term Care
3) Only Compulsory Long Term Care Would Work
4) An Analysis on Medicaid’s Long Term Spending Habits

"Journalist Carl Honore believes the Western world’s emphasis on speed erodes health, productivity and quality of life. But there’s a backlash brewing, as everyday people start putting the brakes on their all-too-modern lives."

Source: TED.com