Since 1977, the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines (EML), published by WHO, has provided advice for Member States that struggle to decide which pharmaceutical technologies should be provided to patients within their public health systems. Originating from outside WHO, an incentive system has been put in place by various governments for the development of medicines for rare diseases ("orphan ...

It is difficult to draw up a list of medicines that are essential for infants and children. It is clear, however, that many of the medicines used appropriately to treat infants and children are not licensed for such use.1 The medicines concerned may be used outside the terms of their product license, ie, used off-label, or unlicensed for use in children at any age.2 Off-label use appears to be ...

Background Integrated management of childhood illnesses (IMCI) strategy has been proven to improve health outcomes in children under 5 years of age. Pakistan, despite being in the late implementation phase of the strategy, continues to report high under-five mortality due to pneumonia, diarrhea, measles, and malnutrition - the main targets of the strategy. Objective The study determines the fac...

BACKGROUND Decentralisation is argued to promote community participation, accountability, technical efficiency, and equity in the management of resources, and has been a recurring theme in health system reforms for several decades. In 2010, Kenya passed a new constitution that introduced 47 semi-autonomous county governments, with substantial transfer of responsibility for health service delive...

OBJECTIVE To characterize the impact of widespread inventory management policies on stock-outs of essential drugs in Zambia's health clinics and develop related recommendations. METHODS Daily clinic storeroom stock levels of artemether-lumefantrine (AL) products in 2009-2010 were captured in 145 facilities through photography and manual transcription of paper forms, then used to determine his...

Introduction: Irrational drug use remains globally common and there is a lack of country level synthesis for strategizing policy actions in Pakistan. Methodology: We conducted a scoping review of available peer reviewed and grey literature on prescribing patterns and drug dispensing in Pakistan to identify emerging concerns. Results: There is excessive drug use in Pakistan compared to the avera...

BACKGROUND Botswana's health care system is based on a primary care model. Various national guidelines exist for specific diseases. However, most of the guidelines address management at a tertiary level and often appear nonapplicable for the limited resources in primary care facilities. An integrated symptom-based guideline was developed so as to translate the Botswana national guidelines to th...

UNLABELLED Inappropriate prescribing reduces the quality of medical care and leads to a waste of resources. No study has been reported concerning rational drug use in United Arab Emirates, UAE, recently. OBJECTIVES assessing patterns of use and defining problems regarding the rational drug use.Setting baseline situational analysis study for practices in the health care system relevant to drug...

BACKGROUND The evaluation of payment for performance (P4P) programmes has focused mainly on understanding contributions to health service coverage, without unpacking causal mechanisms. The overall aim of the paper is to test the causal pathways through which P4P schemes may (or may not) influence maternal care outcomes. METHODS We used data from an evaluation of a P4P programme in Tanzania. D...

Snake bite envenoming, mainly caused by the saw-scaled or carpet viper (Echis ocellatus), is a neglected disease of West Africa. Specific antivenoms can save life and limb but, for various reasons, supply of these essential drugs to Africa has dwindled to less than 2% of estimated requirements. Other problems include maldistribution, inadequate conservation and inappropriate clinical use of ant...