H o\v does one criticize care of the poor without sounding like a Charles Dickens novel? Very carefully! The approach of the U.S. Catholic health ministry to care of the poor is generous but shortsighted anil 100 narrowly conceived. The ministry's current practice primarily treats symptoms, even though its social justice tradition points it toward root causes—the systems and structures of healt...

PROBLEM Streptococcus suis is a common cause of adult bacterial meningitis in Viet Nam, and possibly other parts of Asia, yet this disabling infection has been largely neglected. Prevention, diagnosis and treatment are relatively straightforward and affordable but, in early 2007, no national diagnostic, case management or prevention guidelines existed in Viet Nam. APPROACH Enhanced detection ...

BACKGROUND The Ministry of Health (hereafter, Ministry) of Trinidad and Tobago is responsible for delivery of all health services in the country. The Ministry takes responsibility for direct delivery of care in the public sector and has initiated a process whereby those seeking HIV test results could obtain confidential reports during a single-visit to a testing location. The Ministry requested...

1 Policy Research and Economics Office, Ministry of Health, Singapore, 2 Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 3 Health Services & Outcomes Research, National Healthcare Group, Singapore, 4 Health Services & Systems Research, Duke-National University of Singapore, Singapore, 5 Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National U...