Millions Saved: Proven Successes in Global Health

by Ruth Levine

Book Overview

Seventeen stories about how efforts to improve health in developing countries saved millions of lives -- and millions of dollars. From polio in Latin America, to measles in southern Africa, to HIV in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0881323721
• ISBN13: 9780881323726
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Center for Global Development
• Length: 167 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 7.7" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Balancing Our Perspective

This book is a positive effort to provide success stories in international public health and nicely balances the multitude of books which emphasize failures. Most of the stories included we would never hear about, but because of this book we are aware of them. The short chapters cover 17 case studies around the world, not only illustrating the specific case, but also informing us about the economic, social and political challenges facing developing nations and their health systems. It works especially well in a college classroom where the topic is Global Health.

great intro to public health problems and solutions

This book provides a diverse set of 17 cases in which governments and international organizations succeeded in large-scale public health interventions. This is an excellent foil to the commonly circulating pessimism regarding the aid industry. (For an over-the-top example of that, see Graham Hancock's Lords of Poverty.) Drawing on both well-documented secondary sources and on interviews with key players in the cases, the authors make convincing arguments for causality between the intervention and the health improvement in most of the cases. This book's strongest contribution is that it introduces the reader to important public health problems in the developing world and then shows how some of those problems can be solved. The book provides both an introduction to the science of the diseases (and their cures) and basic information about effective administration of large-scale public health interventions. Some of the chapters that I thought were particularly important include Chapter 1 (Eradicating Smallpox), because it deals with a serious disease that was rampant (in 1966, it killed in over 50 countries) and has now been completely eradicated; Chapter 2 (Preventing HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Thailand), because AIDS is currently such an insidious disease, and successful examples of its control are essential; Chapter 6 (Controlling Onchocerciasis in Sub-Saharan Africa), because it shows the importance of and potential for strong leadership (including that of Robert McNamara, then president of the World Bank) and cooperation between organizations; and Chapter 8 (Improving the Health of the Poor in Mexico), because it gives the background for a development strategy that is currently growing in popularity and will probably be seen much more in the future. (That strategy consists of giving cash transfers to poor families, conditional on their complying with certain conditions, such as vaccinating their children and enrolling them in school.) The authors also draw certain key lessons and give examples to illustrate. For example, they emphasize the importance of ongoing commitment, both from government leaders and international organizations. They give one example of a case in which the success of an intervention ironically threatened exactly that commitment (Chapter 11 - Controlling Chagas Disease) and another in which many players have shown impressive longevity of effort (Chapter 6 - Controlling Onchocerciasis in Sub-Saharan Africa). Be warned that the book reads like a textbook, and some chapters are definitely stronger than others (both in their writing and in how strong the case is made for the effectiveness of the intervention). With that minor caveat, this is an important contribution and a worthy read.